As I have said (too many times), this has been a tough season, scheduling wise. A weird date for Easter, club volleyball and indoor soccer eating away at available courts, and WAY too many byes. I promise you that next Winter season will be different, better. One easy solution would be to have games that start at 8:00 a.m. and/or 9:00 p.m. We used to do that all the time, but we eventually shortened the League day. (There was a time when we had the League at the Boys & Girls Club near El Rio that we would go 8:00 a.m. until midnight! We had games that would start at 11:00 p.m. and teams would show up to play! It was like Late Night Hoops. Don't worry, there will be no 11:00 p.m. games at the current venue.
We don't have to worry about it in the Summer or Fall seasons. There is no club volleyball, so that frees up the two side courts from 12:00 - 6:00. That's 12 extra games, 24 extra teams playing each Sunday. That helps a lot.
I will again the fact that the later we go in the season, the better we get at scheduling close games. That's always the goal. Last week, we had scores of 51-48, 65-63, 54-52, 55-53, 75-73, 53-50, 67-65, and 45-44. That's magnificent. That 45-44 game was wild. Runnin' Rebels 2.0 held a 10-point lead with a couple minutes left before Hickory mounted a spirited challenge. Matt Swinford drove the length of the floor and scored on a short jumper at the buzzer for Hickory. A couple of the Rebels weren't happy, but one of their players had had a one-and-one with seven seconds left and had missed the front end, so, you know...
It was a mostly good weekend for Hickory's Bob Krieger. He has a degree from Purdue and through his affiliation with that University, he was able to get some good, relatively inexpensive tickets for the Final Four. He got to be there for the Boilermakers' win on Saturday, played in Hickory's big win on Sunday, and then I don't know what he did on Monday.
During the regular season, I will occasionally call one-and-one late in a game that is getting heated just to calm things down and prevent any hard fouling. But please know that during the playoffs, everything will be called the way it is supposed to. Seven fouls for a one-and-one. Shot clock inside two minutes. We want the playoff experience to be great for everyone.
Finally, I know that there are many of you who haven't played in a couple weeks and I'm sorry. Darn that Resurrection! But the playoffs have to be run a certain way, with an expanded number of brackets and an emphasis on playing as many games as possible on the big courts. I beg your indulgence. Thanks.