So, off we went to Missouri for our first two games as a staff in junior college. Moberly College had a beautiful facility to play in- the Cotton Fitzsimmons-Maury John Arena. This was going to be a great way to kick off our careers, or ruin them. Our first opponent was Missouri State University-West Plains, ranked 15th in the Division 1 pre-season poll. Being ranked 11th in our own conference poll meant, of course, that we had no standing nationally. We upset MSU West Plains 65-59, in a very hard fought and physical game. It was notable to us, because late in the game we ran our spread offense. Most people told us that we would never be able to use the four corner in college because of the shot clock, which was then 35 seconds. I thought “you never know”, so we put it in to our practices anyway. At the time, I was thinking end-game scenarios. Little did I know what would happen next. After our game, we all went into the stands to watch #2 ranked Moberly play a pretty talented college from Kentucky. Moberly pressed the entire game and gave their opponents a pretty good beating, easily scoring over a hundred points. As we watched, we became convinced that a similar fate awaited us if we played Moberly straight up. It was decided that as long as they pressed us, we would spread them tit-for-tat. We thought they would be committed to the press at the beginning, but then might waiver if we started running the shot clock down and from time-to-time getting some easy baskets. As it turned out, they stayed committed to the press for the entire game, which caused us to stay committed to the spread offense the entire game. That is literally all we ran. We did play pretty good defense, too. We controlled the tempo the entire game and ended regulation tied at 61. We then outscored Moberly 11-6 in overtime to win 72-67. I’ve got to admit that it was one of the most satisfying wins in my entire career. The team was waiting for us in the locker room and the coaches got doused with water pretty good.
I think the most memorable moment for me came a little bit later when we were eating pizza provided to us by Moberly after the game. We were up at the mezzanine level of the arena, in a conference room. The door suddenly popped open and some old guy who we didn’t know popped in and said “now that’s how you play basketball.” He turned and walked out without saying anything else. He didn’t need to. There we were in Fitzsimmons-John Arena, where we had just played the winningest junior college program in history and had prevailed. We had arrived. Over the years, we played in Missouri, Kansas, Texas, and Iowa in the midwest, and the people in those areas seemed to have an understanding and appreciation for basketball and its history that was lacking in our home state. Another interesting result of the Moberly game was that very few people in Arizona would ever know what happened there that night. When I walked in to work on Monday morning back in Mesa, the athletic secretary asked me “hey, how did you guys do this weekend?” That tells you all you need to know about junior basketball in the Phoenix area.
Next time: The ACCAC...
I think the most memorable moment for me came a little bit later when we were eating pizza provided to us by Moberly after the game. We were up at the mezzanine level of the arena, in a conference room. The door suddenly popped open and some old guy who we didn’t know popped in and said “now that’s how you play basketball.” He turned and walked out without saying anything else. He didn’t need to. There we were in Fitzsimmons-John Arena, where we had just played the winningest junior college program in history and had prevailed. We had arrived. Over the years, we played in Missouri, Kansas, Texas, and Iowa in the midwest, and the people in those areas seemed to have an understanding and appreciation for basketball and its history that was lacking in our home state. Another interesting result of the Moberly game was that very few people in Arizona would ever know what happened there that night. When I walked in to work on Monday morning back in Mesa, the athletic secretary asked me “hey, how did you guys do this weekend?” That tells you all you need to know about junior basketball in the Phoenix area.
Next time: The ACCAC...
