NC Top 80'
“WE aren’t losing” by Coach John Allen
Once again Rick Lewis brought some of the best talent in North Carolina to Proehlific Park for his Top 80 event.' The talent featured bigs with skills and high basketball IQ like Josh Hall and small guards like Jalen Cone and Kadyn Dawkins.' Also a who's who of persons important in 'travel' ball were in attendance to watch this talent.
Yet, to me the most interesting aspect of the event came in a game that featured team 10 vs team 12 on court 1.' Team 12 was trailing early and big at one point 21 to 3 and lead seemed to be growing with each trip down the court.' 'A statement was made from their bench by a young man named Ricky Council IV, he uttered these words 'We are not going to lose this game'.' Some may wonder why this stood out to me, it was the word 'WE' and at that moment several of his teammates on the bench said that's right 'WE aren't losing'.
They began to demonstrate during this event the importance of commitment to defense as a group.' As their play started to change the dynamics of the group's effort.'' The game became a true battle at both ends of the floor, once Team 10 realized that Team 12 was not going to lie down and accept defeat.' The great part of this was that it came down to the very end where defense controlled the outcome at both ends by both teams.' Team 12 players won by two, but that wasn't what really stuck out, how giddy they were about their defensive efforts caring very little about who scored what or how many.' They were just happy to have been in a battle.
How refreshing to watch a competitive game instead of a game where defense never existed.
Thank you Ricky for your declaration and thank your teammates for believing and fulfilling your prediction.