It has been a rough stretch for the ladies here the past two weeks with three losses out of their last four games. It began with the loss to Penn State, then Michigan and Iowa have added to the loss column. A win at Wisconsin is the one positive note for them. But, the good news is a matchup against Indiana at the Hall of Calls on Wednesday will hopefully turn this streak around and get them playing well just in time for March.
I believe I speak for the rest of the practice guys when I say I'm ready for them to start playing well again. Don't get me wrong, a normal practice is more physical than people would think women's basketball can be. But, when the coaching staff decides it is time to prove a point and see what the players are made of, it becomes a horror movie for us. That might be a slight exaggeration, but I'm telling you it's terrifying to see the look in a ticked Drey Mingo's eyes when she has the ball and wants to score. There's a mutual understanding among everyone in the gym that nobody is going to stop her when she is in that mode. The poor, unfortunate soul who had to (attempt to) guard her took a beating. It just so happens that it was me, luckily I wear a mothpiece otherwise I would've been sucking my food through a straw for the next three months. It wasn't just her, everyone was playing for their spot. It didn't help that there were only two RIP Squad guys there (myself and Chris Knefelcamp), so we were needing an oxygen mask by the time we were done. I found myself quoting the Mista Mista lady from Happy Gilmore, "Get me outta here!" Except it was legitimately out of fear.
We had two days or practice between Michigan and Wisconsin. Day one was the more physical of the two, mostly because they didn't go over Wisconsin's scouting report and instead appeared to reenact the D-Day invasion of Omaha Beach. If you never paid attention in history class, D-Day was one of our nation's bloodiest days. Obviously the amount of blood shed at practice (I really don't think anyone bled at all actually) doesn't compare to that of D-Day. I will say it was the second scariest practice of my life. The first you ask? The number one scariest (or just downright awful) practice of my life came in high school when my coach brought out one ball and told us all to grab towels. We proceeded to do defensive and rebounding drills for the next three hours.
You're probably thinking that isn't that bad, but then I tell you that we had to run what we called "17's" every time we lost a rebounding drill. A 17 is running sideline to sideline 17 times in half a minute, it also goes by the name Hell (I believe you've heard of that). In order to win the drills, our varsity team had to get a certain number of rebounds before the junior varsity team did. It sounds reasonable, except when your coach is borderline insane and says we had to get 10 before the JV got two. It was a losing battle to say the least.
The day before the matchup against Wisconsin included some of the previous day's physical activities, but we also ran the scout team for the Badgers. This is usually the highlight of our time at practice, except for that day I was forced to shoot left handed so the girls could get used to whoever I was supposed to be. It would have been more beneficial, for myself and the team, if I tried to kick the ball in instead of shooting it with my left hand. I've never needed, or even tried to shoot left handed, therefore, my performance was poor and embarrassing. There's a good chance I set the record for most air balls in Cardinal Court history, although I'm not sure if that or any other statistic is actually kept.
With only four games remaining in the season, the RIP Squad's season is quickly coming to an end. This of course depends on how far the team advances into the tournament. A couple of us have decided we're going to make a trick shot video since we have access to a massive gym and are allowed to stay as long as we want after practice. I figure this would be a great way to cap off another season of RIP Squad basketball. We'll start beginning this week and hopefully have it finished before the B1G tournament starts. If you've been following along with all the blog updates, you know I dream of hitting a shot from the rafters in Mackey Arena. This is a tough task for sure, but I'll do anything to make it happen (maybe not anything). Since I give the people what they want, I figured I'd give you all something to look forward to. We'll also be sending it to ESPN to be on the Top 10 plays. So check there to see me toss it from the rafters, drain it, and then pass out from my severe fear of heights. To finish, I'd like to quote the late great Colonel Sanders who said, "I'm too drunk to taste this chicken." Take that for what its worth.
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