NY2LA Tournament (July 11th –July 14th – Milwaukee, WI)

NY2LA Tournament (July 11^th –July 14^th – Milwaukee, WI)

4-3 Tournament Record (2^nd place Gold Division), 31-10 overall record
ALL TOURNAMENT TEAM: N/A at the time of posting

Coaches Thoughts: Great weekend in Milwaukee.  While I would have liked a shot at a few of the teams in the Platinum bracket, I was thoroughly impressed by our run to the championship game of the Gold bracket.  I believe that the Semi-Finals game against the Wisconsin Swings’ top team was the best game that we have played all season.  Keep in mind that WI Swing beat Comets Stanfield and Comets Stanfield beat D1 15s, the team that we lost to last week in GPA in St. Cloud.  Comets Stanfield has also played Fury Johnson tough.  From a purely subjective point of view, this tells me that if Fury Ramey brings the same consistent, hard working, and unselfish play to every game, we will be very tough to deal with.   But we still need to eliminate those slow starts – sometimes it happens offensively, but it should never happen on the defensive end.  That is all a product of effort and something that I know our guys will correct. 

Unfortunately this weekend we had two very tough shooting games – once against Quad City Elite and once in the Gold championship game against the Milwaukee Spartans.  In both games, we found the ball very difficult to get into the post – Quad City Elite was due to quick, tenacious post defenders and the Milwaukee Spartans was difficult due to the 2-3 zone.  We have spectacular shooters on our team, but even good shooting teams like us have an off shooting game here and there – but as I said the old cliché in the huddle: “live by the three, die by the three” and we settled for too many threes on an off shooting game.  As a team, we need to move the ball even quicker on the perimeter to take advantage of the drive openings that reveal themselves as a result of the defense shifting.  And our passes into the post need to be quicker as the quicker posts were going around our guys as they fought for position while our guards struggled to pass in the ball.  This is easily fixable and will be fixed for our remaining two tournaments. 

Despite the poor shooting effort in the championship game, I want to point out that with a bigger, taller (and I would argue, more physical team), we were beat on the boards against a Milwaukee Spartan’s team playing a 2-3 zone defense.  This should never happen.  I believe that we had too many guards standing around the wings not crashing the boards after our shots (which often resulted in long rebounds).  This is a challenge to my guards to board, board, board!  Also, our inability to attack the zone defense with the drive and from the post resulted in our mental attitude to become passive.  I give a lot of credit to the other team as they were quick, tenacious, and could shoot the lights out, but against competitors, this only lights the fire of passion to win even more.  I know we have competitors on our team and next time I out I expect to crash the boards, move the ball even quicker and find and attack weaknesses of the other team – not only in one aspect of the game (i.e. the zone) but in every aspect of the game. 

Also, Coach Meier and my volleyball skills were unmatched this weekend – although the Nielsen’s are asking for a rematch on grass courts, which we will gladly oblige at a later date.  Thanks again for the great weekend!

Box Scores:
Game 1 MN Fury Ramey vs. WI Blizzard -Schneider 61-64 (L)
Kevin McKiernan – 8pts, 1reb, 1ast, 1TO, 1steal, 1blk
John Swanke – 10pts, 3reb, 3TO
Sam Skoyen – 9pts, 5reb, 2ast, 1TO
Austin Heidecker – 12pts, 8reb, 1ast, 1steal
Garrett Ober – 0pts, 3reb, 2TO, 2blk
Jake Meyen – 6pts, 3reb, 1ast, 1steal
Joe Morris – 2pts, 2reb, 1ast, 1TO
Matt Morse – 10pts, 1reb, 5ast, 5TO, 1steal
Craig Nielsen – 0pts, 5reb, 2ast, 2TO
Max Lynch – 6pts, 3reb, 1TO, 1steal, 7blk

Game 2 MN Fury Ramey vs. WI Swing - Smith 70-63 (W)
Kevin McKiernan – 15pts, 3reb, 3ast, 1steal
John Swanke – 2pts, 1reb, 1TO, 1steal
Sam Skoyen – 12pts, 1ast, 2TO
Austin Heidecker –9pts, 3reb, 1ast, 1TO
Garrett Ober – 2pts, 3reb, 1steal, 3blk
Jake Meyen – 5pts, 3reb, 1TO
Joe Morris – 3pts, 3reb, 1TO, 3steal, 1blk
Matt Morse – 12pts, 3ast, 3TO
Craig Nielsen – 7pts, 5reb, 3ast, 2TO, 1blk
Max Lynch – 4pts, 5reb, 1TO, 3blk

Game 3 MN Fury Ramey vs. Quad City Elite 46-56 (L)
Kevin McKiernan – 8pts, 2reb, 3ast, 1TO, 1blk
John Swanke – DNP - Injury
Sam Skoyen – 6pts, 2reb, 2TO
Austin Heidecker –6pts, 9reb, 1ast, 2steal
Garrett Ober – 0pts, 2reb, 1TO, 2steal, 2blk
Jake Meyen – 6pts, 3reb, 1ast, 2TO
Joe Morris – 6pts, 2reb, 1ast, 1steal, 1blk
Matt Morse – 12pts, 2reb, 2ast, 7TO, 1steal
Craig Nielsen – 2pts, 3reb, 1TO
Max Lynch – 0pts, 2reb, 1ast, 3TO, 2blk

Game 4 MN Fury Ramey vs. WI Blizzard - Boots 60-52 (W)
Kevin McKiernan – 13pts, 5reb, 2ast, 2TO
John Swanke – DNP - Injury
Sam Skoyen – 13pts, 1reb, 1TO, 1steal
Austin Heidecker –14pts, 7reb, 1ast, 2TO
Garrett Ober – 2pts, 5reb, 1ast, 1TO, 1blk
Jake Meyen – 2pts, 2reb, 1ast, 4TO, 1steal, 1blk
Joe Morris – 5pts, 2reb, 1ast, 3TO, 1steal
Matt Morse – 9pts, 1ast, 1TO, 5steal
Craig Nielsen – 2pts, 4reb, 1ast, 1steal, 1blk
Max Lynch – 0pts, 4reb, 4ast, 1steal

Game 5 MN Fury Ramey vs. MN Magic Blue 64-56 (W)
Kevin McKiernan – 11pts, 2reb, 2ast, 1TO, 1steal
John Swanke – DNP - Injury
Sam Skoyen – 5pts, 3reb, 3ast
Austin Heidecker –12pts, 3reb, 1reb
Garrett Ober – 0pts, 5reb, 1TO, 1steal, 4blk
Jake Meyen – 10pts, 8reb, 2ast, 1steal
Joe Morris – 4pts, 6reb, 1ast
Matt Morse – 16pts, 4reb, 5ast, 3TO, 1steal
Craig Nielsen – 4pts, 6reb, 1ast, 1TO, 1steal, 1blk
Max Lynch – 2pts, 9reb, 2ast, 1blk

Game 6 MN Fury Ramey vs. WI Swing 67-55 (W)
Kevin McKiernan – 8pts, 3reb, 2ast, 4TO, 1blk
John Swanke – DNP - Injury
Sam Skoyen – 13pts, 5reb, 2ast, 1TO
Austin Heidecker –8pts, 5reb, 2ast, 2steal
Garrett Ober – 6pts, 7reb, 1steal, 4blk
Jake Meyen – 8pts, 3reb, 1ast, 2TO
Joe Morris – 2pts, 6reb, 2ast, 1TO, 1blk
Matt Morse – 11pts, 2ast, 6TO, 1steal, 1blk
Craig Nielsen – 7pts, 2reb, 2ast, 1TO
Max Lynch – 4pts, 1reb, 2ast, 1blk

Game 7 MN Fury Ramey vs. Milwaukee Spartans 47-62 (L)
Kevin McKiernan – 13pts, 1reb, 1ast, 2TO
John Swanke – DNP - Injury
Sam Skoyen – 4pts
Austin Heidecker –4pts, 1reb, 1steal
Garrett Ober – 5pts, 2reb, 1ast, 1TO, 2blk
Jake Meyen – 6pts, 3reb, 1ast
Joe Morris – 4pts, 2reb, 3TO
Matt Morse – 2pts, 2reb, 4ast, 2TO
Craig Nielsen – 9pts, 2reb, 1TO, 1steal
Max Lynch – 0pts, 6reb

Great Plains Alliance Tournament (June 27th – June 29th – St. Cloud, MN)

Great Plains Alliance Tournament (June 27^th – June 29^th – St. Cloud, MN)
3-1 Tournament Record, 27-7 overall record
ALL TOURNAMENT TEAM: Matt Morse, John Swanke

Coaches Take: MN Fury Ramey played well this weekend.  What I really like to see is that we are learning from past tournaments and improving steadily.  Case in point - we had limited turnovers this weekend, were getting shots that we wanted, and playing decent defense.  The biggest areas that we need to grow in are still communication on defense and quicker movement on offense (both swinging the ball and off-ball movement).    Once we have these two points mastered, we will be the most difficult team to play against.  

While we exhibited some rust in our first game against Dakota Schoolers, which was to be expected after a few weeks of not playing in any tournaments, we ended up winning a hard fought showcase game.  They were by far the toughest and most physical opponents that we played all weekend long and it was good to pull out the win.
The next two games were relatively easy, though both teams could shoot very well and we all know good shooting teams are only a few buckets away from a comeback.  We exhibited good poise and close-out ability, handling ECI Select and Comets Phillips by 32 & 26 point margin of victories, respectively.

The first game against championship bracket play was against MN D1-15's, which we knew would be a quality opponent.  The scouting report was essentially simple - prevent Amir Coffey from touching the basketball, front the post and force others to beat you.  It was a good game plan, but not when the entire D1-15s shoot 70-80% in the first half and MN Fury Ramey shoots 20-30%.  We were getting the shots that we wanted, they just weren't going in.  The D1-15's were phenomenal from the 3pt line, but they were getting some easy post touches and actions off the post, which only added to the quality shooting barrage.  Despite our defensive efforts, we quickly found ourselves 25 points down.  But MN Fury Ramey doesn't go down without a fight.  Despite our worst initial shooting performance to date, we battled back to being down only 16 at the end of the first half, 46-30.  Just as the D1-15's were going to go on their scoring runs, I knew that we were poised to go on our run.  The 2nd half onslaught was started by the quality perimeter shooting of our guards, the tenacity of our posts - both defensively and offensively - and the awesome pick and roll game between Matt Morse and Max Lynch.  We had the momentum and got within 6 points.  But anytime you get in a 25 point hole against a quality opponent, the comeback will be insanely difficult, if not possible.  D1-15s went on their run too during the 2nd half and though we chipped away as best we could, we ended up losing the game by 13 points.  

What do we learn from this game?  Coach Meier and I will be doing some thinking, but I think the lesson is two fold: 1) What do we do to come out hard and fast against the best competition?  Is it mindset?  Offensive sets?  Defense?  I think it is a combination of many items, but in large part it is having the mentality that from start to finish, we give our best efforts - physical and mental.  We have the physical - there is no doubt about that, but we need to know that we can and we will compete with any team they put against us.  2) The 2nd part is when our shots aren't dropping, we need defense.  Our defense was ok, but again, some communication was lacking and as a challenge to my posts, so was our physicality in the post.  D1-15s were getting whatever shots they wanted, whatever positioning, and that is something we cannot and will not allow in our remaining tourneys.  

The most important question is always - did I give my best effort out there?  I believe so, but this can only be answered one game, on play, one player at a time.  Hold your head up high fellas, I'm proud of you and you should be too! - Coach Ramey

Box Scores:
Game 1 MN Fury Ramey vs. Dakota Schoolers 56-53 (W)
Kevin McKiernan – 6pts, 4reb, 1ast, 2TO, 3steal
John Swanke – 4pts, 5reb, 4ast, 3TO, 2blk
Sam Skoyen – 11pts, 1reb, 1ast, 2TO, 2steal
Austin Heidecker – 18pts, 6reb, 2ast, 1TO, 1blk
Garrett Ober – 2pts, 5reb, 1blk
Jake Meyen – 2pts, 3reb, 3ast, 2TO, 1steal, 2blk
Joe Morris – DNP
Matt Morse – 7pts, 1ast, 3TO
Craig Nielsen – 6pts, 3reb, 1ast, 1TO
Max Lynch – 0pts, 2reb, 1blk

Game 2 MN Fury Ramey vs. ECI Select 76-44 (W)
Kevin McKiernan – 16pts, 3reb, 3ast, 1TO, 3steal
John Swanke – 15pts, 7reb, 1ast, 1TO, 2steal
Sam Skoyen – 14pts, 4reb, 1ast, 1steal, 1blk
Austin Heidecker – 0pts, 3reb, 1ast, 1TO, 1steal
Garrett Ober – 0pts, 2reb, 1ast, 1steal, 1blk
Jake Meyen – 6pts, 7reb, 1ast, 1steal
Joe Morris – 2pts, 1ast, 1TO
Matt Morse – 11pts, 3reb, 3asts, 1TO, 1steal
Craig Nielsen – 6pts, 6reb, 3ast
Max Lynch – 6pts, 2reb, 2ast, 2blk

Game 3 MN Fury Ramey vs. Comets Phillips 59-33 (W)
Kevin McKiernan – 9pts, 1reb, 1ast, 2TO, 2steal
John Swanke – 16pts, 5reb, 2ast,
Sam Skoyen – 7pts, 5reb, 2ast
Austin Heidecker – 12pts, 8reb, 2ast, 1blk
Garrett Ober – 5pts, 4reb, 3ast, 1TO, 1steal, 2blk
Jake Meyen – 3pts, 2reb, 1ast
Joe Morris – 2pts, 1reb, 4ast, 4steal
Matt Morse – 3pts, 4reb, 1TO, 2steal
Craig Nielsen – 2pts, 2reb, 1ast, 1steal, 1blk
Max Lynch – 0pts, 4reb, 2blk

Game 4 MN Fury Ramey vs. D1-15’s 65-78 (L)
Kevin McKiernan – 6pts, 2ast
John Swanke – 4pts, 6reb, 2ast, 1TO, 1steal, 1blk
Sam Skoyen – 17pts, 1reb
Austin Heidecker – 7pts, 6reb,
Garrett Ober – 4pts, 2reb, 2ast, 1steal, 1blk
Jake Meyen – 0pts, 3reb, 1ast, 1TO, 1steal
Joe Morris – 7pts, 1reb, 2ast, 1TO, 1steal
Matt Morse – 20pts, 1reb, 2ast, 1TO, 2steal
Craig Nielsen – 0pts, 1reb, 1TO
Max Lynch – 0pts, 1reb, 1steal