Gamesmanship and the end of a basketball career
Posted: Mon Feb 29, 2016 10:22 am
Li'l Spock's high school basketball career ended on Saturday in a 12 point loss to arch-rival Battle Lake. So he is a little pensive right now. The adults in his life (parents/grandparents etc) all know that he needs to become a coach in the future as his life will never be complete without basketball playing a role-it is who he is and what he loves-he is a student of the game. It may take him a little while to figure that out-but hopefully he gets there.
We had been down by 27 late in the 2nd half and closed it to 9 or 10. but there was just not enough time to finish, but we got to see them get worried. Our best player was out with an injury (Not an excuse, just a fact.). Our two teams have a lot of respect for the other and they genuinely seem to like each other.
Li'l Spock scored the last 5 points and had the best move of his career on his last basket. He usually doesn't have moves-just known as a 3-point shooter.
Per Battle Lake-The best way to describe this team is that they have caught lightning in a bottle-a large group of very athletic cousins has been coming through their program for the relevant years of Li'l Spock's career. Barring an injury last year in the state tournament and a key player(not a cousin) caught with Marijuana the year before they most likely compete for state championship at some point.
Recent Rivalry History
Regular season last year-we lost by a bunch
Regular season this year-we won by 3.
Post-season last year-lost but were within 5 with under a minute to go. Earlier in the second half we had been within 4 and they started to panic,but pulled away again. We were also without our best player in that game (same guy as this year) and while I hate the term-I have to describe it as a Moral Victory.
This year was also a moral victory-at least we didn't lose by 30 and the kids and fans had the fun of shaving 18 points of the lead.
Gamesmanship
Last year one of their key players was injured with about 2 weeks left of the season and they put out that he would not be ready for our game-but probably the one after. Obviously, he was back for our game and that hurt the mindset of our team. I was not surprised that he played against us and I am not entirely sure why our coach was not ready for that surprise.
I have no problems with that gamesmanship-It was our fault for not being totally ready for it.
Obviously, I am biased, but IMHO, this year's iteration skirts a little closer to the ethical edge.
Their best player hurt his Achilles tendon in football. He is also a track star and has a track scholarship. From Day one they put out that there was no way he would play basketball this year and track was also very unlikely.
However, I always had, in the back of my mind, that he might be back and so just was not surprised when he came off the bench about a minute into the game and lit up their fans and bench and took us by surprise once again.
Everything above is "All is Fair" type deal and I have no problem with it. However, there is one other factor that really ticks Mrs. Spock off and took this to a whole other level.
.
Injured player did not play all year-except for the last minute of a regular season game against the worst team in the area. His mother put the video on Facebook and writes "T's senior basketball season, it's all we've got but we're sooooo thankful!!" Through various shares and so forth-all the relevant people from other teams are going to see that video
In that game-"T" basically stayed on the offensive end of the court and stayed in one place and shot 2 3's. It looked like he could barely walk.
Then 10 days later (or so) he comes into a big tournament game(they needed him against us) and plays at about 75%-his 75% is far better than anybody else's 100 %. Li'l Spock really likes him and helped him off the floor a couple times and here is the kicker.
"T" told him that he could have come back sooner, but he needed a special brace or something. Given the time lines-That FB video from his mom kind of feels a little "Icky."
As I said, I was not surprised(or even upset), but per Li'l Spock-our coach seemed to be surprised again.
We had been down by 27 late in the 2nd half and closed it to 9 or 10. but there was just not enough time to finish, but we got to see them get worried. Our best player was out with an injury (Not an excuse, just a fact.). Our two teams have a lot of respect for the other and they genuinely seem to like each other.
Li'l Spock scored the last 5 points and had the best move of his career on his last basket. He usually doesn't have moves-just known as a 3-point shooter.
Per Battle Lake-The best way to describe this team is that they have caught lightning in a bottle-a large group of very athletic cousins has been coming through their program for the relevant years of Li'l Spock's career. Barring an injury last year in the state tournament and a key player(not a cousin) caught with Marijuana the year before they most likely compete for state championship at some point.
Recent Rivalry History
Regular season last year-we lost by a bunch
Regular season this year-we won by 3.
Post-season last year-lost but were within 5 with under a minute to go. Earlier in the second half we had been within 4 and they started to panic,but pulled away again. We were also without our best player in that game (same guy as this year) and while I hate the term-I have to describe it as a Moral Victory.
This year was also a moral victory-at least we didn't lose by 30 and the kids and fans had the fun of shaving 18 points of the lead.
Gamesmanship
Last year one of their key players was injured with about 2 weeks left of the season and they put out that he would not be ready for our game-but probably the one after. Obviously, he was back for our game and that hurt the mindset of our team. I was not surprised that he played against us and I am not entirely sure why our coach was not ready for that surprise.
I have no problems with that gamesmanship-It was our fault for not being totally ready for it.
Obviously, I am biased, but IMHO, this year's iteration skirts a little closer to the ethical edge.
Their best player hurt his Achilles tendon in football. He is also a track star and has a track scholarship. From Day one they put out that there was no way he would play basketball this year and track was also very unlikely.
However, I always had, in the back of my mind, that he might be back and so just was not surprised when he came off the bench about a minute into the game and lit up their fans and bench and took us by surprise once again.
Everything above is "All is Fair" type deal and I have no problem with it. However, there is one other factor that really ticks Mrs. Spock off and took this to a whole other level.
.
Injured player did not play all year-except for the last minute of a regular season game against the worst team in the area. His mother put the video on Facebook and writes "T's senior basketball season, it's all we've got but we're sooooo thankful!!" Through various shares and so forth-all the relevant people from other teams are going to see that video
In that game-"T" basically stayed on the offensive end of the court and stayed in one place and shot 2 3's. It looked like he could barely walk.
Then 10 days later (or so) he comes into a big tournament game(they needed him against us) and plays at about 75%-his 75% is far better than anybody else's 100 %. Li'l Spock really likes him and helped him off the floor a couple times and here is the kicker.
"T" told him that he could have come back sooner, but he needed a special brace or something. Given the time lines-That FB video from his mom kind of feels a little "Icky."
As I said, I was not surprised(or even upset), but per Li'l Spock-our coach seemed to be surprised again.
