Preparing for the next game

Next Saturday, City College of San Francisco and Fresno City College will take to the court at Las Positas College to face Chaffey College and Saddleback College respectively in the Final Four of the CCCAA.

Chaffey owns a 25-6 overall record, finished 7-3 with away games and has won 13 of its last 14 contests. The Panthers average 85.1 point per outing. 6-foot-7 sophomore Christopher Edwards is the sole player of importance bringing height to the court and he averaged 11.3 points plus 9.7 boards. 6-foot-3 sophomore Donovan Taylor provided 8.8 points and 6.5 rebounds. The top three scorers for Coach Jeff Klein are guards in 6-0 sophomore Victor Joseph at 21.6 points, 6-foot-3 sophomore Alfred Brown with 16.4 and 5-foot-10 freshman Brian Beard's 11.9. San Diego, Cal Poly, Quinnipiac and Montana State have offered Joseph who was recently named the Co-MVP of the Foothill Conference. Edward, Taylor, Brown and Beard received First Team status.

CCSF is rolling--it's difficult to envision Chaffey being able to match the Rams point-for-point.

Saddleback is the defending state champion-- winning 50-47 over East Los Angeles--but that was an almost completely different roster. One vivid difference between Coach Andy Ground's guys and those of Coach Ed Madec's is the Gauchos averaged 73.3 points per game this season while the San Joaquin crew was at 92.1. The Orange County squad finished 9-0 on the road this season. 5-foot-9 freshman Timothy TJ Shorts earned Most Valuable Player honors with three teammates landing on the First Team (6-8 freshman Breaon Brady, 6-foot-8 sophomore Lyle Hexom and 6-foot sophomore Jalen Hall) as well as another trio being Second Teamers (6-foot-9 sophomore Brandon Fagins, 6-foot-4 sophomore Maurice Jones and 6-foot freshman Devonte Klines). Shorts averaged 12.7 points, 3.9 rebounds and 3.5 assists as well as shooting 56% from long distance. Brady provided 8.8 points plus 5.6 boards, Hexom 10.3 and 5.9 and Hall 5.1 and 2.6.

So who controls tempo here? Whichever team does, wins. Like CCSF, Fresno City College is in a very good place, having nine consecutive wins and scoring 111, 103 and 100 points the last three times out.

None of the teams in the pairings has faced their next opponent this season. So you're a community college basketball coach and your next game is a week away. How do you do to prepare your team? What steps are the general involved?

Here's Merritt Coach Keenan McMiller, not necessarily getting into the weeds, with an overview of the elements to be implemented.

"The first step is look and see who has played the team you're facing and see who has a style similar to what we play. Were those games fairly competitive? What made a difference?

Then get some [game] films, hopefully from a team that beat the team we're playing.

Do film studies with your team. Break the film into clips, eight to 10 two-minute clips, 15-20 minutes a session at most.

Focus on what you need to do in order to be successful. What do you want to try and take away [from the opponent]?

Put that into each practice."

Realistically, any player on the scout team cannot truly emulate the likes of say the quickness and shooting range of Feather River's Derrick Randolph during practices but McMiller advises this: "break down the decision-making and shot charts for the rotation players and work on defending those."