Musings on a Saturday afternoon with no football games I care about: Basketball is very much a rhythm sport. That is, the movements follow a certain cadence like step, step, shoot or rebound, gather, pass. When dribbling, the ball has to go down to the floor and back up, creating another kind of rhythm. We learn the music early and expect the same time and key when we hit the court. However, Sengun is like a crazed jazz drummer out there, playing on the up-beats and the spaces in between notes. His play often feels and looks awkward, discordant, out of step--and sometimes just goofy. He chooses odd times to make movements, including shots. You isolate him and watch him throw up some of those unnatural looking shots and think there is no way that won't get blocked--but then it goes in the hoop without the defender even raising a hand. He hits the drum head between counts 3 and 4 while the defender is expecting him to play the same tune everyone else does and shoot on the downbeat. Sometimes it takes a great musician to intentionally play "badly" until we recognize the genius in the composition and train our ears to a new song structure. Then, we can see the beauty of it all. Basketball does not have to be played in 4/4 time.
I especially loved how he cooked in the first quarter. Then went stretches the rest of the game barely touching the ball. Touched it in stretches and made great things happen. Then went back to never featuring for minutes on end. What a beautiful offense.
Lol.. Anyway. Tough loss. Bad refs and physical games will happen in play-offs, too. There are 50+ more games ahead. We must figure out how to close the games. Even now we are a good team. But either FVV must return or Reed must take a step forward.
