Friday, November 29, 2013

Don't beat yourself

If Podunk High School plays UCLA, the result is a foregone conclusion because UCLA has vastly greater talent. Sometimes the other team beats you, and there is nothing you can do about it. What I hate to see, though, is teams that beat themselves - by not hustling, but not concentrating and being focused, by being out of position, by stupid turnovers, by pointless fouls, by a hundred different ways that can easily be avoided - in short by not playing good basketball.

One of the things that makes college more enjoyable than college football is the likelihood of upsets. Since there are fewer people involved, it is much more likely that those few for the little guy may get hot and win the game. What I particularly love to see are smaller schools with a good coach (teacher) who just play good, fundamental basketball and sometimes beat the fancy-Dan, big money schools who can blow people away with their talent, but who are undisciplined and uncaring. Sometimes those big schools will beat themselves, and it is a huge amount of fun to watch.

There is no shame in getting beat. There is a lot of shame in beating yourself.

No comments: