Honestly, I was more nervous going into last week's men's basketball Media Mania than I have been for anything in a while. I've taken handfuls of college tests, flown to five different foreign countries last summer and rode in the Little 500, and playing basketball for the first time in six years was just frightening.
My cycling shape carried me through the sprints and ab workouts during the warmups, but shooting the orange through a hoop that always seemed farther away and smaller than reality was a different story.
I missed all my right-handed layups (I'm right-handed), and through some miracle, I made all the left handed ones, through sheer luck I think.
After watching a former volleyball player turned journalist make three 3-pointers via a volleyball set during our 45 second contest, I was a little worried as to how I would fare. I was struggling to make baskets from right under the hoop. How could I do from distance?
Well, with the help of Strength and Conditioning Coach Je'ney Jackson cheering me on and yelling in my ear, I was able to muster up three baskets. Though I had tied someone playing volleyball with a basketball hoop and lost to another wearing a walking boot (he will remain unnamed), I was starting to enjoy time on the hardwood again, as we moved on to the game at Assembly Hall.
Back in grade school, I played in a league every winter through my local Boys and Girls Club. I was never good; in fact, let's just say I can count all the baskets I ever made in my rec league on two hands during all seven years, but, I never dwelled on the fact that I wasn't a scoring machine. It had been a fun way to meet kids my age, make friends, and keep my scrawny figure in shape.
But this was the big time, for me anyways. You could argue that basketball is the most popular sport in the nation, and its mecca is Indiana, and even more so IU. Playing in Assembly Hall, even if I was wearing a cotton white t-shirt with a torn blue mesh jersey over it while passing to four other student journalists like myself, is as good as it gets.
And although our team lost 60-49 after our opponents went on a 3-pointer binge in the second half, I began to realize that playing basketball wasn't as miserable as I had remembered. Sure, I don't have enough time on my hands to keep my game polished enough to walk on to IU Coach Tom Crean's squad next season, but I'm certainly not going to be the worst guy out there. I threw the occasional pass down low through several sets of out-stretched defensive hands, and I made one 3-pointer along with a couple short jumpers. I wasn't the quickest guy on defense, but hey, I've never needed agility on the bike before.
The whole day, really, was about more than just playing basketball. It was about introducing myself to the guys on the team, learning what kind of people they are off the court, getting my first questions with the team out of the way during interviews and in the end, learning that I can go toe-to-toe with other reporters while both covering the Hoosiers this season as well as shooting some hoops.
