An Underdog Tale: Follow the Minutes

First things first, let me start by saying that my fiancé had absolutely no interest in basketball before she met me. She’s from Colorado so knew who Carmelo Anthony was, but that’s about the end of her “interest.” She even went to some Nuggets games when she was younger, but says all she did was run around up in the nosebleeds with her brother and didn’t even pay attention to the game. So, meeting me was a bit of a culture shock for her, as basketball is a huge piece of who I am. I grew up playing and continue to play to this day in as many leagues as I can make it to (sometimes against my better judgment, as evidenced by the three stitches I just got two nights ago playing in a City Rec game). I also have coached Freshmen Boys Basketball at the high school I played at for the last seven years, and, if you haven’t figured it out already, basketball consumes about 40 hours of my life per week, when you add in the practices and games of the kids I coach and all the NBA I watch. Surprisingly, I don’t have much interest in NCAA until the tourney starts. I think it’s more out of survival than actual lack of interest, though, as I do love to watch it when I take the time to do it.

The thing about Freshmen Basketball is that it is a different world. First off, there probably isn’t a more awkward time physically. Their mind tells the body to do one thing and the body pretty much does the complete opposite. Multiply that times generally having about 15 guys with somewhat equal playing time, and the games can get a little bit… raw. My team this year is only 2-8, averaging just over 38 points per game (remember, HS games are 32 minutes long, so they aren’t incredibly high scoring, but 50 is a decent scoring goal), and they just don’t have a ton of talent. However, they are great kids who come to practice every day and work hard, stay positive and have shown some signs of life when it comes to finally figuring things out… a little bit. And then Tuesday night rolled around, which was a night where one of the bigger city teams brings their eight best players to our town and, 90% of the time, drills us, even when we have a good team. This year, however, was a little bit different…

FIRST QUARTER

The game did not start how anyone had planned it. My best center, who is actually a somewhat athletic 6’3” kid, was a DNP because of a concussion he got last week. My athletic wingman who generally fills the stat sheet up (for better and worse) was also a DNP because of grades. So, I rolled out a lineup with my backup post (who is actually decent due to the fact he weighs 260 pounds!) and a somewhat goofy wingman who, at times, has played well but hadn’t scored in four straight games. We start out decent, play a competitive first quarter… but deep down I realize that the other team is just not playing well. At the end of the first quarter, the score is tied 11-11. I’m pleased with the results as my regular starters have picked up slack for the two who are out, and a few bench guys have come in and made shots (which is not a common occurrence). We’re playing competitively and are fired up, but it’s only a matter of time.

SECOND QUARTER

Well, the second quarter is not great. The other team finally wakes up and next thing I know it’s 23-12, due to a ton of turnovers by my kids. All the sudden, we’re playing like a 2-8 team and the cracks are really starting to widen up. I call a time out and think of some words of wisdom. Now, I’m not a master coach or anything, and I haven’t coached forever, but I have coached nearly 80 games, so I usually can just take for granted the right things will come out of my mouth. This time, however, all I could muster was 20 seconds of just staring at them and then saying, “Seriously, guys. Let’s have some pride here and stop playing like s**t.”

Two minutes later, we go into halftime down 27-24.

THIRD QUARTER
We were playing well and competing. Then, my backup center gets his third foul two minutes in and now we’re down to the third string guy, who has scored 19 points TOTAL in 10 games up to this point. And let me tell you, the boy goes to WORK. He scores 8 in the third quarter alone, and is just feeling it! The goofy backup wing, who scored 22 points in our first 6 games but hadn’t scored since? Oh yeah, he scores 6 of his own that quarter and keeps us in the game. At the end of the quarter, we have 39 (which, by the way, is only 4 off of our season high) and they have 46. We’re playing hard and hey, we might just have a chance to win this!

FOURTH QUARTER

We trade baskets here and there. Go on a 4-0 run once in a while. With a little over two minutes left, a kid who hasn’t made a shot since November (even in practice) drills a three for us and all the sudden the game is tied. Everybody’s pumped; surprisingly, there are actually about 200 fans at this game, so the gym is rocking. Then they go down and hit a crazy three and we’re down three again. We miss a bunny at the rim, they miss one, we miss one, etc. My third string center is just cleaning the glass, and I decide to just roll with him as he’s playing too well to put the other kid back in. Forty seconds left and they miss a long jumper, we get the rebound down 1… and just throw the ball out of bounds to nobody. No press, no pressure, just literally my forward throwing the ball into the other team’s bench. Nobody in the gym could believe it, including my players. However, amazingly, they covered everyone so well on the following inbounds that we got a 5 second call and got the call back! I had one time out and 25 seconds left, so I thought I would let the play develop and see if something opened up before I burned the time-out, just in case something crazy happened. Suddenly, a driving lane opens up, and, just as suddenly, it closes. I call time-out before disaster happens but, lo and behold, we also have freshmen caliber officials, so the time-out is not granted and we lose possession of the ball out of bounds with 5.1 seconds left.

It’s looking pretty bleak at this point, as the only things we can possibly do are get a steal or force a five second call.

Or… they throw it all the way over the top, out of bonds, giving us the ball back under our own hoop with no time off the clock!

I call my final timeout and set up a play to get a shot at the rim. The score at this point is 52-51. The kids run the play perfectly, we get a shot at the rim… and it rims out. Game over.

…or is it? Somehow, the baseline official (possibly in a make-up for not giving me the time-out earlier) has called a foul on the rebound, sending my third string center to the line for a 1-and-1 with 1.1 seconds remaining. He is a 21% foul shooter on the year, but calmly swishes the first free throw. Then, because it’s the freshmen level, we have a lane violation on the second (of course) and the game goes to overtime tied 52-52.(This scoreboard does not reflect the actual score as I have no real picture; it’s inserted solely for dramatic effect)

OVERTIME

OT starts and ends very well. Essentially, we completely dominate them in the OT and end up winning 63-56. It was clear that the 8 guys they played were not ready to play another four minutes, and three of their starters fouled out. It was awesome. A photo was snapped of the scoreboard, but I can’t seem to link it so let’s roll with this one and pretend it’s the actual one:

The backup wing and third string center combined for 30 points and 17 rebounds.

The moral of the story? After I got home from the game, my fiancé told me this:

“You remember how you told me that every player in the NBA can do well when they’re given minutes? Well, it looks like it applies to your team too!” So, in other words, she has somehow figured out what all Daily Fantasy Players have always known: Never be afraid to take a chance on a bench player when the minutes are there… they are on the team for a reason, after all. Just like my freshmen players, they just might surprise you.