End of season

We ended our season on a bad note yesterday, losing something like 60-35 to Glenbard South in our first state-playoff game. I knew it would suck to lose, but I thought that I would be happy that the season was over. We've been practicing every day, including weekends, since October. I was pretty tired of it. But almost immediately after I left the gym. I already missed the team. It was an odd feeling. A mixture of happiness that basketball was over, confusion over what to do with all my new free time, and sadness that I'd have to wait a year before playing with some of these guys again. It was really unexpected, and really confused me.
Coach Tony didn't even speak to us after the game. I don't know if thats a good thing or a bad thing. Its not like we played that poorly, they were just a good, fundamentally sound team. We've never played a team like that, a team that beat us purely on their fundamentals. For the first time ever, we were the flashier team. And we lost because of it. We missed open shots and open layups, because we were out of our depth.
On another note, I was supposed to shoot in the 3-Point Contest for State before the game. I was really excited to shoot in the contest, and curious to see how I held up against everyone else. I've always considered myself a good long-range shooter, but I was excited to see if I could prove it in front of a crowd, while I'm alone on the court.
But we got there late, and they had to reschedule the contest for Friday, the day I won't be able to make the contest. I'm going to have to wait a whole year before I get this opportunity again, assuming Coach Tony picks me next year too.
The season as a whole went a lot better than I expected though. We ended the season under .500, but I still think it was a pretty successful season, at least compared to last year. It felt weird to actually win a basketball game. And personally, I moved from 12th man in the beginning of the season to 11th man by the end of it. The way things are going, I'll be the 10th man next year! I guess I'll have to change the name of the blog.

Deja Vu

We got dunked on today, for the first time all season. It was almost as bad as the time I got dunked on by the same team last year, on JV. Except last year, instead of just rising up and dunking it like Omer Asik, as was done today, their power forward threw down a two-handed tomahawk slam, as I was trying to block him from behind.
The team in question was King College Prep, a team I was not excited about playing for the reason stated above. I knew they were going to be tough, and I was right. We lost by 25 points. They were bigger than us, and way more athletic.
We ate some "humble pie", as Coach Tony likes to say. And while we're on the subject, I've been considering making Coach Tony a pie at the end of the season, and call it "humble pie." But I don't know if that would be in poor taste, considering we're ending the season below .500, something he didn't imagine could happen at the beginning of the season.
Anyway, this game panned out pretty much the same way it did last year. We didn't score very much, because we could barely get the ball over halfcourt. But at least we didn't lose by 50 this time.

Disappointing at best

After our six game winning streak, we lost two in a row.  We blew two of our most important games: Senior Night and our first City Playoff game. 

Even though we lost against Jones on our Senior Night, it was still a fun night. This team won't be the same without our seniors next year. To be honest I have no idea how we're going to survive without Kamau on the team. But he's off to play ball in college, and so the best of luck to him. The rest of us on the team couldn't be prouder. Shit, Coach Tony got choked up delivering Kamau's introduction, and even though he's described himself as an "emotional Italian,"it was still a bit shocking. Anyway, we lost that game by 1 point, and it came down to the last shot. We lost but we played a great game and sent our seniors off with a bang.

The City Playoff game was another matter. We played Lakeview, and instead of coming out with the win like we expected, we got blown out by 20 points. The last time we played Lakeview, we lost by 1, to the hands of 1 stout Asian kid who couldn't miss a 3-pointer if he tried. So this game, we focused all of our defensive efforts on him. And in that regard, we were a success. We limited him to only a couple shots. In his place, however, stepped up a 5'5" Hispanic kid that none of us could guard. That kid had to drop at least 20 points on us, and he ran circles around our guards the entire game. Towards the end, once all hope was lost, was my time to shine. Coach Tony put me in with 3 minutes left when we were down by about 25, at the same time Lakeview's coach put in all of their scrubs. I hit the first 3-pointer I took. Although to be fair, I did bank it off the backboard, from the top of the key. But I totally did that completely on purpose......