Time to ponder: it’s 12 hours later, I’m well rested and I have to recant some of what has been here.
In the words of my man Alan Siegel, mea culpa.
I was emotional, saw what I saw and let my crazy side take over.
What followed here was my imagination getting the better of me. I will state 10 what I’d call facts from the Lawrence game and chalk the rest up to my feelings.
1. The fouls in the second half were 14-7 and Somerville is not an inside team.
2. Lawrence, an interior team on its on its home floor, had 24 ft attempts from the foul line to Somerville’s 32.
3. Both Lawrence big men were shut down, not by Somerville but by foul trouble.
4. Somerville had no field goals in the final 4:15.
5. There were severe head-scratchers, all that coincidentally went Somerville’s way over the last 16 minutes.
6. Paul Neal was totally flummoxed but remained classy and pointed the blame to his players, choosing to allow the facts to tell the story over some dumb ass blogger’s (that’s me folks) emotional rant.
7. Somerville outscrapped and outhustled Lawrence from the opening tap. They got all the loose balls. As Paul said, “it wasn’t big things, but they did all the little things. If they had lost, they would have been heartbroken too, because that was a group of kids that was well-drilled, well-coached and poured its heart out on the floor for all to see last night.
8. I give Justin Nieves and Anthony DeJesus and the rest of the Lawrence seniors credit. They held the ship together threw some rocky times. I just know how they’re feeling today. Anyone that has won or lost a game of Wiffle Ball can imagine, with what they’ve poured into it, how they are feeling today.
9. Life is hard, and as Paul said, basketball “is a snippet of life.”
10. The writer was clearly overworked and let his imagination run a little crazy.
Here’s the blog that was penned last night, albeit emotion-fueled and a tad amended:
March 6, 2006.
I walked out of a basketball gym with a sick feeling like I had never experienced.
Because of a grudge, a disagreement, a grown man (with a whistle in hand) maliciously crushed the dreams of a dozen or so young men in the Division 1 North basketball tournament just to prove a point to their coach.
If I didn’t hear a promise to take care of him boastfully to a friend at press row before the game and then watch him take it to said coach repeatedly for 32 minutes, I might never believed it possible.
That of course was the night that Charlestown knocked off Andover with Casey Cosgrove, Greg Vetrano and company after the folks in the city were infuriated by Andover’s pleas to move the game to a better site than Charlestown. The contest was changed to Madison Park and the Townies, thanks to a deadly night from shooting guard Paul Becklens and the lion’s share of the whistles all night long taught the Warriors a lesson in tourney come-uppences.
They were angry at Dave Fazio and the kids got jobbed.
It happened. Read the book or watch the tape.
Why do I bring this up?
Because I covered Lawrence-Somerville Monday night, and I did not like what I saw, to the point where it got really unfathomable.
Now, let me stop right here and come totally clean before I go on. I am a friend of Lawrence High and the basketball program. My wife teaches at the school. Many teachers, coaches and administrators there are friends of mine. I’ve grown to admire and respect the kids, as much as any other group I’ve come in contact with over 20 years of covering high school sports.
So yes, I’m sure my opinion might be clouded. I say it’s not, but you people have read me for 20 years now. I am two things, passionate and fair. I try to be as objective as possible and let the facts talk. I know what I saw.
And if my father taught me one thing, it was the difference between right and wrong.
In case you missed it, a much bigger, inside-oriented Lawrence team was whistled for 25 fouls to Somerville’s 16. Guard-oriented Somerville shot more free throws, eight more, in a three-point game.
Both Lawrence big men played about 16 minutes thanks to foul trouble. and were both gone, one at 5:51 and one at 2:44 of the fourth.
Somerville was not whistled for a foul in the third quarter. In the third, Lawrence was hit for seven fouls.
I watched Justin Nieves get hit on the forearm so hard that his 3-point shot came up 10 feet short, with no call.
I watched a Somerville player, trapped on his own baseline perfectly, with about eight seconds rolled off a 10-count, get saved by a bumping foul.
I saw the Lawrence forwards get nabbed for slight bumps.
I watched the same officials whistle both big guys for fouls 4 and 5, with contact that wouldn’t have dented a feather pillow …
And I wondered, almost aloud, is it happening again?
The officials and MVC coaches have had plenty of bad press this season.
This blog covered things from all angles back in January, the officials’ lack of control, the coaches often beligerent behavior, the officials refusing to keep anyone in check and games nearly spiralling out of control.
Arguments with players, arguments with coaches … and the officials allowing things to run amok.
I walked out of Lawrence High wondering if all the bad publicity, including a recent controversial column in our Sunday newspaper scolding the local coaching contingent and the officials for letting it happen, could have had some influence.
No way, I thought. No flipping way.
And then I remember that night at Maddy Park. It had happened before.
I could be off base, but the seed of doubt was planted three years ago.
All I can tell you is what I saw.
I watched Lawrence High shoot itself in the foot all night long.
Paul Neal was utterly flummoxed. Some of the calls were absolutely strange.
I’m a reaction guy. I watched the people around me when crunch time rolled around, and Somerville was handed the game on the foul line … no baskets in over 4 minutes needed.
I saw what we all saw.
Hopefully, it was just an awful, awful night.
Hopefully, it’s just one of those things and we can all wish a pretty darn classy and tremendously scrappy group of Somerville Highlanders all the luck in the world as they challenge the beast of the East, Central Catholic.
I know Dave Fazio now knows to expect the unthinkable. Why? Because, it’s already happened once, three years ago.
But what about the kids? Aren’t they, not adult egos and agendas, what high school sports are supposed to be about.
What about those 16 and 17-year-old athletes, the kids trying to do it right in a city that isn’t too hospitable to teenagers.
They were the kids with tears in their eyes. I hope, for all of our sakes, they weren’t victims of collateral damage.
They are kids with dreams. For some, basketball is all they have.
To sacrifice them, just to prove a point to another adult or a group of coaches, would be nothing short of sinful.
I admit it. I’m hurting for those kids right now.
Gosh, I hope I’m absolutely wrong.
I’ve never wanted to be so wrong. I just hope I am.
I really do.
I saw a lot of hoop junkie types there. You guys are nonbiased too. Tell me I’m way off base. Tell me I’m right. Just tell me how you feel.
