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Hoopin’ it up

Last time I played here in Dallas was almost a month ago. I played really well that day, but my outside shot was hurting and I ran out of gas after about the third game. Today was a lot different, but I mostly played better. Last time I played, we played about 5 games and I finished the day 0-fer from the 3-point line. One thing that contributed to my abysmal 3-point performance was that once of my own teammates was counting (sort of) every time I missed a 3. First, he would moan that I was shooting, then when I missed, he’d add another one to a number that he basically made up (by his count, I missed about 15 3-pointers, but I and my friend only remembered me taking maybe 6; I don’t shoot a lot of I’m not hitting and I can make good passes).

That was all a setup for this: Guess who was guarding me for most of today? That’s right, my good friend with a knack for ficticious counting! And guess who freakin’ lit it up from the 3-point line? Right again! I did, and mostly over this guy. The first couple games we played, he wasn’t guarding me, but he was on the other team. Every time I caught the ball at the 3-point line, he’d encourage his teammates to let me shoot: “Oh yeah! That’s what we wan…”, but then I’d drain it. This happened 3 or 4 times before he stopped encouraging me to score. What I never figured out (and this goes for the rest of the games we played, too) was that no one ever really closed-out on me at the arc. I mean, all in all, I probably hit (conservatively) 7 or 8 3’s today. I did have one blocked (by my counter friend), but that just wised me and my team up to the fact that I was taking too long to load up before I shot. He didn’t get any more blocks and I realized that he was so eager to block me (when he did come outside) that I could head-fake and go in for the easy 10-footer.

Anyway, when the counter was guarding me, I really caught on fire: I had several 3’s (all long-range), a few mid-range jumpers and some good fastbreak points on him. In fact, I had at least 1, maybe 2 game-winners over him. He wasn’t encouraging me to shoot anymore by the time we were done. I think in 6 games, I had at least 2, maybe 3 game-winners. So, that’s the good.

The bad: My defense was sort of weak, but that was mostly because of mismatches. In most of the games I played, I was guarding a guy who was significantly bigger than me and always wanted to post up. I can play decent post defense, but it’s tough when the guy’s got 20 to 30 pounds on me and at least 3 or 4 inches. The good news was that my team was doing a great job with help defense and they were talking me through exactly where they wanted me: “Front him now, I got your back” or “You take his back, I got the front.”

The ugly: This ain’t really for me so much as some of the other dudes I played with today… There was some of the most sissy foul-calls I’ve ever seen. These are a couple that I was either in the play or standing close enough to see what actually happened: Once, I was guarding a guy who plays very physically, but also likes to call “ghost fouls” to bail himself out sometimes. He takes forever to set up for a jumper, so when I see it comin’, I can get my hand up and cause him to change his shot almost every time. Once, he shot it and, after the ball was well gone and the follow-through had ended, my finger tapped is elbow… he called foul and no one could believe it. The play was practically over and he had just shot an awful shot. Second, my friend–the counter–tried a crossover and tripped himself up. His defender was backing away and never touched the guy. I picked up the ball (which he’d unsuccessfully tried to recover), went the other way and had an assist on the fastbreak. Well, the counter decides–well after the ball is gone and we’re about to score–that he, in fact, was fouled on the play. I mean, people have already started walking back to get the ball, so they could inbound at the other end and everything. Anyway, they somehow ended up with the ball after the counter made a 3-pointer (see my last basketball post on the silly methods of conflict resolution they use out here).

So, all in all, I had a great day on the floor. That’s encouraging since our league starts up in a little over a month and I want to be ready to go when it does. My ankle is doing really well and I haven’t had any trouble with it in several weeks. Unfortunately, I have a heel spur (there’s some fancy-pants medical name for it that starts with “plantar fasc…”) that I’m nursing, but I’m thinking it’ll be good to go by the time we start playing in about 5 weeks.

I think this is officially the longest post I’ve written on playing basketball. I’m even boring myself this time.

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Gainesville trip: Day 6

Today was pretty good and I got to see a lot of people. First thing, I went and got lunch with a couple friends (yeah, my sleeping hours have slipped to the 4 am to noon window). Then, we played some Spades until we went to play basketball. Basketball was definitely the low-point of my day as I played very badly and didn’t score any points in two games. My assist to turnover ratio was far less than 1 and I missed plenty of wide open 5-foot shots. It was very frustrating.

Later, we went to Hops for dinner and then went to a friend’s place and hung out for a bit. We played croquet for a while (I won the first game in spite of having never played before and playing horribly), but got blasted the second game. It was a good time. Now, I think we’re about to play some more Spades or something, then I’m off to bed. I have a long day of traveling and packing tomorrow.

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Gainesville trip: Day 3

Yesterday’s support appointment went well and I’m not officially on three peoples’ MDPs (I think that’s right and I think it’s “Ministry Development Plan”; it’s a TLA–Three Letter Acronym). I’m excited to be giving to Crusade beginning in July and I think it’s awesome that I can help out three staff people.

Basketball… again

I played some more basketball yesterday and I’m really feelin’ it today. I think I ran seven games in two days. That’s not outrageous except I haven’t played that much basketball in that little time since some time last year. I’m pretty sore, but it’s good to be in good enough shape that I can at least run the games. I hope to play at least once more before the week’s out.

Gators Dockside

Last night was all-you-can-eat (AYCE) wings at Dockside, so about six of us went over there to try and break ’em. Between us, we probably ate over 200 wings, but I can’t say that I contributed too much. I think I only had 20 or so because I’m just not used to eating that much grub in one sitting. At least it wasn’t AYCE pasta or pizza or something; I’m pretty sure I’d feel awful today. It was only wings and they were grilled, not breaded or fried, so I’m good to go for some more eatin’ today.

Kill Bill: Vol. 1

Man, what a strange movie. Of course, if I felt any differently after watching a QT creation, I’d have to check my senses. The guy just knows how to create interesting, strange violent stuff. It’s bizarre how he maintains an irony of violence without believable gore. I mean, there’re people gettin’ limbs lopped off and whatnot, but it looks so fake it’s hardly even so disturbing as odd. I’m not talking about being desensitized, I’m talking about recognizing what parts of the film QT wants the view to feel are real.

Anyway, I think we’re going to see Vol. 2 some time this week, so I wanted to make sure I’d seen the first part, first. Now, I’m off to lunch with some friends, so I’ll have to pause for a bit.

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Gainesville trip: Day 1

I’m including the little bit of time that I spent with my buddies last night in this day. Basically, we arrived in G-ville around midnight, went to a friend’s place and watched the end of the Rockets vs. Lakers playoff game, then I went home and went to sleep. For about 30 seconds, it was a little strange being in this house since I lived here for 2.5 years before I moved to Texas 3 months ago. But, from then on it was smooth sailin’. I can even still walk around in the dark without bumping into things. My poker table is gone (well, on loan really), so I’ll have to figure out how to get it back so we can play some poker here this week. I crashed in my roommate’s bed because he wasn’t around, but I’m afraid I won’t have the luxury all week… but I can hope, I guess.

Now, I’m off to church and then lunch. I think we’ll probably play basketball some time today and maybe go see a movie tonight. I think it’s going to be a great day.

Basketball

We played four games today and I didn’t get a single win. All our games were decided by two or less, but it seemed like all my teams just ran outta’ gas right at the end of the game. Regardless, it was fun and I felt really good in all my games. I’m sure we’ll play at least one more time this week, but between ultimate frisbee, frisbee golf, bowling and shootin’ pool, I’m afraid there may not be time for more than one more basketball outting.

Tonight, I’m going to the last CRU leadership meeting of the year (as an honorary leader and old guy). I think it’ll be good to see everyone and it’ll guarantee that I see almost all my friends (that’re still around) while I’m here. I’m looking forward to it.

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Hoops went well

I think I played 5 games today. My first two were definitely my best and then I tapered way off for the last few. But, my first two were spectacular games. We play to 12, straight-up, by ones and twos. First game, I think I had 4 or 5 points and 3 or 4 assists (along with a few rebounds and a steal or two); second game, I had 5 or 6 points and at least 4 or 5 assists (along with a few rebounds and a block on a 2-pointer). Basically, my team ran through me and I got at least one touch per offensive possession for both games. In fact, we were mostly running a fastbreaking offense that rarely had to setup in the half-court.

Then, it started going downhill. I wouldn’t say I played poorly the last few games, but I just wasn’t playing super well on my teams. The last 3 games were all teams that intentionally slowed the ball down into a half-court offense and I rarely got any touches. I was “0-fer” from the 3-point line today and that was pretty discouraging. I didn’t take too many 3’s (maybe 6 or 7 over 5 games), but it would’ve been nice to hit at least one.

So anyway, I played really well for the first couple games and I’m seeing serious improvement from week to week. I’m realizing that I can’t allow myself to be a purely perimeter offensive player because my strength is in driving and scoring or dishing. I’m also remembering how to reward my teammates for running the floor on a fastbreak. It’s sometimes difficult to convince guys that if they run–even trailing–the length of the floor on every offensive possession, they’ll get buckets on put-backs and assists.

Strange rules

A couple summers ago, I wrote about the strange mid-west rules for “Twenty-One” or, as they call it here, “Twenty-Five”. Today, I ran into a strange rule in full-court basketball: If there’s a controversial call, instead of obeying the (invisible) possession arrow, someone shoots a 3-pointer (“do or die”) to see who gets possession. That sounds good and everything, but I’ve always played with the invisible possession arrow: whoever had last possession (either at the beginning of the game or on a jump-ball or a controversial call) gives the ball up on the next such possession. I tried to explain this to the guys, but they didn’t wanna’ hear it. Here’s their logic:

The team that has the ball first has it because they won*. So, because they “earned” first possession (along with their choice of end of the floor and the “right” to keep their status as either “shirts” or “skins”) they feel the possession arrow doesn’t point the other way. So, if there’s a controversial call where the possession arrow would come into play, they simply shoot for it. I guess that’s all good and well, but there’re reasons the possession arrow was invented to begin with. Also, claiming that they shouldn’t lose the possession arrow because they “earned” first possession is really a moot point. I mean, in a game with a tip-off, the first team with the ball “earned” the possession by winning the tip, but the possession arrow is still pointing to the other team. The “reward” for winning the previous game or for winning the tip is that they get first opportunity to score (and, in the unlikely event that a game came down to a shootout where each team hit a shot every trip down the floor, they’d win), not that they get a free possession and immunity from the possession arrow for the rest of the game.

I guess it just doesn’t make sense to me why they’d ignore a pretty fundamental part of the game. In reality, this rule didn’t hurt our team as we ended up with the ball anyway (more because of the controversy than the rules), but I could see where it might have a big effect on a game. Maybe I just need to lighten up.

*Their logic begs the question: What do you do the first game when there was no previous winner? Is the possession arrow in effect then? If not, why not?

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Dinner with friends

Since I moved to Dallas, I’ve been quite the hermit. I hadn’t really noticed it until tonight when a friend and his wife invited me over to dinner. I hesitated before I accepted the invitation, but then I asked myself, “What’re you gonna’ do if you don’t go over to their place for dinner?” The answer: Sit around watching TV and reading like I do every other night.

Anyway, it was nice to get out and see some friends and get off the couch. I need to get out more often… maybe I’ll go to Florida for a week or something.

Workout busted

I decided to take a nap after work and before my workout today, but when I finally got off the couch and went to the gym, they were closed. I guess they had posted signs saying they’d be closed today for Good Friday, but I never bothered to read them. Maybe I should start payin’ attention to stuff like that; it’d save me some time if nothing else.

Basketball tomorrow

I didn’t get to shoot around too much this week, but I still feel like I’ll probably play well tomorrow. I guess there’s no telling since I’m often not even awake at 9 when we play, but I’m hoping to start steppin’ it up. Last week, I played pretty well, but I still have a lot of room for improvement. I guess I’ll just wait and see.

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Good idea, Bad idea

We’re getting into Spring now, so I thought I should go ahead and start gettin’ me some sun. So, I figured I usually shoot hoops before I work out, so why not shoot hoops in the sun? I’ll tell you why not: It’s stinkin’ hot out there and the sun will sap all your energy if you let it. Sure enough, it let it and it did. So, I shot around for about a half hour, hopefully getting some sun, and then I went ahead and started my workout. About two sets in, I felt awful–tired, nauseous, sweaty, dehydrated–and all I wanted to do was go home. Looks like I need a new way to get some sun. Maybe I’ll have to resort to reading by the pool.

The books are in

The books that my acting instructor recommended have arrived and I’m well into Acting in Film. So far, I’ve found it to be a very practical book with a lot of good information for a guy like me who hasn’t ever been anywhere near a set. The book’s not about “being a tree” or the ethereal part of acting, but it covers more of the basics like how to act on a set, how to prepare a scene and things like that. It’s really interesting and I’m sure it’ll help me even next week at my lesson. Best of all, it’s an information-packed, fast read.

One week

A week from tomorrow, I’ll be in Jacksonville, beginning my version of Spring Break. I’m really looking forward to it and I’m sure it’ll do me some good to rest up, but I’m not yet to the point where I feel I need to “get away”. I think that’s good, though, because I’m not getting stressed at work and I won’t put unrealistic expectations on my trip. I’m looking forward to seeing my family and friends and just sittin’ around and gettin’ paid.

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Hoops

Although I’m completely out of the running for any of the three pools in which I’m participating, I’m really enjoying the NCAA Tourney this year. This weekend, there were some great games–today’s two games were both nail-biters that came right down to the wire–and I’m looking forward to the Final Four next weekend. A friend of mine is a Georgia Tech grad. and may have a chance to go to San Antonio to see them play. I wish Florida hadn’t gotten rocked in the first round and that I had a chance to go see them play in the Final Four… “maybe next year.”

Dream Job

I didn’t catch the first half of the season, but what I saw of ESPN’s Dream Job was pretty interesting. ESPN has a knack for creating interesting game shows with regular people trying to do extraordinary things in real-time. Beg, Borrow and Deal was a good show and I was disappointed to see it fade at the end of the second season. Dream job, I think, will probably have another season (even if it’s for a different job or with a slightly different twist) some time in the next year.

I thought it was clever that they allowed “America” to choose the finalist and it was neat to see Mike Hall’s salary–$95,000 American–decided on Sports Center on live TV. Overall, I think the show was a good idea, although it was tailored to a very specific audience. But then, pretty much everything on ESPN is tailored to a specific audience: people who dig sports.

The Silver Chair

I’ve read the first couple chapters of the sixth book in C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia and I think it’s going to be another great story. He sure has a talent for weaving stories together and using commonalities to make the reader acquainted enough with the environment and characters so as not to be uncomfortable or turned off by the unfamiliar while keeping the story fresh with new plot ideas and characters. I don’t think I’ll have any problem finishing the series before I head to Florida in a few weeks.

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Might be buyin’ a laptop

Well, I’ve begun the process of talking myself into buying a laptop, so that means it’s really only a matter of time before I’ll break down and get one. Of course, my thrifty, bargain-hunting side will help to keep me in check, but I’ve been wanting one for a couple years now and I’m afraid I won’t be able to resist much longer. I think it’ll be a practical purchase and, if I play my cards right, I should be able to get a well-priced laptop with a good financing option, so I won’t have to pay interest and I’ll have plenty of time to pay for it.

I’m heading out tomorrow to shop around and see what there is to see (and also to compare in-store prices with online ones). I have a hunch that Best Buy and Circuit City will be competing for my business.

Basketball in the morning

I’ve been working pretty hard to get in shape over the past couple weeks. I feel my game is improving, but it’s hard to say without running some full-court games, and that’s what Saturdays are for. I’m hoping for a good performance tomorrow, but it’s really hard to expect myself to go all out at 9 in the morning on a Saturday. I wish those jokers would play at 10 or so.

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Bracket busted badly

Well, thanks to a 2nd round upset of UK by UAB, my bracket is toast. I guess, in a way, that’s what the tournament is all about. Ultimately, it comes down to matchups and it’s not necessarily true that the “best” team wins the Tournament. Rather, it’s the team that does the best in its particular string of matchups.

But, that’s why they play they games, as they say.

Relaxing weekend

I had a great weekend of watching basketball and relaxing, but now it’s time to start winding things down, so I can be ready for work tomorrow. After last week and a few marathon meetings, this week should seem like cake. I’m not looking forward to it, but I’m not dreading it nearly as much as I did last week.