Well The last post talked about how basketball was not life. I still hold true to that but basketball and life are very similar sometimes. Both have their ins and outs, ups and downs. Being a player or coach, at any sport, can really teach you so much about life in general. I have always believed this. Some of the greatest life lessons can be taught through sports.
In basketball, just like in life, things seems to be going so well. Everything is coming together and you just seem like you are on top of the world, only to soon fall into a hole. That has been the experience this past week or so. We went to Colorado and pulled off an amazing game. We have 5 players in double digits scoring, shot 33/34 from free throw line and finally pulled in out in OT. It was a great win. The girls (and the coaches) were pumped. It was great to go that far and play in that atmosphere and pull it out. Otherwise it would have been a very loooooong plane ride home. The down side to that is that we lost one of our best outside shooters in the first half to a sprained ankle. Everyone was disappointed but that all pulled together as any good family should, stuck in out and made it happen.
Then we turn to our Wednesday game. It was a close to a must win game as we could get. It could basically seal our faint for the playoff picture and would give us a 3 game win streak. It wasn't that offense this time as in Colorado but rather our lights out defense that would eventually win this one. We were able to hold them to an amazing 16 points and 25% shooting in the first half and our revamped defensive strategy was obviously giving them fits. With the defense rooted in, our offense picked it up just a notch in the second half to ensure the victory. It was beautiful to watch. That was probably the best overall team ball I have seen them play since California, if not the entire season. It was nice just sitting there watching the beautiful basketball symphony play out before us. I left there thinking we were finally hitting our stride for the season and at the right time too. We were to play the same team again on Saturday and everyone was looking forward to it.
Saturday everyone was decked out in their pink as it was our Play 4 Kay breast cancer awareness game. This seemed to make the atmosphere a little more jacked up and the crowd was a little bigger and louder than usual. I had a good feeling as our girls took the floor. I just knew that after the last game tonight was bound to be something special to watch. I was wrong. If Wednesday had been a beautiful symphony, than this was a heavy metal night mare. Despite our starting point guard scoring a game high 34 points and really putting on a clinic, we could do nothing right. Our defense was almost none existent most of the game. There were a few moments of brilliance and comebacks. With about 4 minutes to go we were down by about 15 and came back to tie it. Then it went back and both for awhile and we made a bit of a run and I thought we might just pull it out. With the extra loud crowd rooting hard the girls made a valiant effort but in the end just didn't have enough as our defensive legs gave out and and the opposition made one final push to take the victory
Through it all I think or at least hope the girls learned a very valuable lesson for both basketball and life -- No matter how well things may go when faced with a certain opposition, the next time you face that same opposition, it is not a given that things will go the same way. You have to continue to be at your best all the time in order to insure you get the same or better results.
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