Wasco Preview

I'm going to have to be quick about this because I have a busy day ahead of laying here and remembering past glories.

Shafter and Wasco are well matched teams. As they always are, the Generals and the Tigers will be hyped up for this game. Wasco will be looking to recover from the drubbing they suffered at BCHS on Tuesday. Shafter will probably need to play better than it did earlier this week against Arvin to come out victorious. I expect it to be close.

Wasco's head coach, Gerald Waldrip, is a cagey strategist, known for matching his defensive schemes to the opponent. I saw these two teams play this summer and if Waldrip remembers that game as I do, he knows that he doesn't have anyone who can stay with Cristian Barrios in space. Spacing and isolation are key for Shafter offense, the problem being getting defenders alone - which reminds me of this little piece of awesomeness -



As you probably could have guessed, I've been trying to find an excuse to post that for a while, but you really owe it to yourself to watch. The exploding piano, the spasmic leg kicks, the backlit frizz, the flowing cloaks, and the need to look up grimacing during a guitar solo, all set to an anthem of offensive spacing. That is why it is awesome. It will also take you right back to the Radon Fortenberry era, a very good time for Shafter basketball.

Back on topic - expect some kind of junk defense from Wasco in an effort to slow Barrios down. If that happens, the eyes of Shafter will turn to Adrian Trujillo for some artillery backup. Others too, but the first and simplest response to this sort of thing will be a few threes. This role as "first responder" is perhaps a way that we could talk about Trujillo as "the bombero," a beautiful of Spanish word that does not in fact mean "bomber" as I first thought.

Speaking of threes, remember when I noted that Christian Rodriguez was out and then back at Wasco. He was their best three point shooter last year and one of the best in the league connecting on nearly 40% of his attempts last year. Man is Rodriguez due this year. He is 6 for 43 on the year and had missed his last 22 attempts going into the BCHS game, a streak that stretched back to 2009. The stats aren't up yet, but Rodriguez did score three points, perhaps his drought is over.

Here is the all-time series record.

The game is in Shafter tonight. Near the peaceful western shore, but not so near as to be surrounded by insufferable weather snobs.