Basketball Season - Will they reach the Final Fours of The Nationals?

Dec 2012 - half way through the season. So far the boys have beaten Plymouth Marjon 122-44, Solent Kestrels away 68-71, Ipswich Tomcats 113-54, NASSA away 75-76, Reading Rockets away 49-92, Westminster Warriors 67-62, Brentwood Fire away 41-79, London Greenhouse Pioneers 70-57 and Medway Park Crusaders away 70-71.

Warriors will get to the national knock-out stages, but it’s vital to finish either 1st or 2nd in the South Premier League. Currently they’re top of the league with themselves and NASSA (Newham All Star Sports Academy) losing just one game each; Warriors beat NASSA (current National Champions) but lost to Haringey. However, we’re only half way through the season and anything can happen, and NASSA have a game in hand.

Haringey have lost two games so far, NASSA and London Greenhouse Pioneers, both of whom we’ve beaten.

Beating NASSA 75-76 was fantastic. No one has gone to East London and beaten them for over two years or longer, but losing 69-83 to Haringey at home was hard to take as there’s a lot of rivalry between the boys and they beat us at the Final Fours in Nottingham last year to come 3rd in the country.

See the first piece in this series “The Clock”

http://www.abctales.com/story/karl-wiggins/clock-0

Yesterday Worthing Thunder away was a very tough, physical game. We beat them 50-101 without two of our starting five, Jamie & Anthony, and two of our second five, Lolu (busted nose) and Alex (busted mouth). My lad, Kai, scored 18 with five rebounds. Not bad for a point-guard.

I lost count of the number of times he was knocked to the floor, but he’s been playing sports since he was very young and in all those years I have never, ever seen him complain of being injured. It’s not because when playing football he got ankle-kicked less than the other kids, he’s just never made a fuss about it. There was one kid in the football team who used to go down crying every game. Another kid would always miss several games a season because he’d been kicked, but not Kai. In fact one kid actually believed he didn’t feel pain.

I’ve learned to watch him very closely, because it would only be on the way home that he’d show me bumps, bruises and grazes, or tell me he’d really hurt his hand when some kid trod on it with football studs.

Well basketball is a lot more physical than most people realise. It takes a lot of courage to stand perfectly still when a player is charging right at you with the ball, but that’s what you have to do because if you move and he crashes into you you’ve committed a foul. If you stand perfectly still and he crashes into you, then he’s ‘charged’ you and he’s committed the foul.

For a lad like Kai, who is the slightest member of the squad, he can get knocked off his feet if a six-foot-four kid shoulder barges him. But he still stands his ground. Years of swimming have added muscle to his chest and shoulders, and he’s a lot stronger than he looks.

But yesterday against Worthing it was time to bring on Sam, who is a really pleasant, good-looking kid with a great smile, honey-coloured skin that most white people are envious of, and who is built like a ship’s anchor. Sam is totally loyal and protective of his team mates and plays basketball like he’s playing rugby. You’re allowed two full steps off the dribble before you have to shoot (or pass); although it often looks like three because a half-step is allowed before your next foot goes down. Sam uses those two-and-a-half steps to powerhouse through any opposition in his way. The coach often says, “Sam, you can’t just go through them,” but that’s only to keep him in check, for Sam is fearless. .

Funny story; Kai and Sam went down the West End and, growing bored waiting for the lift at Covent Garden tube station, opted to walk up the stairs. Anyone who’s ever done that has learnt never to do it again, for Covent Garden tube is deep underground. There are 193 steps, which is equivalent to a 10-storey building. Basketball training is intense, however, and it wouldn’t have surprised me if these boys had run up them.

As amiable and respectful as he is, Sam would have experienced frustration at watching Kai hit the deck so many times, and that engaging smile can turn menacing if he suspects one of his team mates is getting a raw deal. I’ve got a lot of time for Sam.

Why it’s so important that we finish top of the league is that you get home advantage when you go into the play-off knock-out stages of the National Championships. And top of the league plays 4th team from another league. But with NASSA in the mix our boys will be hard-pushed to come first. However if they finish 3rd or 4th they could find themselves drawn against Manchester Magic who beat them last year at the Final Fours, and who were regarded as the best team in the country until NASSA bested them. To face Magic so early in a knock-out competition would be tough.

Today Kai, along with two other players from his squad – Aiden, who plays for England, and Tom, who’s strong and dependable - was invited to play for the U18s and jumped at the chance. He knows all the lads, of course, because they’ve been training together for a long time now, and the chance to play against boys two years old than him, two years stronger and with two more years experience was something that could only do him good.

Last year, in preparation for the Final Fours the coach had our then U15s train with the Men’s team, who had been told to knock them about a little in order to toughen them up for the competition.

The U18s played Barnet Bulldogs away today, and beat them 62-104. Kai played steady, nothing wild, and scored 5 points himself. He was given quite a bit of court time, more than he expected, and all in all it was an easier game than yesterday. Let’s hope he gets more invites to play for them.

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Dec 2012 - There are two frustrating dates at the moment. First game back after the Christmas break is against Plymouth away. It’s on the Sunday before school recommences and just after Watford play Man City in the FA Cup, which we were hoping to go to. Kai is particularly gutted because the Plymouth game is fairly pointless, seeing as we beat them 122-44 last time out. And I’m pissed off because it’s going to cost money in petrol and hotel. Kai had been discussing going up to the Etihad Stadium with some mates from school, but you’re either committed to the club or you’re not. Hopefully he’ll be able to get some sleep in the car on the way back from Plymouth and not be too wrecked on his first day back at school.

The other date is May 4th 2013, which is the day of the Final Fours and also the date of his school prom. You only get one chance to go to the school prom, but Kai would never forgive himself if the boys went up without him and did well. To be part of it last year, to play the best teams in the country, was something special, and the boys are doing everything they can to qualify this year.

Also, with great sadness, this is the last year the boys will play together. They truly are a great bunch of lads. There’s never any bickering and on court they’re all there for each other. However, there’s no U17s, so the next option is to get selected for U18s and after that the Men’s. Hopefully the majority of these lads will play together for years to come, and they’ll remain friends for life, but this is the last year they can make it as a team to the Final Fours. So unfortunately basketball takes first place over Prom Night. How unfair is that?

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The boys have drawn NASSA in the Sureshot Cup, so that's two times they'll play the National Champions in January, 13th in the Cup and 26th in the League, and boy will they be out for revenge!