Edmonton NRG BlogBy Chris O'Leary
Lopsided losses from both sides of the coinBy Chris O’Leary
Garbage time.
It may be the most aptly-named aspect of basketball and it’s a side of the game that the Edmonton Energy have had more than their share of in recent weeks. The team’s four-game travelling series with the Yamhill High Flyers was ripe with it, as the Energy won all four games by an average of 57 points.
If you’ve played the game at all you know that the only thing worse than watching a blowout loss is being a part of one. Garbage time is the game’s equivalent to a death march; the damage is usually done well before the final quarter, but still, the two teams have to run the clock out and watch as embarrassment (a 20-point deficit) can balloon up to humiliation (30–40 points), or even annihilation (50 points plus).
My high school basketball team endured its share of lopsided losses. Whenever I see scores in the Edmonton-Yamhill range, one game in particular always comes to mind. In front of a packed gym that included loads of family and friends, my teammates and I were drastically out-sized, out-hustled and out-scored. We were in the embarrassing range by halftime and as the second half played out, we were flirting with annihilation. The opposing coach called his dogs off around the 30-point mark, but we left their gym with our tails between our legs and our heads hung low, sufferers of a 40-point loss.
I went home that night and couldn’t sleep. I felt embarrassed. Humiliated. Sick, even. And for the first time since I picked up a ball when I was 13, I wanted to quit. Not quit that game, or even quit the team. I wanted to quit basketball. The feeling had passed by the time morning shootaround came, but I found out in the gym that day that I wasn’t the only one to think that way.
So when the players are a lot better and when the games mean a lot more to everyone involved, how do they cope with it? I asked a few Energy players that question on Friday, during the team’s shootaround event at Churchill Square.
The topic of the worst loss the Energy ever suffered came up among the team while they were on the road the last week.
“I was saying I don’t think I’ve ever been on a team that’s lost by more than 30 points, ever in my life,” Will Funn said. “No more than that, I could never let that happen.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever been blown out by more than 30,” Kevin Shand said.
“I think the most I lost by was 30-something,” Lee Scruggs offered. “And it felt like it was the end of the world. It made me hungry the next time we played that team. I’ve never been beaten by 50, I don’t think, ever.”
The worst loss coach Paul Sir endured came from his playing days, when his Winona State University team fell to former first-overall NBA pick Doug Collins and Illinois State University 118–71.
“I know what it’s like to get rolled by a superior team,” the coach said. “I knew exactly where those guys (Yamhill) were at. We tried hard and we worked hard, but we weren’t good enough. It was still a good experience.”
These four losses were likely not a good experience for Yamhill, as Steve Sir noted while talking about a blowout loss his Northern Arizona University team endured from UNLV in his senior year.
“I don’t really see how you can go back to the locker room or go back home and be like, ’Guys, we can build on this.’” he said, then remembered the words of Scruggs from one of the games.
“Lee said it on the bench the other night, this could be one of those deals where it ruins their franchise. Because you play those games and there’s not really anything positive that came out of it for them. Nothing good.
“But, (the four wins) felt nice. It felt real nice.”
Coming into their series with the Energy, Yamhill had played only three games. Their most—a 140–121 win over the Japan Tornadoes—was their first W of the season. Their other two losses were moderate ones, by IBL standards. A sweep from the Central Oregon Hotshots, who took the High Flyers down 148–134 on May 15 and a shoot-first, play-defence-later 175–144 affair on May 16.
This opens up the window to something that Scruggs said to me on Friday. If he’s right, it’s a scary thought.
“It was interesting,” he said of the series. “Me personally, I’ve never been a part of anything to where you beat a team four times by that many points. At some point, you have to make adjustments. And (Yamhill) did make adjustments, they brought new players in.
“I don’t know. Maybe we just played that well.”
Running up the score is the M.O. of the IBL, so seeing a team average 152 points over a stretch isn’t as absurd as it looks. Locking teams down—which is what the Energy have been doing for the last month—is a rarity in the league. And it’s the defence (109.9 points against per game and five games of holding opponents under 100 points) that seems to be improving week-by-week with the Energy that qualifies them as a top-tier team in the IBL.
Edmonton is hoping to play a game that’s void of garbage time against the 12–3 Vancouver (WA) Volcanoes, who are expected to be bringing their full roster to the city for this weekend’s pair of games.
“Our confidence is sky high right now and we’re ready to be challenged,” Funn said.
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