End of Season Wrap-Up

Ok it’s time to bring this to some closure. My plan is to somewhat rapidly go through the regular season, do some more detailed description of the playoffs, and give some overall season reflections. I am not quite sure why I stopped writing, so I’m going to blame the month of February which is just a nasty month and often seems to sap the energy out of me.

When we last left we were facing a game without the triplets. I actually did a writeup for the game which I never posted. Here it is:

It’s clear from their other games that this could be a real trap game for us. We don’t have three of our best players (remembering that the Triplets are out of town at the Super Bowl) and they’ll be a team which could take advantage of that. We do our pre-game routine. As I’m talking to the team Jack M is being obnoxious, for about the eighth time, about who is starting and so while I had intended to start him he ends up starting the game on the bench.

The first quarter is close. Neither team really gets anything going which is our pretty typical first quarter. The son of the coach is both the tallest player on the team and their ball handler. Dante gets very excited about the fact that he is guarding a guard. It’s pretty funny. In the second quarter, the close game is maintained. I don’t have us do any sort of full court press because I am frankly very concerned about fatigue setting in. At half time the game is tied at 10.

I keep the half time speech short. I really believe at this point that we’ll gut out a win. We’re a team that’s shown a lot of fortitude, and this is where all the confidence that’s made practice hard should pay off. Except the third quarter begins. They sink a couple of threes and we can’t seem to work the ball well on offense. Our normally tight man to man, gives way to sloppy man to man. A tie becomes a two point lead, then a five, and finally a seven point lead by the time the quarter ends. There was likely a point in there where I should have called a time out. Except that momentum just gradually swung in their favor. This gradual swing meant that there was no time where I was like “it’s time to call a time-out” to try and calm it down. This was likely still a mistake on my part.

Going into the fourth I know that the game is going to be an uphill climb. Gordie already has four fouls going into the fourth. He would not be in the five I’d want in there at the end of the game (that group being Jack M, Jack P, Dante, Lucas, and Tom) so I decide that I’ll leave Gordie in there and let him just foul out rather than pull him. I talk about how we’ve scored lots of points in quarters before, so this game could still be ours.

We come out playing hard, but LS realizes that this game is in their grasp. With 3 minutes to go in the game we’re still down by 7. Gordie fouled out with about 4 minutes left, which considering how he’d been playing was better than I expected. When two minutes left comes around we’re down by five. We’ve long been in full court man to man mode, but we just can’t seem to close the gap. And that’s when Lucas goes on a tear. He seems to be everywhere at once. It was probably the most dominating single game performance we’ve had. While there have been times where David’s seemed to be everywhere on offense, or David and Scott being everywhere on defense, we’ve never had a player do it on both ends. In those last two minutes, Lucas easily had four or five steals plus quite a few rebounds. Suddenly there are 34 seconds left in the game and we’re down by a basket and they’ve been forced to call a time-out. A game which I honestly believed to be out of reach suddenly is very close.

34 seconds, however, is an eternity in basketball and I know it’s far too soon to get our hopes up. I tell the team that we have plenty of time to close the gap. I complement them on how well they’re playing. The two teams exchange baskets and there is a stoppage of play with about 15 seconds left, with them having the ball. I call a time-out. I explain that we need a stop and we need to score quickly. I tell them that if we tie this in regulation we’ll win it in overtime so we’re just looking for a good shot for two points, so don’t rush or panic. Our home crowd is pumped up. We do what it takes on defense and get the ball back. Jack M comes driving down the court and drives right by three players for a great looking lay-up and

misses. But wait there is a foul. I call a time-out. I explain that if Jack makes the first shot, great. If he misses the first shot that he should intentionally miss the second shot. If for either reason the second shot is missed we need to rebound and put it right back up as there is now a second and change left on the clock. If they were to get the rebound we need to quickly foul. Jack does indeed miss the first shot. The other team calls a time-out, no doubt telling them the importance of getting the rebound. Jack goes out there. I’ve reminded him that the ball needs to hit the rim. He throws the ball up and it hits the rim, but as soon as he does that he rushes into the lane. It’s an OBVIOUS lane violation. This effectively ends the game.

I am, admittedly, disappointed, in the result. For three quarters we played as well, if not better, than the team. We made an amazing comeback and nearly won. More frustratingly is the fact that I honestly believe part of the reason we lost is we just got tired. You give me one more player, and we win. With the triplets? We win easily. In the post game speech I talk about how we lost for two reasons. One is that we just got tired. The second is that we didn’t play defense 100% of the time and they made us pay in the third. I, do, however, focus on the positives of the fourth quarter. I remind them that we have another game the next day against NF2.

The next day rolls around. I am not concerned at all about our play against NF2. In the first part of the first quarter we don’t show that we’re a much better team and the reffing annoys me. They don’t call clear travel violations, for instance. However, at the end of the first quarter we snap out of stupor and we end up by 8. I let them know that we’ll do some full court press, but that if we score one basket we’ll have to stop. We get the ball at the start of the quarter, score one basket, and just continue our momentum. Shortly after the start of the quarter I restrict our team’s running of fast breaks.

At half we have a good discussion about sportsmanship. I explain that it’s not good sportsmanship to just score a lot of points because we can. I talk about how we’re more athletic than them and we play better as a team than they do so what are we really proving by scoring a lot?

We win the game in a convincing manner. There were more details no doubt but they have long ago been forgotten.