Canterbury Boys Basketball Coach Hopes Hustle Leads to Turnaround

It was a game against district foe Sarasota Christian, and trailed by a single point at halftime.

That quickly changed.

Soon, Sarasota Christian was running up and down the court, grabbing rebounds and scoring buckets. Nearly as quick as someone said "fast break" did the single-point margin turn to 15 points.

That's been happening a little too often for Canterbury, but Crusaders coach Josh Tebbe thinks he knows why.

"This month of January has been very busy for us," Tebbe said. "We've had three games each week for four straight weeks now. It's good that we are getting in that many games under our belt and it's good we are getting the experience but it's bad in that we are not getting enough practice."

Enough practice meaning enough conditioning. It's showing in the second half of games and it showed in the second half Tuesday against Sarasota Christian.

"We are close at halftime but in the second half, our shots are not falling and part of that is our legs," Tebbe said.

When the legs are worn out, shots tend to come up short, which often means defensive rebounds. It's an ugly snowball effect that demonstrated itself Tuesday. Again.

“We have a bunch of good kids,” Tebbe said. “They are frustrated as I am.”

What Tebbe is not frustrated in is the effort his team gives. Throughout the second half of the Sarasota Christian collapse, often one of the Crusaders would dive for a loose ball or hustle down court in order to break up a play.

Tebbe knows defense rarely has a slump and rarely has a night off. A good defensive effort can take advantage of a cold-shooting team and Canterbury, despite a sub-.500 record, can still do some damage in the upcoming district tournament.

"I think the team is starting to buy into that," Tebbe said of playing suffocating defense. "I have guys who are diving on the floor, trying to block shots. I can't fault them for their effort. The heart is there."