The ADM girls basketball end-of-season banquet is coming up this Sunday, which gives Tigers head coach Corey Schneider plenty of time to reflect on the season.
It was an up-and-down year for the Tigers, who, after a 3-2 start to the season, suffered a season-long six-game losing streak. ADM then recovered to finish the rest of the regular season 6-4, and after going 1-1 in the playoffs, finished Schneider’s first year as head coach 10-13.
The main culprit for the Tigers’ season-long skid was offense, as ADM averaged just 36 points per game over those six games. Schneider said he was by enlarge happy with his team’s defense throughout the season, but was disappointed in his team’s offensive inconsistency. For the year, the Tigers averaged just 48 points per game on 38 percent shooting.
The offense improved considerably over the final 10 games of the regular season, but the damage from ADM’s 3-8 start to the year was obvious. The Tigers were given a favorable opening-round playoff matchup against a one-win Carroll team, but the “reward” was a date with the undefeated and No. 1 Harlan Cyclones, who pummeled the Tigers in the regional semi-final.
If ADM limits its losing streak or pulls the upset over either Pella and Carlisle, a pair of ranked teams the Tigers lost to by just six points in a one-week span in January, Schneider said the Tigers probably would have received a better drawn in the playoffs, and therefore would have had a better chance of making a deeper postseason run.
“Early on, there’s going to be some growing pains, but those are very important games,” he said. “When you look down the stretch and what could have been, instead of being in a bracket with Harlan, you could have been in a bracket with Perry or somebody – not to say those would be easy games, but they’re definitely not the same competition as what we ended up going through.
“So just how important every game on the schedule is, and to make sure we’re focused for every one and if we do have a losing streak, then maybe put an end to it sooner than we did this year.”