Weekend Notes

I didn’t intend to put this off a day, but Monday ended up including a trip to Bloomington so that kind of messed my routine up. Let’s get to the details of the weekend, which involved a couple rough basketball results.

State Regionals

Well, our girls damn near pulled it off. Saturday they were eight minutes from a huge upset over 3A #1 RHS. They came sooo close to getting it done.

RHS came in with just three losses on the year, two of those were to teams that entered last weekend ranked #1 and #2 in 4A. They beat us by 18 in semistate last year, and returned almost everyone from that team. The computer predicted they would beat us by 11. That seemed generous given how the game started, RHS jumping out to a 9–2 lead. We finally woke up and were down just four at the end of the quarter, and that was with us blowing two layups and missing two free throws.

The second quarter was much better. Even with our best played in her usual foul trouble, we took a momentary lead then went into halftime tied.

The third quarter was even better. We traded punches before going on a run to end the quarter. As the clock ran out we had a WIIIIIIIIDE open look that would have put us up nine. One of our better shooters lined it up and hit the front of the rim. In her defense, she was about four feet behind the 3 point arc, so it was deeper than she normally shoots.

Still, up six going into the fourth quarter on the top team in the state? Hell yes we’ll take that!

Then disaster struck. 90 seconds into the quarter we were down by three. RHS got a (BS) three-point play,[1] forced a five second call, scored again, added a 3, and one more free throw while we were kind of pissing down our legs.

However, we tied it and even took another brief lead before a wild-ass final 90 seconds.

Down four, the sophomore who took L’s place in the rotation got inside and scored. On the other end, RHS’ best player went to the line and, amazingly, missed both free throws. Our sophomore got inside again and was fouled. She returned the favor and missed her free throws, but somehow we got the rebound, tossed it to a wide open girl who laid it in to tie the game with under 30 seconds left.

With 14 seconds left RHS was inbounding under their own basket, and we forced a five second call. Holy shit! We’ve got a shot!

Until we proceeded to shakily break their press and then turn it right back over in the front court. Crap. I felt like I was going to throw up.

RHS missed a shot, there was a battle for the loose ball, and it went out of bounds off us. Their inbounds, under the basket, 1.9 to play. We knew exactly what was coming, as they had run the same play all day, a double screen for their best player to slip to the basket. If we cover her their 6’2” center is on the other side, probably open because of the rotation. It’s a really tough play to defend. After being burned on it a couple times we took a defender off the inbounder and guarded the spot where the roller goes to. For some reason we didn’t do that on this play.

Naturally that was the killer. Their best player got free, rolled to the hoop, and we had to foul her as she tried to lay it in. Two free throws, 0.4 seconds left, this time she did not miss.

52–50 final.

Our girls played their asses off. Ten poor seconds killed us. Or maybe it was those bad 90 seconds to start the fourth quarter. Or the bad two minutes to start the game. A super painful loss, because the win was right there for the taking. Sometimes it’s better to get blown out, I think. Especially when you were the underdog.

As you would expect, it was a rough scene after. Our girls took at least 20 minutes to come out of the locker room, and even then filtered out in ones and twos, everyone with faces red from crying.

When L finally emerged she came directly to us and collapsed into my arms. She was sad about losing. She was sad for the seniors, who is very close with. She was sad she didn’t play. I don’t want to get into it too much, but now that the season was over, she finally let out a lot of negative emotions about why she didn’t play for a month and the person that caused that. I admire the general maturity she’s handled all this with, but was also relieved she actually had some negative emotions about it and was finally letting them out. And it also broke my heart a little bit. She worked so hard to get back after her surgery a year ago, a process that lasted into this season. She had finally settled into a role that while less than what she hoped for, was still as a contributor on a really good team. Then someone else took it away from her and faced no consequences.[2] It was a tough few minutes.

L had plans to hang out with three old travel teammates after the game. One of those girls plays for RHS, which was both awkward and funny. When that girl came over L flipped her two sarcastic birds. A, who also didn’t play, said, “Hey, I didn’t contribute at all!” which made us all laugh. As we were driving home A’s mom sent me a picture that had already posted on the Indianapolis Star’s website of our daughters hugging each other after the game. The contest was tight, tense, and not without controversy.[3] A’s mom posted the picture on Facebook and there were tons of comments about how that picture summed up what sports are all about. It made me happy that L has forged some really tight bonds with girls who play for other schools, and those girls always find a way to hug each other and be nice after the games. I was not that mature at her age.[4]

A 20–7 season is nothing to be ashamed of. Especially when I was worried whether they would be able to win five games after they lost opening night. Indianapolis City champs and sectional champions for the second-straight year. The most wins in over 20 years. Monday L posted tributes to her teammates and titled it Best Year Ever. That was true in many ways.

Now we’re down to summer ball and then 25-ish games next season before our lives as sports parents are complete.

Jayhawk Talk

Well, that was 1000% predictable. KU just knocked off undefeated #1 Arizona Monday in an amazing game that resonated around the college hoops world all week. Iowa State played poorly and lost to TCU on Tuesday. The Jayhawks had pounded the Cyclones when they played a month ago. Throw in another week of silly Darryn Peterson drama as a bonus. I’m not a gambling man, but ISU winning easily Saturday seemed like the easiest bet you could ever make.

KU started well but quickly withered in the face of the ‘Clones pressure defense. It’s like they hadn’t practiced against double teams.

Fortunately I only saw the first half before we left for L’s game, and was focused on high school hoops so didn’t get too worked up about it. Breaking the season into mini runs, KU just finished a stretch at 3–1, including a road win and that Arizona win.

Suddenly just six games left in the regular season. 5–1 would be incredible, 4–2 solid, 3–3 a disappointment.

Sister Time

Not really blog worthy news but M broke up with her boyfriend about a month ago. No further comments about that.

Because of that she was left without a date for her sorority’s Valentine’s Day party. So she invited her little sister from IU. As the party was last Thursday, I drove down to pick C up Wednesday evening. I was surprised there weren’t big, obnoxious banners all over campus celebrating the football team’s national title. That’s what I would have done.

C drove to Cincy on Thursday. Sounds like they had a good time. One of C’s high school buddies is also in M’s house, so she got to hang with her as well. Then Friday she hung out with some other CHS pals who are Bearcats. She drove back Saturday and chilled with us the rest of the weekend.

Her only Monday class is at 3:00 so she asked if I could take her back Monday morning. That was nice as we had some family over Sunday so I wouldn’t have to drive her back late. When she woke up Monday she already had a message from her instructor cancelling class because she had the flu. I think the teacher just wanted to enjoy the day. It was in the mid–60s in B-town and when I dropped C off there were kids scampering about in shorts and t-shirts.

Nice to have C home for a few days. Now that basketball is over, the three sisters have a big thing planned to do together on a weekend when both college girls can be home. I’ll share more about that when it happens.