- Heartbroken 48 hours later. We lost in the first round of the district tournament in unbelieveable fashion.
Down 7 with 2:30 left. Get a stop and a score. Another stop then a missed FT by us. Missed 1-and-1 by them. Missed 1-and-1 by us, we get the offensive rebound and score. Down 3, we get another stop. We're selling out on D every trip, really working our tails off.
Then we almost turn the ball over after a deflection. The ball is loose, my PG dives to the floor to grab the ball, and calls timeout. False! Foul on him. The whole gym is going bonkers and I'm trying not to get a T. Their best player goes to the line and misses the front end. We rebound and head down the floor down 3 with about 35 seconds left.
We're looking to get a quick 2 from our post guy they've been surrounding all night. The skip pass to our best 3 point shooter has been open, but he's tiny so they had been able to really close out him. We skip it to him, he ball fakes, defender goes flying by, and he drains a 3. Tie game. Timeout by them. Our crowd is wild.
They come down and force something to the rim off the dribble, and we come up with a steal. After we have nothing in transition, I call time with 12 seconds left. Tie game.
We run our bread and butter play for our best player, our post player who has 19 and 15 at this point. It's a straight post up with a double screen away from the ball. He gets the ball, but he's been pushed off the block to about 14 feet. He turns and drives instead of taking the midrange jumper that he is capable of making. The defense sets up shop, flop, charge.
2.8 seconds left (at least that's what I'm told because this scoreboard has no tenths of a second on it - it's my old high school gym and the scoreboard is still the same as I played - more on this in a minute). They call timeout to run their end of game hail mary. They line up in a 1-3-1, the old Valpo/Homer Drew play. I put my 6'6 post on the ball because of You Know Why.
They rear back to throw it. My 6'6 guy deflects it/blocks it back out of bounds on the baseline (Thanks Rick!) Now there is 2.2 seconds left - uh oh - and they get in the same alignment. This time my 6'6 guy mis-times the jump for the pass deflection, the ball must have been an inch from the rafters, they run a backpick for the middle guy in the 1-3-1, we switch that well, the pass is on it's way down, and I have a guy in great position to at least knock it out of bounds.
The ball hung in the air for as long as a Reggie Roby punt. I thought for a fleeting moment he may have thrown this thing out of bounds the entire length of the floor and we would get it back under our basket. But it fell. It fell out of the heavens and right on the right block. But still, I had a guy RIGHT THERE to make a play so it's cool.
However, the offensive player waits for my guy to leave his feet, gives him a little nudge that of course wasn't called, and the ball falls right into his hands. I immediately fall to the floor as if someone kicked me right in the gut as he lays it in as the red light on the backboard goes off.
_______ this gay earth.
Imagine a 7 year old UK fan learning the truth about Santa Claus 10 seconds after the '92 Duke game. Then mulitply that heart break 100 times over. Absolutely soul crushing, life questioning shit, boys. We lost to a 20+ win team. We are .500. They were probably 'favored" by 5-7 points, but we always play classics with them. Felt so bad for my kids. First time ever as a coach I had to wait to compse myself before addressing the team after a season ending loss. They deserved better than that.
- I've written this thing out more as therapy rather than have anyone read it. It's honestly the first time I've played it back out like that since Wednesday night. Not sure why I feel the need to put it here. Whatever.
- The gym we played in was my old high school - a county over from where I am now. 4 years ago when the Dist. Tourney was there, we lost in 5 OTs in the opening round game. In November of '13, my mother's funeral was in there - ironically her casket was placed under the basket where that ol' boy made that play Wednesday night - and earlier this year we lost a 1 point game to the old home team.
So, yeah . . . this is why I don't have a gambling problem. When you're snakebit, there's no need to tempt fate.