Show Your Worth

Legend's exhilarated face was epic.

As a four year member of the Illinois men's basketball team, he had grown accustomed to random strategies that pop-up on the fly, without any warning, nor any practice from just about anyone in the team. 

He himself had made his teammates try small tricks he'd seen from the internet from time to time, just to add another random, yet effective element to their game. 

He's especially more intrigued by strategies his juniors had prepared. 

Like this one for instance.

Double high screen? What's he going to do with this?

Miguel was trapped in the middle of both Jaylen and Legend on the left and right respectively, while their own defenders took their positions close by. 

Tremaine scanned the field and found his other two teammates' jobs almost done, before he made his move.

Sean slammed into Jaylen's screen after Tremaine made a quick hesitation dribble, and double crossover, attacking his left at will and taking on the smaller defender Dwayne.

Legend knew he either had to roll to the basket, or pop out to the side, but he had to rely on what the other rookie, Jaylen, had to do first. 

He saw Jaylen disengage and pop back out, meaning he had to roll to the wide open basket. 

Wait!

How is Caleb rushing to the basket without interference?

In a split second, he glanced at the right baseline corner of the court… Ryan managed to stop two guys from advancing with a screen. 

Legend knew how this play would end, but on the off chance that the basket won't be made, he rolled to the basket anyway.

Tremaine attacked Dwayne despite the height and physique disadvantage. In the eyes of his teammates, and his coaches on the sidelines, the tiny guard struggled to gain separation over Dwayne's defense.

But in reality, Tremaine didn't even have the  need to gain separation.

Because right now, his main target was on his sight. 

Caleb Wilson!

Tremaine lobbed the ball high to the right side, with Caleb Wilson elevating to meet it up top. 

His feet were like a spring, and his elite vertical leap had always been his greatest asset for the team. He may not be the best player skill-wise, and effort-wise, but no one would find any fault in the way he harnessed his natural gift of athleticism in games.

Tremaine watched the junior guard effortlessly glide in the air, with the ball at hand and slam it into the net uncontested. 

A wonderful play to start it off, a pinpoint pass to boot, and an emphatic jam at the end of it. 

"Thanks for that rook. I needed that." Caleb whispered while they hustled back in defense. 

"You sure you're not actually 23 or something?" Khalil ran past with a chuckle. Tremaine could tell he's having a whale of a time. 

The first half seemingly ended with that jam, both teams content to run standard, set plays that ended up with bad, and stale field goal attempts. 

49-41 at halftime.

*** 

After the ten minute halftime interval, the two teams came out swinging.

A lot of sloppy turnovers made way for a lot of fast break opportunities, and exciting up and down the floor action. Outlet passes became the main way of passing, and one touch basketball came on the fore. Several dunks came in quick succession of another, and stamina burned brightly as if they had an infinite supply of it. 

For a casual viewer, this would make the blood boil. But for a head coach, this level of play infuriated him. 

Turnover heavy play and error prone passing isn't what he wanted to see from his team, even on intra squad scrimmages like this. What he wanted to see was good decision making, and them showing off their off-season improvements. Sure, most of it might be because of a frenetic, aggressive defense, however, it would still be representative of their handling of intense defensive pressure. 

Ryan Brown turned the ball over again for the third time in four minutes, leading to yet another Dwayne Evans jam on the other end. 

Legend's lead had sunk to a precarious point, and the surging momentum coming off of Khalil's team's several crucial steals were threatening to make his team collapse. 

He had no choice but to call a timeout here to quell the comeback bid.

"Everyone, I want us all to calm down." Legend's deep voice was soothing enough that it had the immediate effect. "I don't want to distract all of you, but I'll let you know that coach wasn't happy with how we're coughing the ball up like we haven't learned how to dribble or pass." 

"Let's throw the rookie lineup at them again." Ryan said without an ounce of doubt. 

"Good idea. We old guys are struggling anyway." Legend smiled in a self-deprecating manner.

Tremaine's eyes brightened. He wanted a challenge he could overcome during this scrimmage. 

"Stop the momentum." Legend's words didn't sound like an order, rather, it sounded like an ultimatum. "Prove your worth."

Four rookies, and a sophomore, entered the hardwood floor with a burning purpose, and cautious optimism to get the job done.

The score might've been 57-56 right now, but Tremaine set a challenge to himself to increase the lead before they were subbed out again in a few minutes.

But right as the game restarted, a full court press welcomed him as the ball handler with a giant target aimed at his back. The tricky defense forced him quickly into the corner, with a mobile double team sandwiching him near his own bench. 

Tre knows that the strengths of this kind of defense lied not only on generating pressure on the ball handler, but also on forcing him to make stupid mistakes. 

Once he saw Jaylen escape Dwayne with a stutter step, and faking him out entirely, Tre slung a diagonal bounce pass at the narrow crease his pivoting created. 

However, before Tremaine could rejoice about how they broke the press down, his pass… failed to reach his target.

Dwayne had been shut down by Jaylen all throughout this game, and their earlier one versus one. He had been itching for an opportunity to retake some of his demolished pride, and once he saw that Tremaine's pass lacked the strength to get to Jaylen, he pounced on it like his life depended on it.

Another turnover. 

"The first of many turnovers in this life." Tremaine recovered in defense while his head was in disarray. He didn't think that the pass lacked power… but maybe he overestimated the strength of his slight freshman physique.

Dwayne made a beeline to the basket, leaving Jaylen Mitchell scrambling. Finally, Dwayne could start making amends.

As he drove down the wide open lane to the basket, his tunnel vision got so extreme that he could neither see anything around him, nor sense anything within his area. 

Dwayne got off the ground and raised his arm high, intent on throwing it down…

Then he crashed to the floor hard.