Best in the West Tournament Update and Schedule Change

Riki’s Redondo Union High School team defeated a less-than-full-strength Long Beach Millikan team 49-9 last night in the first pool game of the Best in the West tournament at Downey High School. Millikan was a last minute replacement for Lakewood.

Today, RUHS plays host Downey at 6:10 p.m. Note game time change from earlier schedules.

Riki Update - May 22, 2009

Riki’s Redondo Union High School team wraps up their Beverly Hills High School Spring League competition over the next two Saturdays.  On 5/23, Redondo plays two consecutive games at 2 and 3 p.m. against local club teams: LA (PV) Pressure and Balboa Hills.  They should be good, competitive games.  On Saturday, 5/30, Redondo plays at 12 noon.

 

Redondo’s varsity summer schedule is firming up with some changes, most notably, the team will NOT be participating in the River City Classic in Tennessee at the end of July.  Instead the team front-loaded a couple of team camps in June (UCLA and UNLV).

 

The schedule:

 

June 19-21     UCLA Team Camp

June 22-24     CSULB Team Camp

June 26-28     UNLV Team Camp

July 6-9           End of the Oregon Trail

July 10-12      Swish Tournament (OC)

July 16-19      San Diego Classic

 

Riki will be participating in two camps in August:

 

Snow Valley (Westmont College – Santa Barbara): August 2-6

Point Guard College (UCLA): August

Free Throw Contest Results

Riki shot her 100 free throws this afternoon (in sets of 25).  Drum roll please…

 

She made 89 (improving on her late season 84% ratio).  At one point she was 69 for 75, so she tapered off at the end!

 

If you made a pledge based on the number of free throws made (sorry!).  You can make out a check to: RUHS Girls Basketball and mail it to us at:

 

507 Avenue G, Apt E

Redondo Beach, CA 90277

 

Thank you, again, for all of your support!

Free-throw-a-thon

Riki’s Redondo Union High School team is moving quickly through their Spring conditioning program which includes running or weightlifting interspersed with basketball practices five days a week.  They are also still playing in the Beverly Hills High School Spring League.  Riki has a game this Saturday at 4 p.m. vs. Balboa Hills.

 

Riki has been doing well, scoring 12 points against a Bakersfield team two weeks ago, and almost holding her own against an all-CIF guard from Inglewood three weeks ago.  Her coach has asked her to be more aggressive offensively, in particular, looking for more 3-point opportunities.  Redondo, as a team, is also doing better, losing to Inglewood by 3 points (a team that beat Redondo during the season by over 40 points).  Of course, it’s just Spring League!

 

For those of you who would like to support Riki financially, the girls are holding a Free-throw-a-thon next week.  Proceeds will go towards their travel account for Oregon and San Diego.

 

The girls will shoot 100 free throws (not in the same set/day) and supporters can pay a pledge based on free throws made (i.e. 50 free throws made at 10 cents per FT will be $5.00).  For point of reference, Riki made 63 of 74 free throw attempts (84%) from January through March of this season.  Although she has been off recently (probably because of weightlifting), she should still make at least 70.  Let me know if you’d like to make a pledge and I’ll tell you after the event about the details of paying your pledge.

 

Thanks for all of your support!

Riki Update - 4/13/2009

Riki’s “off-season” kicks off this week with Redondo playing in a VERY competitive US Junior National tournament in Orange County.  The “California Classic” will feature top club teams from California, Oregon, and Arizona.  Redondo appears to be the only high school team playing in the tournament.  Most of Riki’s former SGV teammates are playing in this tournament as the Swoosh Salesian team under her former coach Yas Oda.

 

Redondo got a tough draw for its first game, Friday 4/17 at 6 p.m. at Vanguard University in Costa Mesa.  They play one of the top teams in the country, Cal Swish 17 Black.  It won’t be pretty.  But on the positive side, they will be playing before a lot of scouts as this is an NCAA-certified viewing tournament and many college scouts will probably be on hand to watch Swish Black.

 

The rest of Riki’s schedule is as follows (all pool play):

 

Saturday, 9 a.m. vs. Cal Swoosh 17 Gold at University High School (Irvine), court 2

Saturday, 2 p.m. vs Santa Monica Surf 17 at University High School, court 2

Sunday, 11:45 a.m. vs. Los Angeles Pressure 17 at University High School, court 2

 

I have attached a copy of the tournament schedule for those interested in other teams.

 

Redondo will resume play in the Beverly Hills Spring League on Saturday, April 25 at 2 p.m. vs Venice.  The rest of their schedule:  May 2 at noon vs. Westchester, May 16 at 4 p.m. vs. Buckley; and May 30 at 12 noon vs. Westchester.  Note: Redondo has two squads playing in the Spring league and Riki may play more than one game if needed.  The games listed above are for the squad Riki is assigned to.

 

Thank you for your continued support!

Taxes Eating You Up? Join Me for Dinner on Tuesday

Need a break from the IRS?  Join me for dinner at Ruby’s Diner at the Redondo Marina on Tuesday, April 14^th from 5-9 p.m.  I plan to be there between 6:30 and 8:30.

 

Bring in the attached flier and my daughter’s Redondo Union’s Girls Basketball team will earn 20% of your bill.  The flier is good on take-out orders and purchases of gift cards, too!

 

Thank you for your support!

 

- Jeff Murakami (213.200.8277)

Murakami Spring 2009 update

Riki Update - March 20, 2009

Dear Friends, Family and Fans:

After being ousted in the first round by eventual CIF Southern Section I-AA champion Cajon, Riki’s 2008-09 season came to an official end last night at the RUHS Girls Basketball Banquet held at the National Sports Grill in Torrance. Not only did we get nearly perfect attendance from the girls in the program (32 out of 35 players with 85 persons in attendance (Jeff planned and organized the event), but we were pleasantly surprised with the announcement that Riki, along with teammate Ella Mason, was selected to the second team, All Bay League by the Bay League coaches! We are very proud of Riki and this affirmation by league coaches will hopefully drive her during the grueling off-season.

Speaking of which, Riki’s RUHS team will begin 5-week Spring league play on Saturday, March 28^th (Riki’s 15^th birthday) in the Beverly Hills league. She is currently in weight training three days a week at RUHS and is supplementing this with “kettlebell” core training twice a week in Artesia. (Russian) Kettlebell training was suggested by a friend, WLAC coach Colleen Matsuhara (thanks, Colleen!) and was confirmed by her school trainer. For more information on Riki’s trainer in Artesia, check out: www.ndsathletics.com.

Redondo will play in the Swish tournament (one of the few high schools to do so) on April 17-19 in Orange County. This will be a challenge given that the top-club teams in the area (read: all-star) teams will be competing. This will prepare RUHS for their summer…

RUHS’ summer will involve extensive traveling:

Monday- Thursday, July 6-9

End of the Oregon Trail Tournament (Portland, OR) – another “viewing” tournament featuring club teams from across the country

More info: http://www.eotbasketball.com/tournaments.htm

Friday-Sunday, July 10-12

Swift Summer Shootout (Orange County) – club and high school competition

Thursday-Sunday, July 16-19 San Diego Classic - High School Tournament – Nation’s largest high school tournament (varsity and jv)

For more info: http://www.sandiegoclassic.com/

Wednesday-Saturday, July 22-25

River City Classic, (Memphis, TN) – like Oregon, mostly club tournament

(note: East Coast travel may require departure on 7/21) More info: http://www.eotbasketball.com/tournaments.htm (same as Oregon)

Riki’s August will be spent unwinding but also in two camps: the Marumoto Offensive Skills and Shooting Camp (August 3-7) and the Point GuardCollege (August 24-28) at ucla. For this reason, we have chosen not to put Riki onto any club/travel team for the second straight spring/summer but to focus on her conditioning and specific skills and to build a stronger team with the 15 returning varsity players (5 seniors-to-be, 8 juniors-to-be, and 2 sophomores).

Lastly, I would like to thank friend/fan James Chang for setting up a blog for Riki at: http://rikiupdate.blogspot.com/ where I will eventually post some photos and other stuff once I get the hang of it. For now, Jimmy has put up all of my posts.

Happy Spring!

Regular Season End

The regular season came to an end last Thursday with Riki’s Redondo Union High School team securing a CIF-playoff berth and third place in the Bay League with a 43-32 victory over West Torrance. RUHS is 11-16 overall and 5-5 in league. Riki had a good game, scoring 12 points on 9-10 from the free throw line and one three-pointer. Her free throw percentage in the 14 games in 2009 is 84.9% on 62 of 73 attempts. Over 24 games, Riki is averaging 5.9 points per game.

Redondo, given its record and its placement in the highest CIF division (IAA), received a poor seeding (31 out of 32) and, as a result, will travel on Thursday, 2/19 to play Cajon (San Bernardino), the #2 seed in the division (Long Beach Poly is #1). Tip-off is at 7:30 p.m.

Cajon is led by two players of note, 6’ 3” Arkansas-bound Darshae Burnside and 5’8” Cal-bound Layshia Clarendon who, together provide more than half of Cajon’s points (averaging 18.3 and 19.2 respectively). Burnside is also averaging 15.5 rebounds per game and Clarendon gets 8.4 assists per game (an amazing number considering that she is also their leading scorer). A weak link may be free-throw shooting as the team only shoots 61% with only Clarendon shooting over 70% from the line. (source: maxpreps.com)

.

Christine and I watched Cajon defeat another top-ranked program, Hanford, in San Diego over the summer. Because of Burnside and Clarendon, they are a handful inside and out. Among common opponents, Cajon defeated Keppel 52-40 on December 26. Keppel, which beat Redondo by 9 (after RUHS led at half) in early January, stayed in the game by holding Clarendon to only 8 points and committing only 11 turnovers (Keppel is almost all guards). Burnside, on the other hand, scored 22 with 19 rebounds. I imagine that if Redondo turns the ball over its usual 20+ times, it will be a long night.

The “good news” is that IF Redondo plays the game of its season and upsets Cajon, it will benefit from the #2 bracketing and play a lower seeded team (Schurr or LB Wilson) on Saturday.

Thanks for all the support!

Final Week of the Regular Season

Riki’s Redondo Union High School (RUHS) team enters the final week of the regular season with their postseason in serious question. An unexpected loss to Bay League opponent Peninsula on Tuesday (38-45) has dropped Redondo into a third place tie with the Panthers with three league games left. A third-place finish will probably mean a CIF playoff berth. A fourth-place finish will mark the end of the season.

Prior to the Peninsula loss, Redondo suffered losses to Bishop Amat (41-61, non-league) and Palos Verdes (34-41) on consecutive nights last weekend.

Redondo’s inexperience is paying a toll as the long season winds down. It is particularly frustrating for and demanding on Riki as she has been forced to play 30-31 minutes (out of 32) at point in the last two games. Playing point in particular, is draining both mentally and physically. Fortunately, Riki’s travel club experience has “toughened” her and her pre-season work with weights and conditioning has paid off, although she is playing through a contusion on her left arm and elbow suffered in the first quarter on Tuesday.

Riki continues to get to the foul line off of penetration and has made 14 of her last 16 attempts. Since the start of 2009 (10 games), Riki has shot 45-53 (84.9%) from the line. She also picked up another charge against Peninsula, adding to her RUHS single-season record of 13.

Redondo finishes the season with a home game on Friday, Feb. 6 at 6 p.m. vs. arch-rival Mira Costa (Manhattan Beach), an away game vs. powerful Inglewood (ranked 11th in the region by the LA Times) on Saturday at 7 p.m. and Tuesday, 2/10, at home vs. Leuzinger (6 p.m.). The final game of the regular season is on the road on Thursday, Feb. 12 vs. West Torrance at 6 p.m. IF they make the playoffs, their first game will probably be on Sat. 2/21.

Thanks for all the support!

End of the 1st Half

Dear Friends and Family:

Riki’s Redondo Union High School team finishes the first half of Bay League play this Tuesday 2/27 vs. West Torrance at Redondo at 6 p.m. This is a battle for third place in the league as both teams are 2-2 in league.

Redondo then plays at Palos Verdes on Friday (again at 6 p.m.) and at Bishop Amat in La Puente on Saturday at 7 p.m. (non-league). Bishop Amat features one of Riki’s former club teammates, Michelle Yamamoto.

Since the last update, Riki’s team has gone 2-2, with wins against Peninsula (1/16) and Leuzinger (on Friday, 1/23) and losses to Beverly Hills (1/17) and archrival Mira Costa (1/20). The losses were particularly disheartening as RUHS lost a 3-pt halftime lead against favored Beverly Hills and were “blown out of the water” by Mira Costa from the get-go.

Against Peninsula, Riki scored her season high of 15, with 12 coming in the fourth quarter to help RUHS erase a 4-point deficit en route to a 10-pt win. For the game, she hit two threes and was five for five from the free throw line including the completion of a three-point play following a drive down the lane to turn the tide. During the five game stretch between Mark Keppel on 1/10 and Mira Costa on 1/20, Riki shot 28-30 (93%) from the free throw line. Alas, all good things come to an end when she missed her first four free throws yesterday (1/23) against Leuzinger before hitting her last two. Thankfully, the game was never in question (a 29-point RUHS win), so the free throws weren’t missed.

Thanks for all of your support!

The Mid-Year Wall

Dear Friends and Family:

Riki’s Redondo Union High School team seems to have hit the mid-year wall (after a long summer followed by a fall league). The team, which because of inexperience, had a sharp learning curve, seems to be running on empty as they begin the Bay League season. Case in point was last Saturday’s loss to Mark Keppel where RUHS lost a four-point halftime advantage en route to a 45-36 loss. Against Bay League rival Palos Verdes on Tuesday, the team trailed from the end of the first quarter and never drew closer than six points en route to another 9-pt loss, 44-35.

As for Riki, against Keppel, she added two defensive charges to her school record of 12. She was 7-8 from the free throw line to finish with seven points total. Against PV, Riki again scored only from the line, hitting 6 of 6. In both games, she played almost the entire second half and is now averaging over 25 minutes (out of 32 total) per game, by far the most on her team.

The challenge right now is to keep a positive outlook on the rest of the season and to keep trying to develop the raw talent on the team.

Redondo plays Peninsula (Rolling Hills Estates) at 6 p.m. at RUHS on Friday. Bay League play continues when Redondo hits the road to take on league-favorite and arch-rival Mira Costa (Manhatten Beach) on Tuesday 1/20 at 6 p.m.

Thanks, as always, for your continued support!

Midpoint of the season

Riki’s Redondo Union High School team continues to work its way through the midpoint of the season having split their four games in the Gahr tournament before the end of the year.  Now at 5-7 on the year, they have 14 games remaining, 10 of which are in Bay League competition.

 

Redondo plays this Saturday 1/10 at Mark Keppel High School in Alhambra at 3 p.m.  This game should be interesting for Riki as Keppel is primarily made up of Asian players, some of whom played club ball for the organization Riki grew up with (SGV).  Redondo’s size should be a factor.  For those interested, the schools’ frosh/soph teams hook-up at 12 noon and the JV teams play at 1:30 p.m.

 

Redondo begins Bay League play next week when they host the Palos Verdes teams (PV on Tuesday and Peninsula on Friday).  Varsity girls games start at 6 p.m. and are followed by Varsity boys (and preceded by JV games).  They end next week with a tough game at highly-ranked Santa Monica on Saturday 1/17 at 8 p.m.

 

On a personal note, Riki has just set the school’s season record for taking charges.  Through 12 games, Riki has taken 10 charges (the old record was 8 set by now assistant coach Alison Bretania).  Of course, every time Riki hits the floor, we cringe.

 

Thanks for the continued support!