Paradise Valley, Brimhall and Smith

December 6, 2005. Mesa Jr. vs. Paradise Valley.

First of all, this was the longest bus ride ever. It was even longer on the way back. McEvers only played six guys this game. I was still in his inner circle and was Guy #6.

We were still confident from playing Fremont closely for a quarter and had a 14-11 lead after the first quarter. Lorenzo didn't score and we had a lead. That's crazy.

Sometime in the second, I was standing under the hoop waiting for a rebound when Greg King inexplicably passed me the ball. I was open, sure. But I can't catch a basketball. And I sure can't throw one. I was too surprised to have any composure and just threw it where I thought the hoop was. It bounced high off the backboard and went in.

We went into the locker room up 22-21. That was an excited locker room. It was our first lead of the season! We were super giddy. Unfortunately it was short lived. I don't know if it was because Mesa High's JV squad and coaches had arrived to play after us and were watching, but we got outscored 14-5 in the third quarter. One Adrian Bernal trifecta and one Lorenzo Velazco field goal. That's all we could muster.

Our fourth quarter efforts were matched by Paradise Valley. 46-38 was the final. We were pretty ticked off after this one to say the least.

December 9, 2005. Mesa Jr. vs. Brimhall.

As you can see, we'd slowly been building confidence and learning how to play together. Honestly, during pregame warmups, I looked at Brimhall's team and thought we were gonna lose. Greg sat this game out. He said he was sick. Load of crap. I got the start because of that.

I don't remember much of the gameplay in this one. We were up 14-4 after one. 24-15 at half. After getting some third quarter minutes, I was replaced. As I went to sit down, McEvers had his hand out toward me. I didn't notice. After sitting, he came and towered over me with his hand extended. I was tired and my mind wasn't functioning properly. "I don't know what that means. I'm sorry," I said.

"Shake his hand!" yelled Luis Hernandez, our 'manager', from behind. So, I shook his hand. He squeezed as hard as he could, leaned in and said, "You will sit the rest of this game."

With his nicotine-laced breath hanging there, I said, "Ok," and checked out mentally. He must've seen this as bad sportsmanship by me. As me being pissed off that I was being taken out. I honestly was just tired and not very cognizant of the situation. This was the turning point of the season for me. I had been given a lot of playing time up to this point. I had been the sixth man up to this point. This mental slip moved me straight to ninth man and official benchwarmer.

We were up 41-27 after three. With Greg out, McEvers only had nine players and was forced to put me in the fourth quarter to get one of his starters out. I couldn't focus though. We ended up winning our first game of the season 56-40.

December 13, 2005. Smith vs. Mesa Jr.

The guys gave Greg crap about not playing. Telling him he shouldn't play anymore and we might keep winning. I think we may have been a tad overconfident coming off our first victory.

We were up 7-4 after one and 17-12 at halftime. Trailing 29-26 after three, we felt like we could win.

I really only remember one thing about this game. In the closing minutes, we were trailing. I don't recall the exact score and situation, but we needed a three. Adrian Bernal, our sharpshooter, was literally four feet in front of me. I had as good a view as anybody. He caught a pass on the right wing, pump faked, took a dribble and repositioned to the left to take an open three. The ref called him for a travel. Awful call. I saw it as good, if not better than that ref. There's no way that was a travel. He would've made that shot and we would've been right back in the game.

We wound up losing 44-38.

Taylor, South Mountain, Shepherd and Fremont

We had almost exactly three weeks from the first day of tryouts until the first game. Let's face it, it ain't easy to get a group of 14 and 15-year-old kids who haven't ever played real basketball to look good. McEvers and the point guard from his old championship team Max Hoshnic did their best to teach us plays and get us ready.

November 21, 2005. Taylor vs. Mesa Jr.

Bottom line: We weren't ready. First of all, they had Donte Medder and Jamar Johnson. Those two alone matched all of our offensive output. I still wonder what happened to Jamar. Donte's playing for Tulsa these days.

It was 21-11 after the first quarter, so we weren't totally out of it. 41-23 at half. 57-30 after three, and 77-42 final score. I had the most unforgettable play of the game. Jamar and Donte brought it up to me more than two years later. I, being a scrawny wimp, ended up on the floor. I had the ball under our basket. I looked around and I swear all my teammates were on the other side of the floor already. I was afraid I'd get whistled for a travel if I stood up, so I just threw the ball up. It nearly went in the hoop, bounced around the rim and into the enemy's hands.

One more thing to show how unprepared we were. In high school basketball, after a certain number of fouls in a half, the team fouled gets to shoot a "one-and-one." They shoot a free throw, if they make it they get a second free throw. If they miss the first, it's a live ball. Well, Taylor had a one-and-one situation. Dude missed the first and the ball bounced right to me. Everybody was just standing there, so I bounced it to the ref who jumped out of the way and let it go out of bounds. He blew his whistle and rewarded Taylor with possession. I had no idea. Apparently neither did anyone else.

The girls team was at Taylor and walked in just before our game ended. They had put up five points in their game.

November 29, 2005. South Mountain vs. Mesa Jr.
These guys were way late for this game. They thought they were supposed to go to Mesa High and it took forever to figure out it was lil' ol' Mesa Jr. instead. We were down to seven guys because Alex wanted to do some baseball thing instead. Greg and Erik both decided to pretend to be sick. When the South Mountain guys walked in, we were intimidated. These dudes were figgin huge!!!!!!!!!!!! Huge and black!!!!!!!

I got my first start of the season because the guys didn't wanna play. We were thoroughly outmatched. They had a full-court press on that we had no idea how to break. And they kept it on through at least three quarters.

20-4 after one. 47-9 at half. In the locker room at halftime, all seven of us were sitting on the island in the locker room, McEvers walked in and shook the hand of each of us.

"You're playing them like gods," he told us.

As proud as he was, it couldn't have lasted long. It was 55-19 after three. I gave us our first points of the 4th quarter with a straightaway three. The next possession I threw a three off the backboard. Anyway, we lost 73-26.

December 1, 2005. Mesa Jr. vs. Shepherd.

Our first road game. We didn't have all the kinks worked out yet, so we weren't able to take our scorekeeper.

All I know is the final score was 57-41, and that we outscored them in the second half. A tiny momentum builder.

December 2, 2005. Fremont vs. Mesa Jr.

Fremont had some nice lookin purple jerseys. We had some momentum from the night before and were down 19-16 after the first quarter. I distinctly remember looking at the scoreboard and seeing it be Fremont 19 Mesa Jr. 18. I don't know what happened exactly, but I can imagine we stopped giving the ball to Lorenzo and started taking bad shots.

I incurred an intentional, flagrant foul in this game. One of their bench guys was on a fast break. We were already down by at least 27. I pushed him down. He was classy about it. He defended me the entire fourth quarter and didn't retaliate. He just never gave me an opportunity to get the ball.

50-24 at half. Outscored 31-8. I don't know. 66-32 after three. 82-40 final. Even though we got trounced, we felt good because we kept it close for an entire quarter. That was a HUGE accomplishment for us.