National Basketball Tournament

FEBRUARY 2009

After our winter vacation, we came back to San Francisco, and Gigi's family also went back to Los Angeles. Both our families got very close and our moms exchanged contact info to stay in touch.

Dad told me that he'll only buy me a phone if we win the Nationals, so I'll do just that. It's not like the phones this year are anything amazing, but at least it helps with the communication from long distances.

The Nationals is an invitational tournament where ESPN will select the best teams across the country, based on their state tournament runs and star-player potential.

As long as you show an outstanding record in the state tournaments, then you'll be valid for selection. There'll only be 8 teams selected from different states and the tournament will be held in New York.

For the first round, we will go against the representative of Maryland, Montrose Christian. This is the team that had Kevin Durant as an alumnus (class of 2006).

Our team had just stepped out of the plane here in an airport in New York as we are about to prepare for the tournament.

The tournament will start tomorrow so we will check in to our hotel for now and get some rest.

Our coach gathered us in his room to discuss a few things before we went to conclude the day.

"Alright guys, tomorrow's gonna be a tough battle as from now on, we'll be facing high-level teams that we haven't matched up against. From the data we gathered, we will have to keep an eye out for Mouphtaou Yarou, Isaiah Armwood, and Terrence Ross."

Coach Alford continued giving us information on their players and the types of play they mostly used. Yarou, their center, stands at 6'10 and is very experienced in these types of high-level matches. This is gonna be a tough matchup for Jerrold but with the right plays, I think he can pull it off.

Isaiah is their PF standing 6'8 and is terrifyingly athletic. He will attack the basket as long as he sees an opening however small it is and coupled with his midrange jumper, he can be a serious threat to our defense.

Terrence is their guard with a height of 6'5, he's their main scorer and can shoot from anywhere. He's got great court vision and can make sneaky passes that can penetrate our defense.

Hearing their information is a bit overwhelming, but even if they exaggerate it, my goal and focus will stay the same. I don't know about my teammates but I will be always ready to help them out.

*****

It is now Game Day and we're scheduled to play the second game.

Only 2 games are played today and if we win, we'll have a day to take a break as we wait for the other first-round matches to finish.

The first game will be played by Oakhill vs Pinewood.

The bleachers are all filled up with a lot of cameras surrounding the place and I think some college scouts also.

My parents wanted to watch my game today but their schedule doesn't allow them, but they promised me that if we can make it to the finals, they can watch my game including Andrea.

I don't know if I'll make it but I'll do what it takes to make a good impression on the basketball world. This will be my first step to superstardom.

The match between Oakhill and Pinewood is about to start and I get to observe their players.

The players of both teams are ready to start the tip-off and Oakhill's center with the name Keita on the back of his jersey is a very tall 6'11 fellow and from our sources, he's still a junior so that will be a problem if he's very skilled.

Pinewood's center is actually only standing at 6'5. But they chose a forward with the name Jennings on the back of his jersey to do the tip-off.

At a glance, it's easy to tell that Oakhill's got the height advantage so this will prove a lot of trouble for Pinewood to overcome, granted that Keita is skilled enough to bully his opponents.

The tip-off is underway and Keita easily won that battle. Their point guard gave a pass to Keita who is ready to receive a pass down the post and easily made the score.

Just from that play, I can already predict what will be the outcome of this game.

But surprisingly, for Pinewood, Jennings actually drove the ball to the basket even with a lot of defenders along the way yet he still put up the shot and the ball softly touched the basket until it went in and a foul.

Now, this is getting interesting. Jennings plays very similarly to LeBron James with that play. But how long can he shoulder the pressure that Oakhill is giving him from all over the court?

After Jennings made the free throw, Oakhill quickly inbounded the ball and made a fast pace play which surprised the defense of Pinewood, and eventually got punished with a Hookshot move by Keita after he received a drop pass from a pick and roll play.

The game continued like this with only 2-3 scoring differences from both teams until the start of the 4th quarter. Oakhill managed to get their 3-point shots into the basket and their lead widened suddenly from then on.

Pinewood just lost their energy and morale to make a comeback down the stretch.

But I have to give more credit to Oakhill's defense which was just fantastic in the 2nd half. At first, they had a lot of trouble with Jennings' drive and layup which was unstoppable in the first half.

However, they made some adjustments in the third quarter to their defense and switching which limited Jennings to making fewer shots and hesitated when he was about to drive the basket because of the tighter defense upon him.

In the end, Oakhill won by a considerable margin, 83-72. Keita made 28 points and 13 rebounds in that game which puts a target sign on the back of his head.

Either from the scouts who are looking to take him to their program or from the other teams who are now made warry if they ever get to face his team.

It's now our turn to play so we did our warmups first.

I guess almost every team here considers us as the underdogs because we have myself who is a freshman as the star player and a sophomore as my pair for my position.

'I bet everybody will be scared silly after they get to witness our capabilities.'

I planned to go easy at the start to test the waters but from their condescending gazes, I'll make sure that they'll think twice whenever they're up against us.

Both teams are now ready and Jerrold is doing the tip-off. They actually have a 7'1 player but I could see that he's not in the starting lineup so he may be less skilled or probably younger.

Jerrold won the tip-off just barely and Ikenna gathered the rebound. Instead of passing it to Isaac, he passed it to me who is now positioned on the right wing.

As soon as I caught the ball, I smoothly got into my shooting motion and made a quick 3-pointer.

My defender wasn't even serious about defending thinking that I wouldn't make the shot but he guessed wrong.

The ball smoothly shot into the basket and the net barely even made a sound.

3-0

They were a little surprised by that but they still think I only got lucky so they casually advanced the ball forward.

I could already tell that Terrence will pass the ball to Isaiah whom I'm guarding right now. They should be thinking that I should have the weakest defense and they also trusted that Isaiah will make the best plays besides that.

I don't really care what they think because once I'm in the game, my focus is only on performing to the best of my abilities and winning.

I'm now in a one-on-one isolated play with Isaiah and he looks to be troubled about how to break through my defense as it got tighter with every second that passes when he's holding the ball.

He was about to drive to my right side but I found an opening so I poked the ball out of his hands and immediately chased after it.

Isaiah actually caught up to me to defend my fastbreak but as I approached the 3-point line, I suddenly stopped, and Isaiah was forced to leave me behind.

My line of sight is on the basket and I immediately made a 3-point shot which surprised almost everybody who does not know me yet. But for those who have watched my games, they just smiled knowing that no matter what happens, that ball will almost always go in the basket. And it did.