In Eckleburg's Eyes - 3/4/2009, Part 2

News & Notes from Monday, March 2nd, 2009, Part 2

-On Monday night, my new (and hopefully improved) basketball team debuted in the Slow Break basketball league at the Central Baptist Church of Bearden. There were three games on this night (the league has expanded to six team) and my team played in the last game at 8:30 PM. Since it was the first night, much of my team was there for all three games. (Note: At my request, ALK took all the photos in this post. Thanks, Bart!)

-In the opening game, GLO’s team beat MBR’s team, scoring 55 en route to winning a close game. The game marked the return of PDR to the church league after a season off. In the middle game, SES’s crew beat MEB’s team 41-34. MEB fielded a squad after sitting out last season.

-Also returning to the league were the Bearden High School football coaches captained by MHF. They would be our opponents on this night. They had not changed much. In fact my guys occasionally became confused as to who they were guarding as all of the players had the same massive, stocky build. (Like Silver King, do not be fooled by their stocky physiques.) At one point when PCR checked out of the game he attempted to tell his teammate who he was guarding by indicating the player by his camouflage cargo shorts. He quickly amended his statement adding the adjective “darker” as there was more than one person playing basketball in camouflage cargo short!. Bruce Pearl never had this problem!

-My team has eight players, six of whom played on last season’s squad: JTH, JAH, JTL, JDM, PCR, and MPW. Our two new players are PCR’s friend and point guard extraordinaire BS and my long time friend WCM (shooting). I was overly excited to see WCM. I acted like a teenage girl at the sight of MPW.

-We played well all things considered. WCM and BS had played in games in other leagues earlier in the night and JTH was limited to just a few minutes as he was suffering from sinus and bronchial infections. The game was tied at 27 at the half but the hosses pulled away and eventually won 51-47. Despite once again losing by six points or less, it was a very different scenario than last season. We were the team making a run at the end of the game.

-I face a big challenge in creating a substitution pattern with this team. All eight of the guys on the team are great guys who can play. I am tempted to bench WCM just so I can hear his commentary from the bench. He consoled PCR on a foul call noting that he probably would have gotten the jump ball call had he not applied a headlock. As MHF set a pick and then proceeded to walk his man across the court, he commented that he was pretty sure that was illegal. At one point he turned to me and said, “Oh, we shoot three’s.” He assessed our team really quickly.

-WCM confessed that it would take four of him to move one of them and left vowing to try to gain sixty pounds before the next match up with the team! That will be on April 20th.

-We will have to play only two teams twice, one of which is these ogres. It is not the draw I would have chosen. My guys get bruised in this match up. The only advantage is the forced cordiality. The opposing team hates me and in church has to be affable. I am not used to being hated (at least not in this situation) and I find the atmosphere somewhat amusing.

-I will give them credit. They came prepared with a devotional (from an Upward booklet). This is good. After playing Florida (and winning I might add) the previous day, it would have been hard not to do an environmental devotional based upon Nick Calathes’ hair’s effect on the ozone layer. (If you are not familiar with Calathes, think Zack Morris circa 1991. If you are not familiar with Zack Morris, I pity you.)

-After the game, JTH, ALK, JDM, ANDR, PCR, and I ate at Applebees. We were exhausted and the conversation was minimal. The food and service (AFH) was good. The only problem came when it took many, minutes to leave when the credit card machine broke.