Well, we've got the first round of the Summer 2024 season over, so it's on to the semifinals this week and the championship games on August 25th. Here are some of the highlights (and at least one lowlight):
--Cool Arrows and Sleeper Squad put on quite a show in a Division III showdown. The Arrows (try not to pronounce their two-word name as one word; someone might slap you) jumped out to a big lead in the first half, but it was cut to six at the half. Sleeper Squad actually surged ahead in the second half and looked to be cruising, but the Cool Arrows came back to grab a tight three-point win.
--In a turn of events that can only be described as shocking, Average Joes, the top seed in Division II, lost by forfeit to Most Hated. Average Joes has 11 guys on their roster, although a couple are out with injuries. That leaves nine. Apparently, five of them had the same thought, that being, "Oh, I know it's the playoffs, but I'll just blow off the week. I'm sure everybody else will show up." According to the Vegas odds, they had an 83% chance of winning their Division, but they're out of the playoffs. A wise person once said that 90 percent of life is just showing up.
--David Cuen and Dom Banks ref the late games on Mountain (Rob's Court). They're both outstanding ballers, but each one is quieter that the other. They had an easy night going until it got to the 7:00 game. Then, Wolves and Storm had a great game, with Wolves winning, 79-76. The next game went right down to the buzzer, with the 76ers pulling out a 56-55 win over APEX.
-- Make your free throws! That will be the motto for Below The Rim next season after they went 4-14 from the line in a 50-44 loss to Frosty Hesson.
--The craziest action was on Skippy's Court (CTG). Among the scores on that court:
Showtime 70, Rogue One 68
Air Jesus 69, Blue Coconuts 63
4PF 47, The Bullockz 45
Shoot Your Shot 42, Seasoned Veterans 38
Aztecas 59, Swoosh 55
Bob Ross In The Paint 70, ATG 68
An apology and an explanation: You know how they say that no good deed goes unpunished? Here's the latest example. As many of you know, I let some young guys ref a couple games during the regular season. Each has a story. One is the son of a woman whom I coached in basketball back around the turn of the century. Another is a nice young man whose girlfriend is one of my scorekeepers. (I'm trying desperately get her to DUMP THAT DUDE, to no avail. As a girls basketball coach, I would greatly prefer that the total number of boyfriends--or, this being the 21st Century, girlfriends--to be zero at all times. There are only 24 hours in the day and that's not enough for studies, basketball, the de rigueur one hour for TikTok, and romance.)
The third guy is heading off to college out of state this week on a basketball scholarship. He came to me at the start of the Summer season and asked if he could ref a few games so that he could have some extra money when he went off to college. As with the other two, I told him that he could ref a few games, but only with an experienced ref who could cover for his more egregious blunders. And, as always, I told him that he would be done once the playoffs commenced. No way that we can have a rookie reffing a playoff game.
Then, three of my regulars went out of town for the weekend. Against my better judgment, I told the young man that he could do three games on his final Sunday in Tucson and that I would do them with him. The second game was close and intense. As sometimes happens, somebody said something (something that an experienced ref would have shrugged or laughed off) and the young guy...reacted badly. I won't go into details; it was just a lot of unnecessary loud-talking. The adults calmed down quickly, but it took quite a while to talk the ref down, which is weird. He's a nice young man, comes from a good family. He's got no reason to try to be hard, especially in that situation. Plus, I think that at least one of my scorekeepers could probably beat his ass.
When we sat down after the game, I told him the old Richard Pryor line: "You don't get to be old bein' no fool. There's a whole lot of young 'wise' men, they deader'n a motherf----."
I don't know if he learned anything, but I sure did. No rookie refs again in the playoffs, EVER! And I apologize to the League for going against one of my biggest rules.
Finally, we had a team last week that exhibited some boorish behavior at the end of their win. For 37 years, our unofficial motto has been "This Ain't The Park." The very first season, Summer of 1988, we only had eight teams and we weren't guaranteed to have a second season. But I kicked one of those teams out because their players all acted like they had no mamas. I've only kicked out a few teams over the years, but I will damn sure do it again, if need be. I'll be reffing the aforementioned team's game this coming Sunday. I'm expecting them to be on their best behavior.
Good luck in the semifinals.