Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Good old fashioned Sportsmanship still lives

Last night I watched my sons's team, Southern High School, a small Class 2A school, take on one of the top 4A schools of this decade in Anne Arundel County, Old Mill.

It was game that never saw either team lead by more than five points the entire contest. It was a game with star power, Old Mill's great senior Eric Savage, and Southern's senior guard Bryan Harris and 6-7 senior forward Cody Joyce.

That trio didn't lack for quality as the three combined for 44 points among them. Savage played great defense, Harris, despite injury, was game, and Joyce spent the night at the line with 16 free-throw attempts and three dunks on the inside.

A talented 10th-grader in Brian Hinton posted 19 points and Southern's Jay Greenwell, who by all rights, shouldn't have been on the floor with a leg injury in the overtime, hit for 15 points and a big trio of three-pointers.

Bodies were laid out on the floor all night. Both teams desperate to claim victory in a close game. Southern's Davonte Burke with some high acrobatics to answer quality play from the Patriots Joe McCargo and Gavin Salmond.

College coaches in the stands. With all that talent out there, who could blame them for not wanting to see this one.

The great thing about last night's game though, was the behavior of the players, the sportsmanship the entire night from guys trying to beat the other guy through some heated moments, bad calls that left their coaches and fans to do the complaining, but from the players, nothing. Lets go to the other end and try again.

In a perfect world, all games would be like last night's 83-81 overtime thriller where the small school challenges the big guys and the kids would play the way they did. It shows their coaches preach the right things in how to play. Even though the game likely should have seen a second overtime last night, I will always take away the way the kids played and RESPECTED each other the entire night. Perhaps some of the parents in attendence should learn from them.

OVERTIME:
Georgetown's Austin Freeman doesn't get mentioned enough in player of the year discussion, but perhaps he should. His output against Big East competition has been extraordinary this year.

Stock up- TEXAS. Beating A&M at home was one thing, but destroying them at College Station was pretty impressive.

XAVIER- The win at Richmond Saturday by 23 made me a believer.

Stock Down- Gonzaga, Butler, Gordon Haywood, where are you ?