The Road To Zero Gravity: Accomplishment

It was a long journey, but we'd made it. We'd managed to endure the pains of traffic delays and obnoxious driving long enough to make it to the hotel. It was late. We were tired and hungry but at the same time, excited and ready. We'd worked too hard to let those get in our way. We'd arrive in Foxborough and we were ready to test the best in the nation.

Because of the momentum and confidence we'd gained from our last tournament championship, the practices leading into the tournament were light and the energy was good. In my opinion, there wasn't much we could do - it's like cramming the morning before a final. If you don't know it before then, you won't know it that day unless it happens to be the first page of the test. Sure we had things to fix, clean up, but there was no reinvention that week. Confidence and positive energy were too important, so I did what I could to nurture that. We talked about what this meant for our team specifically. It was about experience and growth. None of us had played on this big a stage, myself included, and I knew there were going to be moments that the stage would possibly get the best of all of us. Win or lose our job was simple. Take in as much as we could so that the next time we found ourselves with that kind of an opportunity, it would be a fair fight with no outside help from nerves. We talked about what it meant for our program. We play together and never quit because that is what we want the Wolfpack to be known for. If we do those two things, nothing else matters.  If we did our jobs, we'd be fine.

When the pools of the tournament were released, I was glad I'd made those points very clear. We were scheduled to play Boston Amateur Basketball Club (BABC), Greater Boston Lions, Central Massachusetts Athletic Club (CMAC), and Visionary Basketball Club (VBC) Gold. The Zero Gravity Circuit ranks teams that participate in their events. All of the aforementioned teams - top 10 in the 8th grade level.

That's a tall order for a team on their first ever national appearance, but we had our goals and we were committed. Sure it was late, and even later once I'd eaten, but I wasn't going to put my guys on this mission without any advantage I could give. I don't scout much for the AAU season (mostly because teams are inconsistent) but this was going to be one time where I would. Late as it was after eating and getting semi-settled, I went and found where these guys were playing and set my alarm to get up in 5 hours and scout. 

Nine o'clock rolled around way too quickly...

However, I was not about to let my guys down and that 9:00 am tip-off found me on the sidelines with a pad and a pen, watching for areas we could look to exploit and give us a fighting chance. I did a pretty good job, I think, of picking up tendencies, strengths and weaknesses of the team as a whole and individual players. You obviously can't change what you do too much, so I took my notes and considered what would be in our realm to  adjust without losing who we'd become over the season. Those were the things we discussed during pregame, and successfully took advantage of on the court.

Our first game was against CMAC and we held our own for the most part. I would definitely attribute that particular loss to nerves and "stage fright" - we struggled to pass and rebound well, and shots we'd come to rely on just wouldn't drop. We did a great job with the scouting adjustments though and we absolutely achieved both goals we'd discussed in practice. We fell to CMAC 79 - 60, but we were still positive, and the guys got together and made their own adjustments to get over the nerves, which was good to see. As I said on last year's trip to Florida, chemistry is something you should  strive to build, because it is invaluable.

Next up was Greater Boston Lions. When I tell you it was like men against boys, I'm not exaggerating.  I knew that, so the message based on the scouting report was simple.

Remember why we're here. We don't quit, we don't go away - we are the Wolfpack. They live on the offensive glass, so let's put a little more effort into making sure they only get one look at a basket each trip.

And that we did. Sure, we got killed on the glass and scoreboard (I think the margin was 30 points), but we had a serious height, strength, and athleticism disadvantage. You could tell by the lack of fans that stayed to watch our game, that we'd been written off by most before the first tick of the clock, but by the end of the game everyone had respect for the Wolfpack. Every possession was a battle. We played with no fear, made sure that every point was earned, and even refused a guy his highlight dunk (it wasn't a dirty foul, but the message was clear - "No, No, No" <insert Dikembe montage>).  After that game, I made sure to have a moment with my team. I called the parents over to listen as well, because what was about to happen needed to be heard by everyone. I told them how proud of them I was because of the tenacity they played with that morning. I've coached teams that absolutely would have packed it in when they realized it was David versus Goliath. There was none of that, and everyone respected them more for it, myself included. The parents and I gave them all a round of applause as we were all proud of how far the team had come during our time together and these games were a perfect reward for the persistence, patience, and determination they'd shown.

The last game of the day was against VBC Gold. The mood was still upbeat. The energy was sky high. Sure we'd had a rough morning, but you wouldn't have known it looking at anyone. We were playing great basketball and challenged good teams. Why should we be upset? We took the court and blew everyone's doors off. Each game from the morning had stuck with them, and we were definitely learning from our games. Execution was on point, defense was suffocating, and before you knew it we were up 20 point on VBC. They didn't know what to do, as subs were flying in and out like I'd never seen before. They never recovered and we won by more than 20.  We were playing such great basketball, I didn't care what the score was. No one did. The parents were in awe - this was the same team that had so many struggles to move the ball just two months ago? That team just continued to earn respect, and it definitely helps morale when you are able to throttle the #7 team in a national ranking. It took a few hours to come down off of that cloud and go to sleep that night.

Our last game of the tournament was against BABC. If we thought the Lions game was a men against boys game, this was like men against toddlers. Their guards were as tall as our bigs! They had 3 guys dunking during warmups - we have two guys who barely touch rim. Easily outmatched, but we stayed true to our goals and did what we could to frustrate them, but they did a great job using their size to win by 40.

All in all, it was a great tournament and everyone was proud of the job the boys had done. No one left with their head down, and there was no bitter words exchanged. Sure we didn't have a record that people who didn't see the games would respect, but we knew the deal and we weren't upset. We got our taste of the big time, and next time we'll be better prepared. We'll be bigger, faster, stronger and smarter, and then it will be our turn to shine. At the start of the season, no one would have picked us to even get to this tournament, let alone compete with teams in the top 10. If you can't find joy in that, you aren't a competitor. We did what we set out to do, and could proudly say: Mission accomplished!