Halftime of game #2, where a bunch of Australians are absolutely destroying a San Diego State team that The Sporting News picked to win the Mountain West conference. They were up 20 when ESPN switched over, and they're up 21 now. I feel like this game was over before the UCLA game.
Long, Unnecessary Tangent #2: San Diego State is coached by Steve Fisher, who coached Michigan to the national championship in 1989. I think the highlight of his coaching career, though, came ten years later when he watched me play AAU basketball.
The greatest player I ever played against was a guy named Michael Southall, a 6'10", freakishly athletic center who played for one of our rival schools (I once played pickup ball with future Vikings running back Michael Bennett, but I don't think he was taking it real seriously, so we're not counting that). He was one of maybe three black players in our conference, and he may as well have come from another planet. He was definitely the only player in Western Wisconsin who had D-I scouts come see him play in meaningless summer games. And so, Steve Fisher got to watch me try to guard a guy who has a DraftExpress page. It should have been a massacre.
From the beginning, though, it was obvious that Southall didn't care AT ALL. I scored 8 points in the first half, pinned one of his shots against the backboard, and basically convinced myself that I could hang with this guy.
Then, early in the second half, we were lined up for a free throw. His team was shooting. He looked over at me and said, "He's gonna miss, I'm going to get the rebound, and I'm going to score." And, sure enough, the guy missed. I boxed Southall out as well as I could, but he basically jumped over me, grabbed the ball, and dunked it in my face before I even knew what was going on. This series of events may have cost me a scholarship to San Diego State (or Michigan, or Georgia Tech, or Pitt ... those were the coaches watching the game that day). That, and the fact that I could barely dunk a basketball, later lost my starting spot on the team, and wound up averaging something like 3.5 points for a mediocre team in a mediocre conference. Those reasons probably had something to do with it as well.
Southall's story is either tragic, or comic, depending on how well you knew him. He originally committed to Kentucky, but lost his scholarship when he got in trouble with the law. What happened was this: he and some friends made a videotape of them with like a pound of marijuana, rolling joints by the dozen, weighing up baggies, and basically explaining how to sell drugs. They then left this tape in a subway restuarant, where a cop found it.
Of course, being ridiculously talented, Southall just moved on to Georgia Tech. Before he ever played a game, he was stopped by police walking down the street with an open container. When searched, it turned out he had like $1,000 worth of various drugs on him. So he lost that scholarship, too.
But you get more chances when you're Michael Southall. He wound up at Louisiana-Lafayette, played very well, was named first-team all-conference in the Sun Belt, and apparently had his life back on track. Then ... something happened. I have no idea what. But he violated his probation and spent a decent amount of time in jail.
I don't want to psychoanalyze the guy. Maybe he had problems, but I never saw them. He was always nice to me, said hi between games at tournaments, cracked jokes, seemed like a cool guy to hang out with. His dad went to my parents' church. It's not like he came from the ghetto or anything. And yet, just did a lot of dumb things and got caught. Over and over again.
The happy ending, I guess, is this: Southall is now playing pro ball in Switzerland, averaging a double-double. I hope things work out for the guy.
And that, I guess, is what you talk about as San Diego State cuts the lead from 21 ... to 17.
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I had a similar experience in a spring league game. These were the games with the 20 minute running clock per half where the coaches weren't allowed to coach.
ReplyDeleteI was a 6'5", 140 lb sophomore who had been the 11th man on our 3-17 Sophomore team. We were playing against a school called East Aurora, which featured Aaron McGhee, a 6'7", 250 lb behemoth who later played at Oklahoma and I think was on their final 4 team. I actually made a 17 foot baseline jumper, then promptly gave up 3 offensive rebounds in a row and committed 2 fouls. Apparently the 110 lb weight difference made boxing out a little bit difficult.
Now that I'm on the subject, here's an all-star team of the best players I've ever played with or against:
Chase Budinger, 2007 U of A Rec Center
Jordan Hill, 2007 U of A Rec Center
Jerald Honeycutt, 1998 Reily Center at Tulane (he was in the NBA at the time. I was stupid enough to attempt to challenge his dunk as he took off from the dotted line. That ended poorly.)
Hollis Price, former Oklahoma point guard and probably best player on their final 4 team. I played against him pretty much every day in the summer of 1999 at Reily. He was from New Orleans and would play there the summer before his freshman year. A total asshole.
Hassan Adams, 2007 Tucson Summer Pro league. This was a joke, the league organizers basically directed us not to challenge him on any inside shots for fear he might get injured and fuck up his career.
Aaron McGhee, see above.
Probably the biggest "celebrity" I ever played against was our current secretary of education Arne Duncan, a really smooth 6'4" lefty who played at Harvard. Probably the most intelligent player I've ever played against. I was 24 and he was 37, and he was probably still better than me.