Beyond the arc
Eleven years ago, I was on the end of one of the most devastating losses of my early basketball career. The loss came via former Marion head coach Marion Ogden and his 1992-93 Warriors. Marty Teufel's game-winning shot under our basket is still as clear as the day it happened many years ago.
This week, I chose to recount the game, with help from the two people that I felt saw it best from Marion's point of view — Coach Ogden and former player Stacey Sawyer, both whom I have a deep respect for in both basketball and in life.
There were a lot of emotions for Hillsboro heading into that game. We were struggling to find our identity, and to this day, I'm not certain we ever found it that year. Most of those who had played on the State runner-up team the year before were lost to graduation, much like Hillsboro's team this season. So it became a great opportunity for Marion to claim a victory over a team that was attempting to fill voids left by great players.
One aspect that I didn't mention in the feature, was that the player throwing the ball in-bounds was attempting to throw the pass to me streaking down the sideline. As the story goes, the ball sailed out-of-bounds and Marion made good on the turnover for the win. To this day, I think that the Hillsboro player throwing the ball in still blames himself for the loss, which might be true had our team not blown a 17-point lead prior to the ill-advised pass.
However, there was one major revelation that I came away with in losing that game. Regardless of who you are, whether you've won before or not, or whether you're considered a long-shot, ANYONE can be victorious on any given night.
You might argue that 11 years argues against my idea, but this Friday night when Marion and Hillsboro lock horns, I think I'll prove my point. And it's not a matter of whether Marion fields a better team than Hillsboro or visa-versa, it simply comes down to who WANTS to win worse, and in this case the team that wants it worse will win.
And before you think I'm crazy or wrong, it might do you good to take it from someone who knows — just ask the 1992-93 Warriors.
