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The Wood Acres Tigers are a Bethesda-based AAU basketball team built on the principle that a close-knit group of skilled friends ultimately forms a highly competitive, and enjoyable, team.
Coach Joe started the Tigers by inviting his son's friends from the local Wood Acres elementary school and some friends from the preschool days. The Tigers then added a few key players with a like-minded approach. Those new players have quickly become close friends and honorary Wood Acres kids too.
The Tigers have emerged as a premier youth basketball team, as shown by the following highlights:
The Tigers won the 365 HBL Summer League 2025 Championship.
The Tigers finished as the runner-up in the 365 HBL Fall League (Gold Division) - finishing 2nd out of 12 teams.
The Tigers have won multiple hard-fought games in the ultra-competitive DMV AAU tournament circuit.
The Tigers will continue competing in leagues, tournaments, and are working towards their ultimate goal of the 2026 Disney World AAU World Championship. With the Tigers, development, competing hard, and, yes, winning too, are the focus-points, but friendship is the foundation.
Team Introduction / Principles
Team Introduction / Principles
Welcome to the Official Website of the Wood Acres Tigers AAU Team! See key logistical details and team principles below:
Communication/parent involvement
I welcome the involvement of all parents at practice and with strategy/coaching plans. There is no limit to the number of assistant coaches! Only “rule” comes from the league: at games there can only be 2 coaches on the player bench, and only 1 coach standing/giving verbal instructions or else we get assessed a technical foul.
AAU Tournaments
Our team is an officially registered AAU Basketball Club and I’m a certified AAU coach and club president. This enables us to register for any AAU tournament we want. See attached Tigers membership card.
Coaching/gameplan/playing time
I coach with a serious but fun style. These are kids, they should be having fun and be friends. But I gameplan every practice and game, run specific drills and strategies, and expect the players to focus and give their best effort. I build fun games into practices and there’s always a good amount of laughter. A balance of fun and intensity, I’d say.
Playing time will be based on a combination of skill, attendance/effort at practice, and understanding of our team’s offensive and defensive strategies.
Our identity is "no air" - this means crazy aggressive defense and no big air head hero ball offense.
Our offense revolves around passing, cutting, and setting screens. No hero ball. We will use a combination of set plays and free-form play based around the pass/cut/screen concept. More details coming, including a playbook.
Our defense is a combination of full-court man-to-man press, a full-court 1-3-1 press, and half-court man.
I do not believe in simply throwing the most talented kids onto the court and letting them “just play.” We’re looking to build cohesion, long-term success, and develop advanced strategic understanding so the kids can play at the next level.
Coach Ness Partnership
The Wood Acres Tigers have partnered with Coach Ness, a premier training academy in the Bethesda area. Coach Ness has personally come to our practices and we are happy to support each other and grow together. Check out Coach Ness here - https://www.nessbasketball.com/
Results
Results
Fall 2025 - 365 HBL Fall League runner-up and 2nd out of 12 teams!
Tigers go 10-3 over the course of the Fall Season, and often times holding opponents to under 10 points a game using the Tigers signature aggressive defensive style. During the Tigers' wins, they consistently have spread-around scoring with no one player scoring most of the points.
Tigers advance through the Gold Bracket playoff division (top teams) and make it to the championship game against Team Pat the Roc 4th/5th. Tigers fought hard and the game was tied at halftime, and the score was 22-21 with 3 minutes to go. But, ultimately, the Tigers lost and it was a great game.
Tigers also won games at various AAU tournaments during the Fall season.
Summer 2025 - 365 HBL Summer League CHAMPIONS!!
6/27/25 - Tigers v. MADE Elite 9U: Tigers win 21-13 by using excellent defensive pressure. When our shots didn't fall, we focused on our "no air" defense.
6/28/25 - Tigers v. Future Stars Falcons 9U: Tigers win 30-18 with a balanced offensive attack and once again a high-pressure defense.
6/28/25 - Tigers v. Future Stars Falcons 10U: Tigers lose 30-22 after making an epic comeback. Tigers were down 20-3 but came roaring back.
7/7/25 - Tigers v. MADE Elite 9U: Tigers win 36-10 with swarming defensive pressure and great offensive team work. Every player scored.
7/8/25 - Tigers v. Future Stars Falcons 9U: Tigers win 18-12 in a hard-fought game in which we only had 5 players for most of the game.
7/8/25 - Tigers v. Future Stars Falcons 10U: Tigers score 23 and Falcons score 22. But the clock operator did not count a basket and so we lost 21-22. We are not overly focused on the result and we are just going to move on and not complain. We are focused on long-term development and success, not a single game.
7/13/25 - Tigers v. Future Stars Falcons: Tigers win 45-11 and become the CHAMPIONS!! This game was the culmination of our "no air" defense and our team-based offensive play.
6/21/25 DMV Showcase bump games
Tigers go 1-1 in their first AAU Showcase. These games don’t count towards our HBL summer league record. To put in perspective the quality of teams present today, the next game was Kevin Durant’s Team Durant. The teams we played today are PG county and DC based programs. Top area in the country for AAU.
Game 1: Tigers beat Warriors 37-18. The Warriors are an established AAU program with tourney experience (I met their coach). They had a star point guard but were just too short overall. Our swarming press was too much for them. Notably, the scoring on our team was spread around evenly. Every player scored and no one played had a ton of points. Also, we used picks, cuts, give&go, and our fast break scores were set up with multiple passes. Congrats to game 1 King Tiger — Isaiah!!
Game 2 : Tigers lose to New Day 10U. The story of this game was we got outmuscled, outsized, and we got intimidated. Credit to New Day - they had a dominant SGA-like guard, a nifty big man, and just a deep, physical roster. They trapped like madmen and we had some injuries hamper our lineup (and our “big men” were out today). A good learning experience for us. Congrats to Game 2 King Tiger— Robi!!
6/14/2025 MD Flames AAU Tournament, Boyds MD
Tigers advance to the semi-finals but lose in the semi-finals. A fantastic showing for our first ever AAU tournament.
Game 1: Tigers eliminate a 17-3 deficit and storm back, but ultimately lose 23-21 to Shooters 2034; congrats to King Tiger, Parker
Game 2: Tigers win 29-25 over a very experienced and great Classics team. Because of the Tigers win and epic comeback in game 1, the Tigers earn the #3 seed and advance to the semi-finals; congrats to King Tiger, Spencer.
Game 3 (semi-finals): Tigers play with incredible heart against a well-rested, deep, and strong team, the Nightmares, and Tigers lose 35-32. Congrats to King Tiger, Alan.
6/1 to 6/8 2025 preseason games
Our 3rd Grade Wood Acres Tigers team played 2 preseason games against 4th grade teams. We lost to Landon (I think score was about 35-23) and we beat Marauders 41-17; congrats to King Tiger, Siddharth.
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