Drissa Traore (PSA Cardinals)
What's Up Basketball World,
Its Drissa Traore back again for diary entry number two. I hope everyone is doing well. My week was calm. After playing 3 straight weekends my coaches told me I should rest my body and concentrate on my school work and finishing the semester as best I can.
On Monday I stayed after school to get help on some math work. Right now, Math is the most challenging subject but I'm working on it. Coach Greg and the other coaches with PSA Cardinals always tell me how important being a student is. They always tell me how my grades will either open doors or close them depending on how seriously I take school. Coaches want intelligent basketball players and I definitely want to show and prove that I am smart on and off the court.
After my tutoring session, I went home and watched the Bucks vs the Spurs, it was a good game. I like watching the Greek Freak. I study him a lot and try to take things that he does in games and apply it to my own.
On Thursday, I worked out and played pick up with older guys from the neighborhood in high school and guys who were home from college. I think I held my own but they were stronger than me. I liked it because it has been making me play tougher. I am working on getting stronger and getting used to play with stronger players and players about my height. My goal is to play on the EYBL Circuit with PSA when I am in high school. After seeing our 17s make the Peach Jam Finals last summer, I definitely want to be in the same spot when it's my turn. So when I play with older guys I try to do the things I've been studying and practicing in workouts like my isolation game, using screens, hitting the roller and moving my feet on defense against faster and stronger players. I know these are things I need to work on. Just have to trust the process. I know I am going to get there. I just have to remain patient and dedicated.
On Saturday, I went to the Gauchos gym to watch some high school games with my friend. We watched Archbishop Stepinac High School and Our Savior Lutheran. Both were good games. After that, I went to a local gym to work-out on my ball handling and tried to apply what I was practicing in some pick-up games. We won all of our games and went undefeated. After those games I continued to work on harder dribble moves that I struggled with but I am going to keep working on those moves so one day I am confident enough to use them in a game.
On Sunday, I had 3 games with the PSA Cardinals at the Tri-State Classic. I played okay in our first game (I caught a body off a drop step). The second game had a bad scoring game, but Coach Greg talked to me about how not every game I am going to have 20 points and if I am not scoring the ball to find a way to contribute to the game to help my team win and show some effort driving for losing balls, talking on defense and being a leader. In the third game I played better. I rebounded the ball better, went to the hoop strong and even pushed it on the break a couple of times.
All right until next time I'm off this.
