up” system where the
responsibility to deliver did not solely lie with one person. Nobody
was indispensable. We won our first home tournament of the year,
The NITK Cup, beating most of the local competition. We were
eager for more and were interested in taking on more challenging
teams, and so we found ourselves in the quarterfinals against RVCE
in the BMS tournament Bangalore.
It was one of the most shocking losses of the year. This was
mainly due to the lack of production from my players and complete
failure against a good man-to-man defense. The ball was not rotated and there was stagnation. The bad offense was a debacle that
translated to our defense as well. But this loss was a good grounding
force and opened our minds to new avenues along which we could
improve.
After a gruelling and rocky start in the odd semester, we came
back rejuvenated in January rearing to push ourselves even more.
Our first challenge was during ZEST, College of Engineering Pune.
We were aware that we were going to play the day we arrived, after
a tiring 16 hour bus journey to play a knockout game. We were the
enigmatic team that everyone had no idea about. Our first game
was against the defending champions - Army College Pune. After a
very physical game we closed them out leading by 4 points. The momentum of the start and excellent performance in the subsequent
matches of the tournament gave us a new level of confidence. We
were almost knocked out in the semifinals, but Karthik Kumar’s
turn around fade away jumper at the buzzer just won us that game,
pushing us to the finals. We crushed our finalist opponents, MIT
COE and brought home the trophy.
Armed with our new found chemistry and with confidence that
was bursting through at the seams, we worked hard for Inter-NIT
2014. This is a tournament known (in)famously for the rivalry between us and NIT Trichy. The winner’s trophy had eluded our grasp
the last 2 years and we didn’t want to let it go this year too. We
worked hard for it and we performed admirably in the tournament.
However, once again we let the trophy slip, losing to Trichy 29 to 27
in the finals. The loss was completely a consequence of a series of
bad game-time decisions. Removing Tawfeeq during the last quarter
affected the team the most as ball rotation died. The shame of the
loss was smothering and humbling at the same time. It taught us not
to take any team lightly. Basketball is a very funny game.
The day we returned with our heads hanging low, I made a de-
cision to work harder still and
correct the mistakes that we
were making. I realized that to
be the best, I needed a higher level
of cooperation and commitment from my team.
So in the days following the loss, the team undertook a
declaration to commit absolutely to the game and work to move
past our mistakes together. The next 5 days were the most intense
days of the entire year. Playing at both 5.40 am and 5.40 pm produced a phenomenal change in each player.
It was barely a week before we had our next tournament, ‘The
Association Cup’. With our new practice routine in place, we were
able to destroy most other teams. The only competitive game was
in the final against NITTE, whom we had faced several times this
year. The game was close, and we managed to win the tournament
by a whisker. We beat NITTE 67-65 with a buzzer beater put back
by Chirag J.
This tournament was a good pick up, after the catastrophic performance at Trichy. It set us up to be in the optimum position to
contend for the Slam Dunk title in Incident 2014. Inci is sacred to
us - it is our home tournament. It is a tournament that has slipped
through the grasp of several captains before me and the weight of
putting up as good a show as last year weighed heavily on all our
minds. Of the many outstation teams that were attending the tournament, we had our eyes set on St. Joseph’s College of Commerce.
They are one of the best teams in Karnataka, and it was a match we
eagerly awaited. We reached the finals of the tournament without
too much of a hassle. It was then that we had to bolster our minds
to take on the behemoths. The SJCC team was known for their professionalism and clinical method of killing their opposition.
We were able to surprise the SJCC team with our lockdown
zone defense, not allowing them to penetrate, while eliminating
most of their inside strength. We went up early in the first 2 quarters but they were always gnawing at our lead. We played intense
balance defense, always running back once the offensive play was
over. We survived largely because of our zone defense. Entering the
last quarter, we enjoyed a comfortable 9 point lead. However, seeing
their inside offensive failing, they decided to rely on their shooting
to make up the deficit. The range they were shooting from was phenomenal! Any attempts by us to contest those shots would have left
us vulnerable in several other places. We gambled on their inability
to shoot in our home court and we did not closely contest those
shots. Vinay Venkatesh from SJCC made 4 continuous 3-pointers
to put them back in the game. This killed our lead and gave them a
lead of 3 points, allowing them to lead 53-50 for the first time in the
entire game. But we had accommodated this in our game plan. We
made some crucial plays in the next few rallies to scrape a lead of 2
The Shoreline
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