Wednesday’s game between Mills and Menlo-Atherton had just about everything ... except the atmosphere. There were only two officials, seats on only one side of the court were pulled out and sparsely populated, there were almost no students in attendance, and there wasn’t even a PA announcer.
Yet when Friday night “quad” games roll around, gyms will be absolutely packed, regardless of the quality of matchups. Is it a culture thing? Is it because Wednesday games are at 5:30? Yes, games against traditional rivals being played on Friday night have their appeal, but games between playoff-caliber teams deserve better than the type of atmosphere one would expect at a scrimmage.
Sadly, this has almost always been a problem on the Peninsula, even when the PAL had a Bay-Ocean-Lake power league structure. The rare Wednesday night “quad” games that start at 7:45 don’t draw quite the crowds of Friday games, but bring out decent fan support. Whatever solutions the PAL and thee leagues come to, there has to be a way to get these mid-week games the crowds they deserve. In Tuesday’s five PAL South games, one was decided in the final minute and another featured a 20-point comeback. Wednesday had three games decided in the last minute, including one by a single point.
Strength of schedule
Once again, the teams that played difficult schedules are excelling in league play. Sequoia went 8-4 in nonleague play, with defeats at the hands of Bellarmine, Oakland Tech, Corona del Mar and St. Francis of Honolulu, one of Hawaii’s top teams. Hillsdale entered PAL play at 11-1, but aside from a 20-point loss to College Park, had mainly played teams that won’t even be close to .500 and would finish dead-last in the PAL South. When the Cherokees hosted Hillsdale on Wednesday, they trounced them, leading 22-4 after one quarter and winning 64-38. While a great nonleague record looks nice, if it does nothing to prepare teams for what’s ahead, the month of December hasn’t served its purpose.
Disparity in coverage
Readers often wonder why certain teams have coverage of nearly every game while others barely get mentioned. The difference? Simply send scores and info to Prep2Prep and your team will be featured! No, reporters can’t get to every game, but a two-to-three sentence summary does more than enough for us. Even sending an email as simple as the following helps:
“The Harlem Globetrotters trailed 26-15 in the first half but defeated the Flint Tropics 59-47 on Thursday night. Guy McPerson had 20 points and eight rebounds and the Globetrotters took the lead for good when Carlos Danger’s 3-pointer with two minutes left in the third gave them a 38-36 advantage.”
That’s all it takes! It doesn’t even need to be that fancy. Just photos of the scorebook will suffice. Even tweeting score updates does wonders for coverage.
Almost every football team has stats and photos readily available, yet that never seems to be the case for basketball.
The moral of the story? These kids deserve your coverage and support. Please do what you can to help them get the recognition they deserve! Players shouldn’t be taken aback when asked for quotes; it should be standard.