4.8 seconds left -WE got this.

Remember back to the 1992 classic "A Few Good Men."?
Do you remember the two "boot" Marines on trial for the murder of William Santiago? A Code Red was ordered and they carried out the order intending only to "train" the Marine that didn't meet Unit standards. Unfortunately,Santiago died.
Of course everyone remembers Jack Nicholson yelling , "You can't handle the truth!" but do you remember the conversation after the verdict of Guilty of Conduct unbecoming of a United States Marine?
In disbelief, Private Downey asked, "What did we do wrong? We did nothing wrong."
Lance Corporal Dawson answered stoically, "Yeah we did. We were supposed to fight for the people who couldn't fight for themselves. We were supposed to fight for Willie."

You see, in the Marine Corps we are "trained" early on that a Unit is only as strong as its' weakest link. And rather than weeding out the weak links, Marines learn to bolster the confidence and abilities of their comrades. Strengthening everyone, so that in battle, Marines know to trust their training and to equally trust their fellow Marines as well.

I won't try to compare Marines to 7th grade boys basketball players but I do know that all season long I've been coaching to the mentality of abandoning individual and selfish goals in favor of a true TEAM experience - lessons I learned in Uncle Sam's Motorcycle Club. Early on in the season, it was apparent that some of my athletes had more experience and thus were having more early success. Meanwhile, a couple of the players struggled with uncomfortable feelings of inadequacy while trying make their bodies do new things. New concepts and offenses were thrown at them repeatedly and while their teammates appeared to catch on quickly, a couple of the guys were questioning their commitment.

As losses piled up against teams that didn't adhere to my same coaching philosophy, it became harder to convince my young players that they were getting better fundamentally and improving as a TEAM. Opponents would leave their "star" players on the court much longer than necessary and those same opponents purposely kept "lesser" athletes on the bench, only offering infrequent scrub time. I coached that we were ultimately only in control of our effort and our attitude. I asked them not to worry about what our opponents did and didn't do to make everyone on their teams better. As long as each one of my players continued giving their best effort and kept improving, they would all see plenty of playing time.

Winless, we stayed the course. A string of games were lost by fewer than 4 points each and inside I knew that I could have possibly found a way to win those games if I abandoned my "strong as our weakest link" philosophy. My team stuck with me.

Day in and day out these 10 players worked to improve. They learned to rebound. They played "help defense". They learned to be patient and attack at appropriate times. They stayed committed to each other's success leading toward ultimate team goals. Players "coached" each other. Players held each other accountable and a decisive win finally came a week ago when they finally "put it all together".

Our last game of the year was played this past Thursday and came against our "storied" rival. Braham's State Championships cannot be denied and their recipe for success couldn't be farther from my personal approach this season. Throughout the game their coach would play his "top 5" players and press aggressively with them in. We led the game early on but struggled against their "first squad". At one point in the first half, Braham's "top 5" took to the bench as a slew of players that appeared to be lost, replaced them. Our opponent's reserve players were tossed to the wolves and unfortunately, it was obvious that the same effort hadn't been made to coach those young men. In our previous meeting some of those same players didn't touch the court until a 3 minute "scrimmage" was sadly added after the final horn. And as you can imagine this time around, these same players only saw minimal playing time.

Meanwhile, the Tigers were kept on a steady rotation. When players were playing well, they stayed on the court longer. When mistakes were made, players got to sit by me on the bench for "coaching opportunities". All 10 players were contributing to a great game. As the second half wore on, Braham went on a little run and we found ourselves trailing on the scoreboard. With 58 seconds left in the game and down by 11 points, it appeared that we were going to run out of time. At that point, the Braham coach sensed that a victory was safe enough and decided to re-enter those scrubs that hadn't seen an ounce of playing time in the 2nd half. I could have taken it easy on those young men from Braham and let the game just fade into the evening but instead I ramped up our pressure defense and made my own substitution. There was one last "coaching point" I had to make to our TEAM.

Jonathan was a teammate that came to us a few months ago with limited basketball knowledge. As his peers quickly picked up new drills and concepts, he struggled with the basics. Jon threw the ball at the hoop. He knew nothing of form shooting, pivot feet, elbow vs. block, or the pick and roll but Jon stuck through it all. He ran every "killer" as if varsity playing-time depended on it. When I coached, he looked me in the eye and nodded. He asked questions when things weren't clear. This young man had come so far and learned so much. I would venture to say that he was as important to our Team as was the kid on the other end of the spectrum. And so, I took out our season long, star player and replaced him with a teammate that had already had his fair share of playing time for the day. Jonathan.

Knowing that we could make a 58 second assault on the scoreboard, we put on a full court press that immediately caused panic in our opponents. The turnovers came in droves as the baskets poured in for the home team. The crowd sensed an epic comeback but I was more of a realist. 11 points in less than a minute was a far reach. I abandoned thoughts of winning and quickly changed my focus. As our power forward was fouled and headed to the free throw line for 2 shots, I called 3 players to the sideline. As I looked each one of them in the eyes all I said was, "Get Jon The Ball." "Get - JON -the Ball!" You see, through all the sweat, through all of the practices, through all of the coaching and drills of a season, Jonathan had yet to score in a game. Oh he had improved tremendously! Now he was strong with the ball. Great at chasing down loose balls and rebounds. Even deft at passing. But putting one in the bucket had eluded him. My hopes for this young man were high, especially as the clock now read just a hair over 18 seconds.

The second free throw was missed and dynamically, the shortest kid on the court came up with the rebound. Frantically, but just as he was instructed, he looked for Jon. Much taller players converged on our point guard and he panicked as he tried to force a pass to Jon, resulting in a turnover. Luckily we were able to foul the Bombers and force them to the free throw line, giving me another opportunity with the clock stopped to get my message across. I yelled to the other end of the court for my players' attention and barked at them to remember what I had just instructed. I told them that their mission stayed the same but that I wanted it accomplished within the scheme of our offense. Jon was oblivious to this plan but the 4 teammates on the court were well aware, as were his teammates on the bench and the fans directly behind us.

While the short guy dribbled the ball up the court, precious seconds ticked away on a memorable season. We had whittled the deficit down from 11 points to 7. The players cheered from the bench. Fans from both sides shouted words of encouragement to their kids on the court. When all 5 players had reached their set points of our offense I called "Pride Left" - A high pick and roll at the top of the key between our left "Big" and the point guard. The short guy with the ball dribbled left off of the pick, shoulder to shoulder just as he had been taught. The defense called a switch as our "Big" rolled down the lane. The player guarding John left him and headed towards the lane in an attempt to cover for his beaten teammates. At this point I was sure that a bounce pass was going to hit our post player flashing to the hole. We had worked on that repetitively. But their help defense left John to float into an open area that we call "the bank". With a quick glance at the clock and I saw it tick closer to the 5 second mark as the window of opportunity began to close. Instead of dropping off the bounce pass, the short guy delivered a perfect chest past to Jon as he was showing his hands and already poised in shooting position.

The clock froze at 4.8 seconds. The shot had instructionally perfect backspin on it. The ball kissed high off of the backboard and dropped through the hoop, ripping at the net. Jon had scored! It was no gimme either. He earned it. The crowd erupted as if it was Game 7 of the NBA finals. I pumped my fist so hard and jumped so high that I may have scared my small children sitting in the bleachers behind me. "Jon scored!" "He hit it!", I yelled as I ran down the sidelines where I met his on-looking father. That moment will be with me forever. For a split second Jon's teammates forgot that the game was still on while they high fived and chest bumped their friend. Every parent that had been with us through difficult defeats against opponents with skewed definitions of "Team Play", cheered and smiled. Forgetting for a moment about the game, I hugged Jon's dad and told him that I was so proud. I could plainly see that he was too.

We created another turnover and stole the inbounds pass to score one more basket before the final horn sounded. Believe it or not, we actually lost the game by 3 points. An innocent bystander wouldn't have guessed it as players and fans rushed onto the court to share in the true meaning of "Team." Parents snapped pictures of the post game, team huddle. Players patted each other on the back and you really had to look twice at the scoreboard to see who actually won the game. Not only had Jon scored in the final 4.8 seconds of the season but these young men had also learned that giving their best effort and approaching each day with a positive attitude defined our success. No one on our team meant more or less than the other. We have no weak links.