And Then There Were 8

Big Daddy sitting in for Mother Basketball at the keyboard. She's napping, trying to keep pace with our two-games-a-day schedule.

And the good news from this morning is ... Eclipse 68, Lady Monarchs 43. Coach Knight told the girls to get on 'em early, since our opponents lost last evening and landed in the Loser's Bracket. A team's psyche can be very fragile at that point. After that first loss you think the world has ended. I know I felt pretty low after we lost to the Indy Wildcats the other night. So, the Master Psychologist pushed the right buttons this morning and our girls came out with guns blazing. We jumped to a big lead and never looked back.

Hannah "Sue" Novaria has been playing with a broken toe for two weeks now, so the postgame ritual is "I and I" - ice and ibuprofen. (I made that up.) Then more ice and plenty of rest for her feet. It also seems she's getting that foot stepped on in games. This afternoon the girls are either napping or playing Apples to Apples. Our room happens to be the focal point for recreational activity. The game is in full swing.

Last night was another short night. I think we all had a tough time sleeping with an 8:30 game staring us in the face. Of course, an 8:30 game means you're up by 6:15, you try to eat some breakfast and be ready to board the War Wagon by 6:50. The drive to the gym at Fairfield High School is 20-30 minutes, and you always want to arrive early enough to do lots of stretching and shooting. Pregame drills usually begin 20 minutes before gametime. Parents wander in around that time, as we drive separately.

I feel the girls have hit their stride, rattling off three straight wins in the loser's bracket. And as the title above suggests, we are in the "Elite 8". Can you believe it? The top 8 out of 94 teams. We had a friend in our hometown who used to say of his son's piano recitals, "He played better than he knew how". Sometimes it feels as if our girls reach new heights and I wonder where that ability and talent came from.

For those of you trying to visualize Hannah's game, I'll give you a little more description. Her role has been playing the #2 or #3 positions - that's a guard or small forward. It's her job to handle the ball often, pass the ball inside to the post players or to the other guards and forwards who are open, or penetrate, which simply means dribbling/driving into the lane if she sees an opening. Many of her points have come off of those dribble-drives, either in the form of a layup or short pull-up jump shot. She's also made several 3-point shots. I can honestly say that when the team is in a little slump, she has been the player to break the slump with a basket and get the team going again.

Tonight's game is at 7pm, once again at Fairfield High, but in the smaller gym downstairs. Our opponent is the Queen City Jewels out of Charlotte. Don't know anything about them, but sometimes that's better than buying into hype or misinformation. I'll leave the scouting to the coaches. One win away from the Final Four!