Court of Dreams

Recently I had the opportunity to attend a Hopkins High School (HHS) basketball game at the Minnesota Boys State High School Basketball Tournament. Though I remember exactly who the opponent was, because of some unusual circumstances I won't be able to tell you the opponent. Let's just call them BHS. Hopkins (28-0, 4 players already signed to Division 1 universities, with their average margin of victory 32 points) against BHS (15-14, apparently slept with someone to get in the tourney). It wasn’t close – final 68-26, but loads of fun. Why?

1. A bit of hometown pride. Our guys looked like men against boys. I suspect there might be some Chemistry going on in the locker room instead of the classroom – Jesus these guys were big.

2. Finding the player who reminds me of me. BHS point guard, number 32, skinny, studious looking, good ball handler, textbook shooter. Scored 10 to lead his team. Also made good decisions, didn’t take a bad shot (though occasionally shot badly – more on that later). Solid, if unspectacular, defender – good positional defender.

3. The Hopkins fans. The Minnesota equivalent to the Cameron Crazies at Duke, complete with practiced chants. Some examples:

• The aforementioned BHS point guard shot an airball in the opening minutes. From that moment until the game became a joke just before halftime, the Hopkins fans taunted “Air-Ball!” every single time he touched the ball, which was often because he’s the point guard.

• When a HHS player shot an airball, the BHS crowd, of course, feebly retaliated with their own “Air-Ball!” chant. The Hopkins fans responded by chanting in unison, and much more loudly, [Clap. Clap. Clapclapclap…]“We… can’t… hear… you…”.

• Late in the game, with Hopkins emptying the bench, what I counted as the 3rd string Hopkins point guard stole the ball at mid-court and drove for an uncontested layup, the Hopkins fans chanted, [Clap. Clap. Clapclapclap…] “He’s… a… fresh-man…”. As if to say, "even our freshmen are kicking your ass."

• When a BHS player shot a free-throw, the HHS crowd, situated directly behind the shooter’s backboard, stood silent, facing away from the shooter. Yes, away from the shooter. And silent. This is in contrast to the typical opposing-free-thrower-distraction tactic of screaming and waving of hands. Again, the crowd is facing away from the shooter – and silent. Then, just as the shooter is going into his shooting motion, the crowd, in unison, spins around and yells, “Hey!” and waves, kind of like the flight attendants at the end of a flight.

4. Good basketball stuff. Like:

• Royce White – Hopkins stud #1, headed to the U of M in the fall, steals the ball, heads downcourt 1 on 3, stumbles, takes a fadeaway 12-footer, hits nothing but air, and gets pulled from the game immediately on the next whistle. White sits and listens as the head coach gives him what I consider to be very direct feedback on his decision making. No one is above sitting down after making a selfish play.

• Michael Broghammer – Hopkins stud #2, headed to Notre Dame in the fall, steals the ball and heads downcourt for a breakaway, 2-handed dunk and very obviously travels. The game is still relatively close at the time – Hopkins up 17-6. The BHS head coach explodes, gesturing very specifically that he believes that traveling should have been called. This being high school basketball, not the NBA, not only is there no make-up call forthcoming, the BHS coach gets called for a technical foul.

• The center from the Hopkins last string team (and by last string I mean that these 5 guys were literally sitting in the last seats on the bench, next to the 2 Rubenesque female team managers, and that these 5 look like the offspring of the starting 5), in the game all of 5 seconds, gets fouled on the defensive end while rebounding. Apparently not realizing that Blaine is in the penalty, he lingers on the defensive end of the court, and you can see the reluctance in his eyes as he heads down to take the foul shots. He makes the first shot by banking it in on the fly – a shot that in “H-O-R-S-E” doesn’t count unless you called “bank” before taking the short – and immediately smiles and relaxes while receiving a congratulatory fist bump from what I imagine to be his best basketball friend, the skinny last-string point guard. Now completely relaxed and composed, he hits nothing but net on the second shot.

• Five minutes into the game the score is Hopkins 4, BHS 0. On the surface this appears to be a close game. But if you were paying close attention you would have noticed that Hopkins had already missed 4 free throws and several make-able jump shots and layups and BHS had yet to draw iron. Literally. When Blaine gets the ball it takes their starting point guard 8 seconds to advance past midcourt – and that’s just being guarded man-to-man – Hopkins doesn’t begin employing a full-court press until 5 minutes left in the half.

• Hopkins top 9 players – any mix of them – will win the tournament. They are head and shoulders better than any other team. The drop-off to the next 5 guys on the Hopkins bench is pretty small. Hopkins players 9-13 outplayed BHS’s starters. Hopkins has a scary level of depth.

It was a great time for me. I actually had to blink back tears when I thought of how much my father-in-law would have enjoyed this outing. I guess that in the winter, my 'field of dreams' is a basketball court.