August 15, 2008

Smarts paying off for Barbour

Kevin McCarthy
 

Brian Barbour is a point guard for the Lakeshow basketball club and also a key backcourter for the Monte Vista Mustangs during the school year. Coming off a season as a first-team All East Bay Athletic League selection and member of the Contra Costa All-Times boys basketball team, Barbour is a heady performer, who handles the ball and passes well, shoots from long range and pays as much attention to his defensive effort as when he has the ball in his hands.

He’s also an ace in the classroom with a 4.0 grade point average and a 1650 score on his SAT.

Despite not playing club team ball last summer, Barbour is drawing interest from a number of schools in the Patriot League, West Coast Conference, Western Athletic Conference, the Big Sky and Big West Conferences.

Barbour captains both Lakeshow and Monte Vista, a validation of his leadership and acts as a coach on the floor during games.

Last season for Monte Vista, he scored 16 points per game, passed out five assists a contest and nabbed one and a half steals each time out. Plus, per Bill Powers the MV coach, "Brian has really developed into one of the best guards in the area and the beauty for our coaching staff is that he is twice the person than he is the player."

The 6-foot Barbour just finished competing in the adidas Super 64 tournament in Las Vegas and we’ll continue to monitor his recruitment.

Here is the diary of his games:

Game 1 - Lakeshow vs. Colorado Select

Going into the game, we knew we were playing a undersized team that was pretty solid from the perimeter. Our game plan on defense was to close out three’s and also out-rebound them due to their lack of height. On offense, we wanted to out muscle them down low and really crash the boards to play to our advantage.

The game started out slow with both teams struggling from the field. Though we struggled offensively, our players really got it done on the other side by holding Colorado to only ten points in the first half. At halftime, the score was 23 to 10 in Lakeshow’s favor. In the second half, we tried to slow them down even more by switching between playing a 1-3-1 zone and man defenses. Colorado never really got into a groove and was unable to cut the their deficit below 12 points. The final score was 44 to 28 for Lakeshow. This game was a solid start to a promising weekend.

Game 2 - Lakeshow vs. Tosa Bandits, WI

Our goal for this game was to keep up the intensity on defense and really jump on Tosa from the start. Once again, we were playing a team with quick guards but not a lot of size, so we wanted to pound the ball down low. We came out of the gate and let our defense dictate the game as we held the Bandits scoreless for the first ten minutes. Our big men dictated the pace as they didn’t let a single rebound slip past their grasp or anyone come close to the key without a check to the gut.

From there on out, we held the lead for the rest of the game and never let it get any closer than 10 points. We won 54 to 34.

The next game is for first place in the pool as we play Omah Alegent Health Crusaders.

Game 3 - Lakeshow vs. Omah Alegent Health Crusaders

Once again, the game plan for our third game was to jump out with an aggressive start and not look back. The only problem was we were still sleep walking and fell behind very quickly in the first five minutes of the game. We couldn’t get any shot to fall or loose ball to drop into our hands. The Crusaders were a much smaller and scrappier team and really out-hustled us for the first 10 minutes of the game which proved to be the deciding factor.

Our lack of defense this game was another major factor when the Omah Alegent Health knocked down consecutive open three-pointers. After a long struggle back, we finally cut it to one at half time. We took the lead in the second half but we were never able to get momentum going again after three straight threes. The final score ended up 73 to 59. Because of this loss we now have to play one of the best teams in the nation in Indiana Elite.

Game 4 - Lakeshow vs. Indiana Elite

Now in single elimination games, we faced a very tough team in Indiana Elite. Our goal going into the game was to slow the momentum down and try and keep them under 20 in the first half. Coach Fuca told me going into the game that I would have to control the pace and might not get much rest. Indiana Elite jumped out to an early 7-0 lead until we began to play our style. We went into halftime trailing 25 to 24 and had slowed the pace of the game down to our liking. The second half went back in forth until about seven minutes left when Indiana Elite went on a 8-0 run and really killed our momentum. Although we went down about 10, we kept fighting until the very end and cut it to about six until they went into a delay and hit their free throws at the end. The final score was 60-51. The Indiana Elite squad was filled with D-I players including Mason Plumlee who is headed to Duke.

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