Season's End, Playoffs & Exams

Season's End, Playoffs & Exams

Hey, what's up everybody!

I know it's been insanely long since my last blog post. If anyone has been missing reading them, I hope it makes you feel better to know that I have 3 or 4 entries that I kept meaning to get round to finishing and publishing. I'll try finish them and put them up, or just post them unfinished to give my blog a cool, scrap-book feel.

I could go through every game we've played since March, but that would be pretty painful for you guys to read, so I'll just go back about a month or so. On the 19th of May, we had something on our calendar that every Superleague team had learned to dread throughout the season; a date with the Oldham Owls.

Because of the re-structuring of the league after last season and the way players were moved around within the club, Oldham this year became an absolute dynasty, going undefeated throughout the entire seasons in Division 3, Division 1 and Superleague. We had already played them twice this year and lost by double digits both times, going into our final Superleague game of the season with only 7 players and our head coach missing the game with an illness, we seemed a little over-matched. Oldham's coached even laughed when he heard one of our guys start a sentence with "If we win today..."

Ten minutes later, it was 16-16 and the Owls had no idea what had just hit them.

I might be the only player who does this, but when you're in the middle of a game that has a lot riding on it or that you know is going to be tough, every basket or defensive stop you make comes with a small feeling of "Thank god for that", and it's a massive confidence boost when you have those moments as often as we did against Oldham.

To cut what felt like a very long game short, Oldham won 68-63, but not before we gave them a serious rattling. It was the closest anyone had come to them all season and was a big statement from us heading into the playoffs.

But before I could gear up for the playoffs, I had the small matter of exams. I finished school just a few weeks ago so have been on study leave with exams dotted around the place (it seems to be an unwritten rule that the most important part of the school year and the basketball year come at pretty much exactly the same time, because neither brings enough pressure on it's own).

I'm not gonna use this post to bore you guys with details of my exams, all I'll say is that I'm glad I'll never have to write an essay on Spanish literature or eventos corrientes.

Spanish exams finished and a couple of light days later, I was hitting the road with Maddie on Saturday night for our last Division 1 game of the year, the next morning against Lothian Phoenix.

The Lothian away game is always my favourite games of the year, playing only 20 minutes away from my grandparents' house and against a team full of friends. Friends who harass you defensively for a full 40 minutes.

Couple of pretty emotional moments for me before the game, first the speech that was given to commemorate Stevie Duff, the Phoenix coach who passed away a year ago. Secondly, looking around before tip off to see a lot of my family and friends had turned up to watch, giving the away team a bigger crowd than the home team! Really appreciate them coming to watch, means a lot and I hope they enjoyed it. Glad we were able to pull out a 72-64 win in that game. Division 1 this year hasn't been the smoothest ride, but it was good to finish the year on a high.

Which brings us to the final weekend of the season; the BWB Playoffs..

There were 4 different Steelers teams playing (Div2, Div1 Central, Women's League, Superleague), but seeing as I had an exam a couple of days later, I couldn't go down to watch like I normally would have done (not that it made much difference as every Steelers team played well even without me watching over the weekend!). Our first Superleague game was vs London Titans at 8pm on Saturday, with almost everyone who'd been playing during the day staying around to watch. I love night-time games, gives it a feeling of being important that it's hard to get otherwise.
We had played Titans 3 times already during the season, struggling to match up all year long and going 1-2 in the games against them. They chipped away all game long to carve out an 11-point lead just before the fourth quarter started, until the Steelers spirit that's been lacking a little at times this year pulled through and we clawed back into the game, strong freethrow shooting giving us a 52-51 win. Our ticket to the league final had been punched, and we were ready to meet a familiar foe.

The next afternoon, Oldham gave us a cold reality-check before we'd even finished celebrating our semifinal win, jumping out to a 21-10 lead before Matt Wild showed a flash of his former self, canning a turnaround shot at the buzzer to bring us to within 9.
The first quarter was tough to sum up in words, so I'm hoping this photo will do:

If Coach Kev's face here isn't enough to scare you into making a 9-point comeback, I don't know what is.

The same Steelers grit that had held us together in the last game showed up again in the second quarter, as we fought back into the game to go up 34-33 at halftime

Not much separated the two teams in the 3rd though, Oldham tying the game up at 50 before Wayne Boardman dropped in a layup at the buzzer to put us up by two.

So there we were, 10 minutes to go, with the entire season hanging in the balance. It went back and forth between the two teams, and then this happened..

George with the offensive rebound and putback to seal the game

With 11 seconds left in the game, the rebound of a Richard Sargent missed freethrow fell straight to George Bates, who grabbed the ball and stuck it back in to ice the game. Not bad for only a part-time Steeler.

That was all she wrote, as we upset Oldham 66-63 to grab the national championship. Season done, mission accomplished.

So, now that the season is over, what's next?

• Finish my exams
• Couple of light weeks training
• A few days demoing and promoting Wheelchair Basketball at the Mobility Roadshow in Telford
• Roadtrip to Germany to watch the GB Men and Women at the European Championships
• Serious offseason training and GB Junior World Championship selection camps
• Hopefully a trip to Turkey for the World Championships

Oh, and stay ready for my next blog, where I might have a big announcement to make...

As always, thanks for reading! Peace everybody!