By Matthew Dennis, Crabicurious Guest Contributor
Allow me to begin this piece with a statement: I love basketball; playing, watching, whatever. However, I was once part of a devastating loss; a loss so egregious that it made me reconsider this conviction so totally, that I almost walked away from the game entirely.
I joined an intramural basketball team with some guys from my dorm floor in early February. We thought we were decent and could maybe even make it to round 2 of playoffs. The team consisted of Andrew, a great star player who can score from anywhere on the court at Small Forward (who happens to be a Kentucky fan but I managed to tolerate that fault of his), Pat, a quality Point Guard who can attack the basket off the dribble and set up good looks for teammates, Jake, a strong two guard who shoots threes with the mentality and skill of Retirement-Tour-Kobe, Richard, a decent center who can rebound well but is crippled by poor shot selection, Chris, an explosive scorer off the bench, and Hudson, an inspiring coach who showed up late every time but brought fire to the bench. Then there’s me, the versatile utility power forward with three-point range, the ideal small ball 4. I managed to get some quotes from these ballers about the beginning of the season:
Andrew: "I was pretty optimistic, I thought it would be fun and we could do something in the playoffs. That’s about all my expectations, they’re realistic enough."
Pat: "Yeah man, I was ready, I was pumped, until the first game when we went down 15 in the first half, but it always seemed like we could come back and win. There was always hope."
It’s true, the first game was tough. We lost by 20, but we weren’t completely out of it until about 3 or 4 minutes left in the second half. We lost the second game as well, it was a little closer, but still a blowout. The important thing is we felt like we improved. Sure the refs are all terrible, and the opponents are better than us, but our team was scrappy. We fought, and we felt like we could fight our way into the playoffs.
The two losses set up a decisive 3rd and final game of this marathon regular season. Win this and we’re going to the playoffs, lose and we’re going home.
Jake: "I thought we had a decent chance at winning. I felt like this team deserved the playoffs. We had improved over the course of the first two blowout losses and I really thought the team was coming together."
Richard: "I really thought we were going into this game mentally prepared. I had gotten a lot better, the team had gotten a lot better, and we were so ready. Do or die game, this was gonna be our moment."
Throughout the week the team was getting ready for the game. Getting mentally prepared and hyped up for our chance at immortality. That is, until everything fell apart. The star, Andrew, wasn’t able to make it to this final, and most important game of the season. He did not make himself available for comment for this section because the pain is still too much for him, even after all these weeks. The team had fractured, and everyone knew it.
Season on the Brink
This is it, the day of the game, the most important game of my basketball career. The team had clearly suffered a major morale hit from Andrew’s absence and it showed when only four players showed up, me (of course), Pat, Jake, and Richard. That was just embarrassing, we couldn’t even get a full squad to show up. Fortunately, Jake managed to talk a ref into playing. Unfortunately, anyone who knows the Loyola pickup scene knows that this guy is trash. He’s an unapologetic shot-jacker who couldn’t define the word ‘pass’ if he had a Webster’s Unabridged.
Jak: "I reeally though this guy was good, he always said he could shoot."
Pat: "Oh yeah, everyone knew that guy who joined our team is awful, dude can’t shoot at all."
Richard: "Even though we were down some guys, I did still think we could win."
We entered that game with confidence nonetheless. Everyone thought we had a good chance if we played hard and made some shots. Gotta start off strong though.
First Half
The ref launched the ball up in the air and it was quickly swatted into the hands of the opposing point guard, the game had begun. Their team, as we quickly found out was one of the best in the field, it had several club team players on it and they had a major height advantage. They ripped off a quick 18-0 run that was only stopped when I nailed a three from the wing.
(Dramatization)
Pat: "I was about to give up on the game, then you swished that three and their lead didn’t look so bad. If you didn’t hit that, there would have been no chance."
The game evened up after that big run and they subbed in some guys that were more our skill level (below average). Our defense stiffened and the team responded well, so well that they only outscored us by five for the rest of the half. The "bad guys" took a 33-13 lead into the half. They were really handling us on the boards and we couldn’t get past their length.
Richard: "I tried my best to post up and grab some rebounds, but those guys just killed me in the paint, they were huge."
Halftime
At the half we looked at their 20-point lead and declared that we were a second half team and would mount a spirited comeback. The mental preparation had paid off and we didn’t give up, even against insurmountable odds. What would happen next? Would we cement our place Loyola intramural history or would we be forgotten forever?
Jake: "Sure, 20 points seems like a huge lead, but we thought we could get them."
Second Half
The second half started and we brought the ball up the floor. I had it at the top of the key, keeping my dribble up, scanning for good plays and open teammates like a true playmaker. Then, I felt the ball come loose from my control; it had been ripped away from behind, stolen. Two of the club players were running the floor and the ball handler threw it up off the backboard into the hands of his teammate flying through the air for an emphatic alley-oop dunk. The Dream came crashing down in an instant. Team morale was shattered, any confidence we had was lost.
Richard: "Seeing them dunk it like that, it just showed how they were on another level than we were."
Pat: "After that, if anyone thought we could win that game, they were fooling themselves. They dunked, that team actually dunked the ball off an alley-oop. It was insane."
That dunk set the tone for the rest of the half, we got outplayed. Badly. We managed to score a paltry 10 points while they went off for 50 points, most of them off of fast break scores and a few more dunks. It was terrifying. They destroyed us. The game was ended with 2 minutes left, by mercy rule. It wasn't enough to just lose the game; we ended up losing our dignity too. That guy who joined the team right before the game was abysmal, just jacking up threes, making only one the entire game, and never passing. It just made a horrible loss that much more painful.
Hudson: "It wasn’t supposed to end this way. We all felt like a Cinderella team. I know we could have won.. it’s just….. I can’t do this... I just wish I could have been there."
Aftermath
Losing that badly, the worst loss of my basketball career, was soul-crushing. 60 points??? And I gave up the game-altering dunk with my poor ball control. How can I take the court after something like that? 60 points... 60 reasons to walk away from the game forever.
I took some time off, and really thought about my future as a basketball player. How do I come back from this loss? Should I retire? Am I even any good at all? These questions haunted me for days.
Then, one day my roommate invited me to play some pickup at the gym. What happened next was true redemption. I played one of my greatest games ever, I making threes, rebounding, getting post touches and turning them into points, passing in the inside-out game, and playing great D. it was incredible. I was back! I had recovered from that traumatic 60-point blowout.
Robert Rixman: "When Matt told me about the greatest beat down in American history, I looked him right in his tear filled eyes and said, 'Matt you didn’t lose, you just ran out of time.'"
You know what? He’s right. It’s not about the single game, it’s about the career. D-Wade won’t look back on his career and think about the lost season in 07-08, he’ll think about the numerous all-star selections and the three (and counting) championships. I shouldn’t be kept up at night thinking about one game, even if it was the worst I’ve ever played. I’ll play hundreds more and each time I’ll be a better player.
My convictions to the game of basketball had been tested, but I persevered and came back better than ever. Sure, there were 60 reasons to quit, but I only need one reason to keep playing: I love this game.
