The Mingus Union High School girls basketball coaching staff saw how it matched up with teams of varied talent and experience level during a pair of scrimmages at Sedona Red Rock High School on Thursday, June 21.
During the summertime, wins and losses are second fiddle to experience and learning. The Marauders took on Grand Canyon Region foe Bradshaw Mountain High School and a young Sedona Red Rock High School team, playing under the name Arizona Select.
“Have them play as much as possible,” said Frank Nevarez, Mingus’ varsity head coach during the last two seasons. “I think a person gets better the more they play, and I think if we can get the girls — which is what we’re trying to do — to play as much as possible, be it as games, summer leagues at Sedona or Flagstaff, or at open gyms at the high school …. The more we can get the girls to play, they better they’ll become.”
Mingus featured three players who return varsity experience: Darien Loring, Summer Scott and Tyra Archuleta. They combined with a complement of players who competed on the lower levels during the 2017-18 season.
Bradshaw Mountain, which featured a number of girls from the team that defeated Mingus in both region matchups last season and a third time in the Prescott Lady Badgers Winter Classic, challenged the Marauders
defensively with size and a 2-3 zone.
In the final scrimmage of the day, the Marauders took on AZ Select, which was comprised of players from Sedona Red Rock junior and senior high schools.
“It went OK. Obviously there are some things that we have to work on,” Nevarez said. “Us playing against teams that have played together consistently throughout the summer if not even prior to — and us, as far as our team, we don’t play together that often. You can see where we break down in our offensive and defensive schemes. Other than that I think the girls played well, they played hard, but again it does show where we have work to do.”
Working on a variety of skills is what the summertime competition is all about. While score is kept during the games played in two 20-minute halves, what the scoreboard reads at the end is not as important as what actually transpires on the court.
The teams have a chance to identify areas of improvement and hone skills that will come in handy once the regular season begins.
“Critically important. No. 1, this is where you can work on your fundamentals, dribbling skills. No. 2, just the mechanics of rebounding, closing out, defensive schemes, so there’s several things you can work on throughout the summer that will come into play when season does start again in November,” Nevarez said. “I think it’s critically important, you really walk away with a better basketball IQ after a summer program.”
