One game at a time

I'm enjoying a great basketball discussion between D-Mac and Coach Montbriand on Smooth Magic 107 FM this morning.

Towards the end, the topic came up of how the coaching staff gets their team from looking too far ahead on the schedule.

That brought flashbacks to a dark, dark night in March of 2013. I will never forget it. I had to bring my daughter up to my mom's in Alexandria, and it had snowed that day, so my roads were pretty awful on the drive from Alexandria to the University of Minnesota-Morris. I remember almost losing it and nearly sailing into the ditch about 14 miles north of Morris in the company van I was driving.

I remember not being too worried about the drive, though. I took my sweet time. It appeared that I was going to arrive at UMM a little late, but it didn't bother me. It was "just a sub-section semifinal"...who cares, right? I knew our guys would be playing again the following Tuesday night for the sub-section championship. We were all 100% confident we'd be battling the Battlers of Battle Lake for a berth in the section championship.

I arrived a few minutes into the first half. The Jaguars had a 13-8 lead. I thought it was a little odd, having such a low-scoring game by then. I thought, "We'll get out of the funk. It'll be better by halftime."

Then the nightmare we all remember unfolded.

By halftime, the Jaguars trailed.

And by the final buzzer, they were inexplicably still trailing...game over. I've honestly tried to forget the score from different segments of that game beyond the 13-8 score I read when I got to the P.E. Center.

I was as guilty as everyone, overlooking the team we played that night.

Never again!!!!!!!