AHCP | Southeastern Asst. Girls Coach Josh Ruckel | 2-7-25

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, coach, sorry about that. I appreciate you hanging in
there with us tonight, sitting doing a lot of different
jobs over here, and I'm anxious to get a chance
to talk to you. I was just saying, what's interesting
for me this time of year as a basketball junkie is
just the ability to look at all the different matchups.
And yeah, you and I have talked some basketball and
some different things. Probably not quite the regular season you

(00:22):
guys wanted this year. You obviously were hit by graduation
a little bit. You certainly have some some all league
talented players at the top of your roster. You've been
in a lot of games, You've lost some close ones.
But so before I get to some specific questions, maybe
just kind of give me a feel of the state
of your team and where you guys are mentally going
into the postseason here.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Yeah, I mean, I mean everything you said is absolutely correct.
I think we talked about last Friday. We had you
Yoda fighting Nadina, all three teams that are top in
our league this week and kind of was far for
the core, far for the course for us this year.
As we played Union to the first game of the
week or on Saturday, I'm sorry, and we felt like

(01:05):
that game, although they beat us by a pretty decent amount,
that if we'd have played anybody else in the league
in that particular night, we might have come away with
the wins. That's just how things have worked out for us.
And then we played Fighting in a real close game.
I think they end up beating us by four. And
then we played a DNA and had had that to
a five point game in the third quarter, just lost

(01:28):
a couple of assignments on defense and they hit a
couple of shots, and we're just not built to come
back from a ten point deficit. And so so heading in,
heading into tournament play, we're excited. We're kind of regrouping,
rallying the troops a little bit, but we're excited for
an opportunity to play one more game.

Speaker 1 (01:45):
Well, I certainly would understand why. You know, you look
down through the year, you certainly have capabilities. We always
maybe we even over use the term matchups in basketball,
but when it comes to Southeastern Lady Panthers, I think
matchup is really really big. You know, obviously the federal
hockey game jumps out at me. You're right there with
a really good opponent, as you said, you've played in

(02:06):
different parts of games. I was really intrigued in my
notes here want to ask you about your your pithing game.
I watched your first pike in game and that is
a huge match up in terms of tempo. I assuming
that that particular matchup, pikeing would like to get you
guys going up and down a little bit. You guys
would pray for the half court when the game at
piked and I watched pikedon was successful and kind of

(02:27):
getting you going a little bit up and down and
it favored them. I'm assuming by the thirty six thirty
two final or piked in Beaching by four, you were
able to get it into your tempo a little bit more.
Is that Is that accurate?

Speaker 2 (02:39):
That is very accurod. We've got a particular pace that
we like to play at, and we got pith and
slowed down and we did a real good job of
rebounding the ball and with our half court defense was
pretty good for most of the night, not great, but
pretty good. And as a shooter when when the more
you miss and you know that you should make well enough,

(03:00):
we kind of feel like that plays into our hands
a little bit and we kind of got them out
of rhythm and they really in the second half they
hit a few shots. That's really the difference in the game,
just a couple of shots here and there. But you're right,
playing at our pace is a huge benefits us. We're
definitely not built to get up and down the floor
and run it and run and guns for four quarters.

Speaker 1 (03:23):
Well, coach, the reason I highlighted in my notes that
Piked in game is because I thought that led into
the Alexander team. I believe that's who you have in
the tournament. Correct out Alexander, and for people who don't know,
man Alexander has some really good guard play, really really
good guard play, and they'll kind of mirror Piked in
a little bit. But again, if you're able to handle

(03:44):
the ball and get him into the half court, do
you have some matchups you think you can be successful.

Speaker 2 (03:49):
With there, Well, we do. The good thing about our
league is we pretty much were prepared to play anybody
that we would draw in our tournament. We've already kind
of seen our league prepares a night in the night out.
You're playing good guards, you're playing good coaches, you're playing
good competition. So so we're excited about Alexander. We feel

(04:11):
like they kind of run like a one two two pressure.
If we can handle that and get the ball in
spots in half court, blow the tempo down and get
the ball where we wanted to, we kind of fill
our match upster will be in our favor.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
Well, it makes total sense. And you know, before I
get you off here, coach, I know you know, usually
if it's game night, we talk about a who led
you and so forth. Any any individuals you don't feel
like maybe you've been given the credit throughout the year.
I know a lot of times in the media we're
guilty of Hey, this kid letting scoring, this kid did
this or that. Are there any kids on the roster

(04:47):
that maybe go under the radar a little bit that
while you have the opportunity here publicly, you want to
highlight a little bit.

Speaker 2 (04:53):
Well, I mean we've we've talked about and we've talked
about Rowan and Reeves and they kind of lead us
in STUF. That's those leading rebounders and scores. We've talked
about Gracie Brown, she handles the ball, but they've kind
of been noticed before. But I think one girl that
definitely goes under the radar for us. That mate we're
just talking about may not show up on a stash sheet,

(05:14):
but makes things happen. It's Callie Stofer. She comes in
at times. She does a great job rebounding, she does
a great jomp us one, she does a great job
on deep. She can guard the other team. She makes
us very versatile. If we got to pull a big off,
she can guard the other team's best guard and shut
her down. So Calie Stofer is the names that I

(05:34):
feel only make Southeastern girls basketball better.

Speaker 1 (05:38):
Well, coach, that's really well said. That's exactly the type
of thing we were wanting to highlight. There, appreciate you
doing that. Listen, now, you guys were a dangerous team
this time last year and it was proven to be true.
I don't see why we can't have that same situation
this year. So best of luck. Love to talk to
you next week and hopefully it's about to win over
the Lady Spartans.

Speaker 2 (06:00):
Yeah. Yeah, we like our mats up. We're excited. We
just got to rise the troops and lick our wounds
a little bit, give a good effort. So thanks guys
for having me on tonight.

Speaker 1 (06:09):
I appreciate it. Thank you,