I know that this blog is suppossed to be about things that are breaking down, but I have to be posititve for a second and give a huge intramural shoutout to Joseph Springer III or as most of you know him Joe.
Most of you know what intramurals are (because that’s what all the cool kids are doing at LHS right now) but if you don’t and or weren’t at the games last Tuesday night Joe (who plays for the Kansas Indians) put on a show. Being the huge basketball fan that I am one of my favorite things to watch is for a player to take over a game just like Joe did last Tuesday night. There is a certain amount of brilliance that goes on, that just makes me smile every time I see it. Only this time I wasn’t so thrilled.
The most likely reason, because I was on the recieving end of most of his brilliance. This comes as no offense to the Kansas Indians but coming into Tuesday night’s game, I knew exactly who we needed to shut down, Joe Springer. Being the competitor that I am I volunteered to guard him. I was feeling pretty good about this desicion for the first six minutes of the game while Joe was 0-2 and seemed t0 be in a pass first mode and we were up 6-0.
I don’t know what caused him to leave this mode, maybe it was because he figured out what everyone else in the gym already knew, which is that the Kansas Indians go as Joe Springer goes or maybe he was just waiting for us to build a small bit of a lead so when he decided to take over it would look even more brilliant. Either way he did exactly what we expected.
Being the big slow person that I am and always have been I have come to notice that when you are guarding a smaller, quicker, State champion runner like Joe, that you give them a little space on the perimiter so they don’t blow by you for a lay-up every single time. I was feeling pretty confident about this strategy for a short period at the begining of the game when Joe was shooting jumpers and was 0-2 . Joe must have realized I was giving him this room because the next time up the court he gave me a couple of crossovers like he was going to the goal and then hit me right in the face with a step back jumper. I couldn’t have defended it any better, even though he broke me down I still managed to get a hand in his face and contest the shot. It didn’t matter though, it still went down. I knew that if he could make that shot consistantly for the whole game we were in trouble. He did and we were. In fact he put that same move on me three times in a row to bring the game back to 6-6 and I felt like we were playing from behind for the rest of the game. It all happened so fast and before I knew it I look up and we are down by 11. Even though we managed to bring the game within three with 40 seconds left we still went on to lose 46-38, and of those 46 Joe probably had at least 25.
As a player on the opposing team normaly I would be bitter (and I was after we lost), but as a fan of the game when I look back it was a great performance by a good player. So let this be a warning for any team that crosses paths with the Kansas Indians (I hope we meet again) during the intramural tournament starting Feb. 16 beware of one Joseph Springer III.
