Got to give the people... (Jalen Rose)
But what do we give them, Jalen? (David Jacoby)
Give the people what they want (Jalen)
Well, it's been five months away from the blog. In other words, FAR TO EFFING LONG.
And yes, it was my fault. I was burnt out from work (lame excuse) and didn't write a blog post after my final one on February 16th.
During these past five months, I've gone back and forth on whether to keep the blog alive during the dead time before season. And I haven't found a good enough reason to until today.
See, when I started this thing up, it was not only my intention to give you peeps the DIII analysis you want, but also what it was like for me as a DIII player -- the stories, the interactions, the times that formed me into who I am today.
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| Me in our 2010 Dunk Contest |
But I got too caught up in the reporter part of it -- the analyzing, the break downs. I didn't give enough of the storytelling, the reason why DIII basketball was so good to me.
So as I was trying to find away to tell my stories in a book, I stumbled back upon my blog and figured, "Might as well give the people what they want."
So, I'm going to take Jalen Rose's grantland.com shtick (minus the bat, which terrifies me for some reason), and do a weekly Story Time with Terry. I'm going to give a basketball related story each week, mostly from my college playing days but also from my high school and younger days as well. All will be basketball-related, mostly on-the-court, but some off-the-court as well (although those will be far fewer because I'd like to keep it PG).
I will also encourage other DIII players, coaches, spectators, announcers, whoever, who would like to share their interesting, funny, uplifting or awesome basketball story from their time in the sport. You can DM me at my Twitter @turkdigg40 or email me it at terrylicht40@yahoo.com.
The series will run every Tuesday (including this Tuesday, see the story below) from here until basketball season, into basketball season and beyond.
It's time we share those wonderful stories we have and show to others what DIII basketball can truly offer.
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Everyone remembers their first significant playing time at any level. Not those garbage minutes where the coach looks down at the end of the bench and just throws in any available body. I'm taking about when the game is still in the balance.
Me, I don't really remember those times as a fifth-grader or even in high school really, because I started and never had to work for the playing time I got.
That changed when I got to Benedictine University. I found myself on the bench for my freshman year as a reserve, playing just a couple of minutes here or there at the end of games.
I vowed for that to be different my sophomore year in 2008. Problem was we were a deep team. We had 9 guys returning who got pretty significant playing time the year before, plus a freshman (Nate), who was for sure going to play. I was number 11/12 on the depth chart, but was improving and playing like a rotation guy in practice.
But it just so happened that Genslinger went down after A.J. (accidentally) caved in the left side of his face with an elbow on a layup during 3-on-3 get back drill in the first weeks of practice that left him out the first month or so of games.
The spot opened up a bit for me. We were a guy short on our normally 10-man rotation. That tenth spot got filled for the time being by Kas, who was a senior and a guy that could fill that spot.
So I was still stuck in a gray-area for the first three games of the season. I was close but didn't really get the opportunity I was looking for. I had scored my first career points in the first game of the season against Lake Forest, but it wasn't that cool to me because it was a blowout.
After our first two games, we headed down to Illinois College's Bill Merris tournament. Our first game we beat Eureka by finally going on a second-half run after letting an inferior team hang around.
That set us up in the championship game of the tournament against the host Blueboys. I have no doubt in my mind if we would've played them at the end of this season, we would've blown them out by 20. But we weren't the same team then and we were on the road.
The game was back and forth from the get go. And our 4s and 5s are collecting fouls by the boat load. A.J. was the first, getting his merely four minutes into the game. But as the half wore on Cam, Bridge and Klec each had two fouls. When Bridge got his second, Kas was next up to get in. But when Klec got his with just over a minute left in the half, it was my turn.
I knew that I was likely to go in and it was only for a minute, but that still didn't stop me from getting a shot of adrenaline as Bunks called my name.
I took off our shooting shirt and went to the scorers table, getting the requisite "Let's go, Terry" and "Come on," from those on the bench.
I finally got on the court for Klecan, which was during a free throw. My heart was just a racing on the line. You could probably feel it 15 rows up on both sides of the gym.
Anyway, the guy made the free throw. Since I was the bigger of the two posts on the floor, I went down to the other end, while Kas tossed the ball in to Noonan.
Noonan brought the ball up and initiated one of our secondary break plays that we ran every day in practice during the first four weeks. It was the high ball screen action.
Noonan brought it down the left side, then started dribbling towards the right. Kas set the screen right on the three-point line then rolled to the right block.
My action is to fill Kas spot on the left elbow above the three-point line, which I did. Kas' screen was a solid one, enough to where Noonan was able to turn the corner a bit and draw some defense to him.
It drew my guy, who was way down in the middle of the lane, a lot. Way too much. I'm pretty sure if I did that, Bunks would've had my hide.
Noonan stopped his drive and I drifted towards the top of the key to give him a shorter pass and make myself more available.
Noonan put a picture-perfect pass right into my shooting pocket. Couldn't have placed it any better. And being a shooter, I did what any shooter does when given a mile to release the shot with no contest and a perfect, in-rhythm pass. I shot it.
The shot was probably one of the top-5 most pure shots I've ever released (we'll talk about my top one in a later STWT). There was no thinking involved, no pressure. It was straight up and down and nothing but the bottom of the net.
I can still picture the ball in slow motion to this day. It probably wasn't the smartest thing to do. I was coming in cold for the last minute of the half, the shot came early as hell in the shot clock and I really wasn't in there to do anything but not screw up completely.
But it was almost like a weight came off my shoulders out there. I finally felt like I belonged on the college court, as compared to where I felt almost unworthy my entire freshman year. That shot was my baby step into bigger and better things.
Even though my shot was good, we ended up losing by 4 to Illinois College. But I scored my first real college points and my parents, bless them, traveled seven hours to Jacksonville, Ill., and actually got to see it.
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Thanks for joining me for the first edition of Story Time with Terry. Be sure to check it out next week and you can always follow me on Twitter at @turkdigg40.
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