Dang, but I love winning.

Beacon started this season 0-4 — including two losses by five points or less. We were a young team that was just learning how to play together. Tough early conference losses to Marshall and Randolph had me thinking that our goals were "get to the playoffs and you never know…" but I also saw a lot of potential with this line-up. So we’ve been working hard, winning some games ugly, but slowly gaining confidence against the lower half of the division.

Practice intensity has slowly been growing, and, amazingly, we’ve discovered someting I’ve never had in nine years at Beacon — ferocious man-to-man defense.

It’s funny, one of the things I’ve always believed about coaching is that it helps to adapt to the talent you have. Sure, there are coaches like Bobby Knight who run their system no matter the talent they have on the court. And as much as I’ve wanted to try different things over the years, I have stuck to my offensive and defensive systems pretty religiously over the years. I know how to coach them, I’m comfortable with them, and I believe they are pretty adaptable systems to any kinds of players.

But this year, I saw that our strength really was outside, not inside, so I wanted to open up the lane and put four on the perimeter. And then, when we just weren’t trapping well, I had to put away our zone presses — although they will get work during the softer part of the rest of the schedule. And we discovered man-to-man D. And we’re winning with it. And our O this year, while very different than my old one, still is one that prioritized smart players moving and cutting when they read the court.

And we’re winning games. Saturday, we won our first "We’re not necessary supposed to beat this team" game when we beat Health Professionals when Gina stole the ball and scored with four seconds left. They were undefeated coming into the game, and according to their coach, this loss really damages their chances to win their division.

Tonight, we avenged our early season against Marshall with our second last-second "beat the undeated" team in a row. This team, just like Health Professionals, we went up early, let them claw back early, and then had the gut check and won it. Tonight, Kathryn hit the biggest bucket of her career when she hit the winning basket with 10 seconds left.

And I like that we’re doing it in different ways. Saturday, Gina had her best game of her young career with 27 points. Tonight, she was off, and we had really balanced scoring with Toya scoring 16, Kathryn getting 10, Ruthie getting 10 and Gina adding 9.

And we’re still not playing anywhere near our best basketball yet. Ariana is just beginning to show what she can do. Brandee is doing the little things right, and it’s just a matter of time before she starts scoring in bunches. Eli’s defense keeps getting better. Nina just has to have those layups fall, and then, her defense and passing and rebounding will be complemented by six or seven points a game, and Kathryn is begnning to realize what she can do on a Varsity basketball court.

This team is fun to coach because they are starting to realize how good they can be. We’ve got three weeks until the playoffs start — and now, the question is starting to be… "How far can this team go?"