A Very Emotional Saturday

This Saturday was arguably the most emotional day for me since Election Day 2006 when Joe Donnelly won his Congressional seat. It was a day that I will never forget.

On Saturday, my basketball team traveled to Zionsville for it's "B Team" Invitational. It was a four team single elimination tournament and in the first round we drew a very good team that had beaten us by over 20 points one month earlier. However, I knew that we were a different team from the last time we played them. We had just come off of two very convincing wins plus our game psychology had been getting better with each passing day. As dad always says, "There is a difference between playing basketball and playing the game."

With that in mind, I shared with our team a week prior to the tournament that my goal was to win the invitational. They had worked so hard and come such a long way since November that I knew we were capable of being competitive. As usual, the night before the invitational was a very difficult one for me as I absolutely could not wait for the games to begin.

Saturday morning could not come quick enough as I spent most of my day and evening watching game film in hopes of finding just the right strategy for our first game. After watching the same game at least 10 times over the course of the night, I had completely lost track of time. It was 3 o'clock in the morning and I had to get up in two hours so I "quit early and called it half a day" as a former President once put it.

Before the game started, I reminded the players that it would be a physical game but that we could not allow intimidation to be a factor. In what became a recurring theme this day, the games would be decided by who wanted it more.

In the first half of our first game, our bench rose to the occasion. We had some early foul troubles with a couple of our players so we had to go to our bench so that our starters would not pick up their third and fourth fouls. Our defense also picked up in this game. For a good part of the season, I have been expressing the importance of talking on defense and they picked the best time to begin doing so. Not only does it help from a communication standpoint but it picks up the intensity of a defense like few things can.

It was a total team effort and I could not have been happier with them as we were only down two points at halftime. The team was also excited especially with the job they had done on defense. In fact, one of my player's said, "That was fun," when I asked them about how it felt to finally talk on defense. Before we left the locker room, I asked them, "Who wants it more?" In response, I heard "We do!"

The second half was much like the first half except that we were able to stay out of foul trouble. It ended in a 10-10 tie which set us up for our second overtime game of the year as we only allowed four points in the second half. It was a very low scoring game overall. It wasn't that our offense was playing terrible though. We had created an abundance of good shots but we just were not able to convert on them. It set up the two most memorable overtime periods I have ever seen as a coach.

The first overtime was a difficult pill to swallow as we could not convert on offense. Luckily, our defense was at its best as our opponents did not score as well. As the period ended, we were in uncharted territory as we headed toward the second overtime. All we needed to do was to keep playing the game our way by continuing to pressure them on defense while patiently waiting for our shots to fall. There was really only one thing to say, or in this case ask. "Who wants it more?" Again, I heard, "We do!"

The second overtime was beginning to shape up like the first one did as both teams struggled to put any points on the board but halfway through one of my players was sent to the free throw line for two shots. As she stepped to the line, I tried to rest my voice and began consuming my third bottle of water because I was so tense. My player, as cool as a cucumber, stepped up and ripped both free throws to give us a lead for the first time in the game.

We now had the daunting task of protecting it. Our good fortunes continued as the defense held firm while we were able to clear the ball out on the rebound instead of getting tied up in a jump ball. We patiently walked the ball up the court as we needed not be in a rush with our two point lead. All we had to do was work the ball around and wait for them to foul or put the ball in the basket if a good shot arose. We did exactly that as the same girl who hit the two free throws earlier drilled a jumper that would put the game out of reach as we won 14-10 in double overtime.

The locker room was electric as we had just played the best and most exciting game of the season. On the outside, I tried to remain calm as we still had one game to go and we needed to rest especially after such an emotional win. On the inside, I was ready to jump out of my skin as my team had finally played up to their potential and won a very close game against a very good team.

During the break, the team wanted to go get lunch somewhere so we headed to McDonald's as it was the nearest place possible. I am sure that health experts will shriek at the very idea of going to McDonald's but it turned out to be the best thing for us as it gave our team a chance to go over our plays with what has now become the famous "French Fry Diagrams." Forget basketball camps, just go to McDonald's and order some french fries and chicken McNuggets. It worked like a charm. Afterward, we headed back to the school to play in the Championship game.

We were all pretty emotionally and physically drained so I spent a good part of the first half subbing the girls in and out. I wanted to give them a chance to rest as they had just played six quarters of high intensity basketball just four and a half hours earlier. Even though our ball handling was a little sloppy, we held a five point lead at halftime. I can definitely say that I was a little calmer this time. All we needed to do was take care of the ball and we would be able to prevail.

After such an emotional win like the one we experienced, most coaches will expect a let down in the next game. That turned out not to be the case as our offense, which had been held in check all day, exploded in the second half for our best performance of the season. Every player contributed and it was a beauty to watch especially to see the smiles on their faces with each basket scored. On the other side of the ball, our "chatter box" defense was at its best which led to a couple of kids from the other school in the stands yelling at us to quiet it down. To them it might have been a nuisance but it was music to our ears.

The game ended with us way ahead. As they have done all year, they handled it with class as they wished the other team a good game and graciously accepted the trophy. I was beaming. As I said before and told them after the game before the pictures began, I was so very proud of them for the strides they had made and for their efforts. It was the perfect end to a very emotional Saturday that I will never forget.