Herren III 67 – SpVgg Höhenkirchen 63
„History is written by the victor“. – Sir Winston Churchill
„Bball game recap is written by the winning coach“. – Said No One Ever
Fine. So, then, the first game of the new season for the rushed and completely re-constituted Herren III team, lead by a NYer „Rip van Winkle“ coach, preaching 1950s-style basketball, saw our young wannabe „playas“, load their covered-wagons (Made in Germany, of course!) and take their „blankets, pots & kettles“ down South to the „boondocks“ (hinterlands) to try to cook up an upset of the league-leading (2 Wins & 0 Losses) Höhenkirchen Kings high-jumping, fast-moving, young studs.
It all began gentile enough, you know, exchanging of made baskets, until 4-5 minutes into the game, when old-man coach realized, things weren´t going according to the pre-programmed algorithms a/k/a practice plans and that a „glitch in the matrix“ was being revealed, so … game on … take no names … full-on CIA psy ops … prison rules.
Sixty-two (62!) personal fouls later and we barely escaped with a „coulda-gone-either-way“ W (win).
Our very worthy and highly-motivated to „defend the (hinter-) land“ opponents 2-3 ZONE DEF frustrated our bunch of quickly-thrown-together lovers of the game, if not exactly, long-years practitioners of the art, and made it very difficult for us to find our groove and get our own game on, you know the game, the one you see in practice, whenever, everyone actually shows up.
In particular, we were mostly unable and, in any event, (very) slow to find the open man, grossly out-rebounded on both ends of the court, and powerless to even slow-down-a-bit their star-player, Michael „Charles Barkley“ Götze who put his sneaker-boot on the back of our necks and went off on us, b-slapping us for 31 points (10 FGs, 3 3-pointers, rebounds galore, assists, etc).
With foul calls being handed out left, right, and center, like promises of political candidates near election time, the game, obviously, was decided at the foul line, fortunately, in our favor; where we were able to connect on 25 of 40 FTs (62%) to help make the winning difference.
Note: Our largest lead was 6 points (@35min.) and biggest deficit was 8 points (@24min.).
Take-aways? Plenty. Clearly half of the team has little or no league competition play experience or playing together, for that matter, as a unit, as a team … whoa, it showed … lots of „deer-in-the-headlights“ lost looks and lower-, slower-level of play. A few of us played pick-up ball together during the summer, so, at least there was that to fall back on late in the game, as coach, rode his more-experienced players like „Secretariat“.
Game shot? Michele´s put-back curling, sweeping, hook-lay-up over the much taller defender´s arms @29mins mark to help take back the lead! Michele = „silver“ money in the bank!
Practice? Iverson isn´t the only one who doesn´t like it but … we gotta get into the gym, ladies!!!
So, as we tumble further down the rabbit hole, it is increasingly clear that besides a „sports“ miracle we´re „going to need guns … lots of guns“, if we are going to have any chance of successfully going up against the likes of the HOLZis later this season.
Shout-outs? Always.
Firstly, „Thanks!“ to a signed-up-the-day-before youth player, Markus, who made the long trip only to be able to watch from the bench as we were at the 12-man roster limit.
Secondly, a „Thanks“ and „Sorry, bruh!“ to the players who were hoping, according to coach´s plan, „everyone has one until they get punched in the mouth“, that they were going to play serious minutes and … did not exactly.
Also, a „Thanks!“ to the „bag-carrying donkeys“ who begged coach for „air & water“ (rest time) but like good animals of labor followed orders and remained (sweaty) cool, calm, and collected on the court … looking at you, Alex!
Further, a „Special Thanks!“ to the club, München Basket „only basketball since 1975“ for allowing a bunch of ragged and tagged wannabes to follow in the foot-steps of last season´s Herren III Gold Standard 14-0 team (avg. margin of victory 50pts/game).
Lastly, „Thanks!“ to coach´s wife and son for the „fan-base of 2“ in far-away-from-the-homeland hostile bleacher tribune territory! A whistling, wild coyote or 2 were heard there, if not spotted!!!
Stay tuned! Next game, away versus MTV Pfaffenhofen on Friday, 19.30h, 11 November 2016.
Scoring recap: David H. (1pts), Louis F. (2pts), Pascal H. (2pts), Chris B. (3pts), Martin L. (4pts), Michele A. (6pts), Severin H. (11pts), Thomas K. (18pts), and Alex S. (20pts).