points and finish the game 58-56. We had just won the hardest game of the entire year. We
had lived up to our own expectations and everybody else’s.
We had little rest (about a week) before embarking on our journey to NIT Calicut to
play at Raagam 2014. Owing to academic constraints, only a limited squad was present on
the first day of the tournament. We lost the first game by a small margin of 4 points. However we won the remaining games to keep ourselves in the tournament. By the second day,
we were back to full strength and were taking on some of the best teams in Kerala. In our
final game we were taking on Devagiri College of Arts and Science a highly reputed team
in Kerala which is known to have produced four national players in the recent past. They
were clearly the fastest team we had faced yet and we knew that our speed would not be an
advantage in this game. With our rock solid defense, we were able to nullify our opponents’
athleticism and played good fundamental basketball to give us the victory.
We were on a roll, but we were tired and fatigued from the wear of months of gruelling
practice, travel and playing games in so many different venues. However we still held it together to play the last tournament of the semester - Revels 2014. We started off by playing
NIT Trichy in the first round knockout game. This game, to us, was as important as winning
the tournament itself. We wanted to avenge the loss we had suffered at Trichy as well as all
the other losses in the last three years. We played them hard and beat them 52-32, knocking them out of the tournament in the very first round. The next match was another big
one. We were playing RNSIT, a team that we had lost to in the previous edition of Revels.
However, we pulled through in the end to beat them 51- 45. This put us in the league to
contend for the title. We ended up finishing runners-up to VIT on head to head. We ended
the year on a high as we beat MIT in a close encounter and I made a shot with 0.4 seconds
left to give us a 40-38 victory.
The basketball team is so much more than a group of people good at playing the game.
We are family. We give up our 5:30-8:00 social lives everyday for the game and for each
other. We are each other’s social lives. Invariably, a dinner plan will emerge after practice and
a good bunch of us will go out to get some good food. Complaints from team members
about assignments and tests the next day are ignored. Nothing gets higher priority than a
Team Chemistry Session (TCS), except practice, of course.
We ended with a record of 46-7, won 6 tournaments and came runners-up in 4. We
have established ourselves as the most successful team in NITK’s rich basketball history.
But this team is more than just the 17 players on the squad. Our basketball team alumni are
our backbone and support. We report all our matches to them, and take their advice very
seriously. Their encouragement keeps us moving forward.
We’ve seen the numbers. But we realize that there is only one number that really matters. Its not the number on your jersey, not the number of points you score, not the number
of rebounds or assists you get, not the number of games or tournaments you play, and not
even the number of tournaments you win. The number that really matters is one. We are
one heart, one team. We are one.
“
Kalyan S is a final year undergraduate
student of Computer Science
Engineering. He is the captain and coach
of the NITK Basketball Team, and led
them through a very successful spell in
2013-14. Kalyan is also an explosive stage
performer and is known for his unbridled
enthusiasm.
The basketball team is so much more than a
group of people good at playing the game.
We are family
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The Shoreline