Sunday was the 8th game of my son’s basketball season; they were 7-0 going into the game. The team they would face was middle of the road I’d say, as far as their conference goes; certainly not one of the worst teams, definitely not better than our team. Should be an easy W… but, one of his classmates had a birthday party/sleepover the day/night before the game… how would the boys react the following afternoon after a late night of “partying”???
I chuckle… think about the movie Casino… and how inside information like this could make all the difference when placing a wager on a game. Of course, we’re talking grammar school basketball; no lines on these games… haha. Now if we were talking high school football in the state of Ohio, well… I’m sure you could find somebody to take your money; I’m sure Ohio isn’t alone in this regard. But yeah, grammar school?!?! I make fictitious lines in my head for my son’s team; they almost always win and cover them. I was joking with one of the dads when we were watching the 8th graders play; I made an “in-game” line that came down to the last seconds… haha. I need to entertain myself when watching my son play, because the games are mostly blowouts. I like to play up stuff in the pre-game car ride to make it interesting; have to keep these boys, especially my son, motivated. Still waiting for some tough competition; there are some 7th grade specific tourneys coming later this year. That should be good.
In the meantime, back to this Sunday’s game. The opponent did have a really good player… player, singular, which unfortunately for the other teams, is nowhere near enough to beat this juggernaut in the conference that my son’s team is. Would all the boys being tired change this? It started off like many of my son’s games over the past couple years; the boys were playing bad… sometimes, they are slow starters, yet… when you look up at the scoreboard, we’re up by 10 points… playing our D+ game… My son was definitely hurting; he didn’t look himself. We knew that going in; told him this would have to be his “flu game”… haha… wasn’t exactly that, but he did supply the best moment of the game.
It was still relatively close just before halftime, when my son came away with a loose ball. With the final seconds of the half ticking away, he had to let it fly, and did so, right at the halfcourt line. If I’m mentioning this, then you know what the result of that shot was… BAM! It went in, and the gym went crazy… it was lovely. Unfortunately, my son still looked like he wanted to throw up; he didn’t play one minute of the second half, but it wasn’t needed. He hit the half court shot before the half, and took a seat as his team put the gas pedal down, and eventually ended up with another 30 point win.
8-0 so far, but of course, 8 is definitely not enough for this team. It’s championship or bust really; at this point, the undefeated season is certainly in play, which would be the 3rd consecutive year. I really only see the two future tourneys as potential roadblocks for the boys; I’m really interested to see how those turnout. In the meantime, continuing to take care of business, regardless of the circumstances, is the name of the game; beat who is on your schedule. Keep going boys!
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