The pundits had the basketball playoffs leading to a collision between undefeated adversaries Smith Hulsey & Busey and Florida Coastal School of Law. (Yes, there are pundits in law league as shocking as this might be). Both teams ran through the regular season with perfect records. Both teams accomplished their sterling marks through differing style. Smith Hulsey played the 1992 Duke Blue Devils, with quality players at each position and no one star. Florida Coastal, with its youth, were the UNLV Running Rebels where even made baskets were fast break opportunities and a 50-point lead was simply an opportunity to push the blade in deeper.
Somewhere along the way, Better Tritt, the aging version of basketball’s Oakland Raiders, got lost in the shuffle.
As it happened, Better Tritt crashed the law league basketball finals like the Hell’s Angels at a Timuquana cotillion. Smith Hulsey, with its inside out game, was no match for Better Tritt’s sharpshooters in the semifinals as Tritt rolled to an easy win. Better Tritt could not miss, and Smith Hulsey’s outside shooters were falling shorter than a Dan Bean punch line at a Jacksonville Bar Annual Meeting.
In the other semifinal, the inevitable happened. Florida Coastal rolled to a double-digit victory over The Judges, although the elder Judges, led by Judge Schemer, made Florida Coastal sweat it out until the final minutes.
And what a final it was.
Better Tritt was led by the slashing of David Dearing and the inside play of Eric Berger, who is 6-foot-2 but plays closer to 6-foot-6 with his leaping ability. There is no other way to describe league MVP Berger except the Dude plays loooong.
That Florida Coastal was in the Final and was the odds on favorite to win the whole ball of wax is not surprising. They are all under the age of 25 when the average age of other teams push 35. You remember law school. Classes for two hours, study for two minutes and spend the rest of the day: (a) catching up on Springer; (b) doing yoga; (c) rolling fatties; or (d) Body Shaping with Cory Everson. Judging by the Florida Coastal players, my guess is “B.” No, no wait. It’s “D”. Definitely “D.”
The Final ended up being a neck-and-neck affair with Tritt starting off with an early lead behind the guard play of Dearing, Ty Tygart and Andy Nachman, and the inside hustle of Burger and Sean Espenship. Arnold Tritt, when he was not on the brink of being ejected for insulting the referees, provided a solid inside presence to neutralize the powerful Florida Coastal inside game.
By halftime, Florida Coastal’s Guppies made up the stagger and appeared to be ready to take control. Better Tritt hung in the game and was able to force overtime behind Berger’s inside post-up game. Berger also had about eight fouls called on him during the game, but the referees were giving him a two-for-one special to allow him to hang in the game. Once overtime started, however, Florida Coastal was too much for Better Tritt, who were collectively depressed by the fact that Hooters was rapidly approaching closing time. Florida Coastal cruised to win by five points and claim the championship.
The season ends with Smith Hulsey looking at a restructuring of its team in the search of a three-point shooter to make other teams pay dearly for constructing its defense to avoid the slow but sure death at the hands of Chip Keller and the like. Perhaps Smith Hulsey should look toward the acquisition of Akerman Senterfitt’s Ed Trent with his Bob Cousy-like set shot. Sure its ugly, but it’s effective.
It would be nice to mention the individual efforts of members of the Florida Coastal team, but apparently networking and public relations are not classes taught at Florida Coastal so nobody knows the names of any of the players except Gordon Fenderson, who was as much as a non-factor in basketball as he is the X factor in football.
Better Tritt also needs to consider an infusion of younger talent. It needs to look no further than the graduating members of the Florida Coastal squad, although since the Guppies have had the same nucleus for four years, it would appear that matriculation is nowhere in their collective future.
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With the end of basketball season comes the start of the softball season. Those who are interested in fielding teams should contact Yours Truly at 389-5161 or Holland & Knight’s latest Stepford Wife, Dan Bean, at 353-2000. The season is set to start June 18, so teams will need to be locked in by June 4.