Hoop-It-Up Dallas Part II

Team Name: Vanilla
No secret why we named ourselves vanilla. We were made up of four white guys in a heavy black population.

Rusty – He has played in every HIU with me except one in which I played in San Antonio. Rusty was my college room mate when I attended Howard Payne. When he is in shape, there aren’t too many better players that I have played along. The problem – he hasn’t played basketball in 3 years (so he told me). He just started running months ago, so he was in a little bit of shape but as you know basketball shape it completely different from any other shape. The thing that makes Rusty so great is that he can shoot lights out. He has a shooting touch most people dream about having.

Kevin – He was Rusty’s high school assistant coach. He is in his late 30’s and also a great shooter. I played along side Kevin in two other HIU’s and this was our third tour together. When Kevin catches fire from outside, you can pretty much write it up as a victory.

Ryder – I met Ryder approx. 15 minutes before our first game. He is a friend of Kevin’s, and we needed a 4th guy. He was 6’2, a little lighter than me. Could jump pretty high. He knew his role on the team. He didn’t have to do much. He got rebounds, shot when he was open, didn’t force the issue. He was our Fabricio Oberto.

Myself – In a normal gym game I would play the point forward. I can take up the ball if needed, but enjoy playing on the wing along side a good point guard and running the floor. I can shoot from outside, but it’s not my biggest strength. Passing, playing down low, and slashing to the basket are my biggest assets. Since we already had two great shooters, there was no need for me to play outside. I planned on playing on the low block all weekend long despite the size of my opponents.

There were 24 teams in our division that were divided into 6 different pools. The top two seeds of each pool made it to the championship bracket on Sunday. They also made a consolation bracket so everyone had the opportunity to play on Sunday. The Sunday brackets were win or go home style. No double elimination or guarantees of a second game.

Our first game was at 9:30 in the morning on Saturday. I personally always hate the first game. You get about 2 minutes of warming up between the game prior and the start of your game. This is with 7 or 8 guys trying to shoot at one basket with maybe two b-balls being used. This isn’t very practical when trying to get used to the elements (wind, sun, rim, backboard, etc). Speaking of elements…the three point line (or two point line in HIU talk) was about 12 feet from the basket. It was definitely not the whole 18 feet like a normal basket. This also took some getting used to…especially since we had two three point specialist all shooting with their legs making their shots go WAY long.
Needless to say we didn’t shoot well that first game at all. We ended up ending the game in a tie. 14-14. The rule for a tie was OT going to 2. You play all your games by 1’s and 2’s, so a two pointer wins it right away. I scored a lay-up and then they missed a three. The proceeding play killed the game. We got the rebound, cleared the ball, and had a wide open shot in the middle of the court. Kevin went up for a little floater expecting to get fouled. The guy punches Kevin in the stomach so blantly that he actually apologizes to Kevin right after wards. The ref didn’t blow his whistle…The rest of us were shell shocked and watched as they cleared the ball and jacked up a three to win it.
We lost by one.

Our second game was against some Latino flava. They had one big boy that was probably 6’3 250. We were kinda scared at first and trying to figure out how to play him. We quickly found out that he was soft! I was able to post him up at will, and even get a couple blocks against him. We killed this team 20-10. Rusty and Kevin both found their range. And we hit at least 7 two pointers this game.

Third and final game of the day. We found out earlier in the day that if we won we would be in a three way tie for first. All the teams beat the team that we beat 20-10, and the team we were about to play beat the team that beat us. So if we won, we would be in a three way tie with 2-1 records. When this happens that go to point difference. The Team we were about to play won their game against Team A by 4. So if we won and beat them by at least 4 we would get the 1st seed and get a bye the first round on Sunday. (meaning getting to sleep in an hour later and resting one more game.) Well this game was our toughest all day. They were physical, and had one good shooter. We were in a battle. Rusty started off hot. We went up 11-6. Then they came back and tied it up 11-11. Then I caught fire and made 5 straight post up moves around the basket. They battled back yet again and we were going back and forth. It was tied 18-18 with about 30 seconds left. We called a timeout and Kevin says, “if I get a look I’m shooting”. We proceeded to talk about setting a back pick on my guy which would make them collapse on me underneath leaving Kevin open outside. This worked to perfection. Kevin set a hard pick and I took both the defenders with me. Kevin got the ball at the top of the key and drained a two pointer to win it.

So since we lost our one game by 1 point and the other team lost their one game by 4 points we got the second seed.

*Stay Tuned for Sunday’s action.