PCTI Basketball Training: Cockman

Finally someone that hoops consistently... or did. From Donley:

I'm going to preface this whole thing by mentioning that I recently moved to Cincinnati (2wks ago).  So I'm going to respond to these questions from the aspect of living in ATL, but know that now that I live in MY CITY I will be playing a lot more - example, 3 days after the move I was hit up and played in a 3on3 tournament so the opportunities for good/fun hoops will be more frequent which I'm excited about. 

·  On average, how often do you play? 

o 1.5 times/wk -- one league that pretty much went year round with multiple sessions and as much as I can Sunday mornings at LifeTime for pickup 

·  How did you get involved in the game(s)? How does it get put together?

o Leagues - fortunately when I came down with Kimberly-Clark from Wisconsin, reputation for being somewhat athletic followed. For those of you that have experience this phenomenon, your name gets out and people needing to fill out rosters come calling. Being in a new place it's becomes hard to turn down the first person that asks name and then it's a crap shoot in hoping they can play and their team is not a bunch of duds.  Getting out of those dud teams is just a life lesson in knowing that sometimes you have to be a dick...just be nice about it.  Fortunately the team I played with was decent, but I'll get more into that in question 3.

o Pickup - ran into a guy at league that remembered me from wrecking weights at LifeTime, so he threw me on the invite for the Sunday morning run.

·  Whats the make up of the group? Age, skill, size, etc

o Leagues - most teams are mid to late 20s, my team however consists of mostly late 20s - early 30s team members with the caveat that we have a 44yr old 6'8" 250lb dude that played at Kennessaw State (career scoring leader for 20 years and can still fill it up. The tough thing with this team is that I was the second smallest player as we rolled out 6'9", 6'8", 6'7", 6'7", 6'6", 6'5" and then me and another dude.  Skill wise there were a solid 5 with a heavy drop off because some of the bigs were only that...big.

o Pickup - mostly dads and basketball lifers that refuse to let people ruin their run, which was perfect.  A lot of former college players and even some former d-league guys would show up every once in a while. Assertiveness is a must to stay on the invite list, which can be challenging starting out when you're more of a role guy.

·  What is your role in these games? How does that differ from your role in PCTI?

o Leagues - Distributor/Shooter - mostly initiated the offense because the overall basketball IQ was lacking and was a spot-up guy.  SUPER opposite of anything I am in PCTI, which has at times left me less confident on the block and around the rim in previous PCTIs.  

o Pickup - whatever, whenever, however that keeps me in the game.  With ex-D1 guys and extremely skilled players there is always a better option than me and I don't care to admit that as long as I contribute.  I always start out Hops-esque with playing hard D and not shooting unless I'm wide open, once a session I will get it going and throw up 10-11 of the 15 which every player enjoys to know those games still exist. 

·  What is one thing you love about it? What is something you don't like?

o Leagues - the schedule of knowing that I'm playing every week in a good game with people I enjoy playing with.  There is nothing better than playing with a group you like.  Probably because I was the actual boss of some of the players, I was the de facto leader of the team and I crush that role.  The one thing I didn't like about the team is the amount of zone we had to play because of the lack of shape the rest of the team was in (although with extreme length it worked out well), because it gets you out of that 1on1 D.

o Pickup - I love that everyone there LOVES to play.  With it being a lot of working fathers/husbans, the jovial nature of everyone's attitude lends itself to playing in a positive environment.  Everyone has played in negative environments where all it consists of is arguing and stoppages, at this point in my life when I come upon those situations I just leave.  One thing that was tough with pickup happens to everyone that isn't Abe, you get stuck on a bad team and can't get in a flow.

That was probably way too wordy for what you wanted, but hell, I'm in a new job and don't have much actual work just yet. 

Your's so very truly,

The Cockman

Editor's Note: The pick up game seems perfect. A group of talented players that hate the arguing and other BS that comes with a lot of pick up games. I don't like leagues for multiple reasons but having to play 2-3 zone because of fat people really rustles my jimmies. Would like to hear about his games now that he is back to The Blue Chip City.