For all the scoopers...

[lab_warrior]

I killed it on my intramural team at MU...and by "killed", I mean killed our chances at winning.  I prided myself on my high assist to turnover ratio, due to a ton of turnovers.
When I played, I subscribed to Coach Dale's advice to Strap:  "Don't shoot the ball unless you're wide open, under the basket, all by yourself!"

[ZiggysFryBoy]

for those of you who don't know me, here is my story...

http://basketbawful.blogspot.com/2009/06/livin-large-part-1.html

[Jacks DC]

6th grade: Made travelling team, played sparingly and scored 12 points (for the season, not per game) and had maybe 15 travelling calls.
7th grade: cut
8th grade: cut
9th grade: Made B-team, scored maybe 30 points for the season but including a game winning 3 pt play at the buzzer, after which I immediately announced my retirement.  Team was about 5-22 for the season.
Marquette: Mike Deane was coach.  Attended games sparingly and then not at all.
Law school: Made my comeback by joining an intramural squad around the same time D-Wade joined MU.  Got dunked on once (never knew guys who played intramural law school ball dunked).  Quit.

[Coleman]

Umm...really?

A thinly veiled thread about how great you were at bball?

Congrats dude.

For the record....I was our Freshman team's sixth man before deciding playing JV my sophomore year would have meant riding the pine, as the best 3 or 4 freshman usually got bumped up and would play ahead of the sophomores on the bench.

Focused on golf, best decision ever.

[MerrittsMustache]

Despite being a 2-year starter for my (very bad) HS varsity team, the best way to describe my basketball abilities would be to tell you that I was a 6'4" tight end who was recruited to play (small-time) college football. I played the post and was the epitome of a garbage man. I pretty much just hung around the basket waiting for put backs. I couldn't shoot a lick (still can't) but I was actually my team's leading scorer as a senior, primarily because I had a ton of opportunities given the number of shots we missed.

I graduated as my school's all-time leader in blocked shots, FG% and (presumably) moving screen violations. My career highlights include missing a dunk on a breakway, grabbing 6 consecutive offensive rebounds off of my own misses, and banking home a halfcourt shot at the buzzer...to get our margin of defeat under 20.

[Benny B]

Yelled at a ref who called me for double-dribble in 7th grade.  Was benched immediately.  Haven't laced up the high-tops since.

[Ari Gold]

8th grade, B team, 3rd string
But I could knock down the 3 from the top of the arch like nobodies business, so I worked up from there on the freshman team.

Played Rec Ball Soph, Jr and Senior years on the Ticks, Tenacious D (minus) and The Replacements respectively. Won about 3-5 games total. Still could knock down that 3 ball. Also got great at committing flagrant fouls.

For awhile a lot of our Better players played Rec Ball because they were not fans of the HS coach. That was my excuse too.

[VwArrior1]

Lockdown D where did u go to high school?

Denbigh High School in VA

Umm...really?

A thinly veiled thread about how great you were at bball?

I read my OP and can see where it sound a little bit like bragging, but as a relatively anonymous poster I have no intention of that.  Just wanted to start a topic to find out about other posters and felt I should share about myself regarding my questions.

Yelled at a ref who called me for double-dribble in 7th grade.  Was benched immediately.  Haven't laced up the high-tops since.

Lol...The parents of my team let the refs hear about everything they called against my team.  There wouldn't be anything left more me to say.  THEY LET THEM HEAR IT!

[Avenue Commons]

In the midst of a long and slow offseason, I thought it would make for a good discussion to share about you previous experiences playing ball.  I understand there are those that haven't(doesn't make you any less of a fan) but for the ones who have, it would be interesting to know some of your backround.  Things like how long did you play? Did you start? What position?
First off myself:I started for Junior Varsity as a Freshman in High School. Sophomore year, I made the transition to Varsity being the first off the bench. Started both my Junior and Senior years at the small forward position, both years advancing to the state finals only to fall short.  As a junior I earned second-team all-district; as a senior, 1st-team all-district and 2nd-team all-region.  Spent 2 years as a preferred walk-on at Old Dominion University.  Thanks, please share your experiences.

What's your point? To know about people's background in hoops or to brag about walking on at Old Dominion? It strikes me that the latter was your point.

You have an impressive background, but maybe it's time to move on from the "glory days?"

[Skatastrophy]

Leave the guy alone.  It's impossible to tell his intentions while reading his words without inflection on the Internet.

I find it interesting that some people here are actual students of the game instead of asshats like myself that just enjoy drinking and screaming.  And not just at bball games.  All. The. Time.

[thekahoona]

i was such a standout on the freshmen team at my high school that they banned me from ever touching a basketball again...  as a matter of fact they said the only thing that they would allow was for me to touch the ball with my feet.  so, i played varsity soccer for three years...

[rocky_warrior]

I find it interesting that some people here are actual students of the game instead of asshats like myself that just enjoy drinking and screaming.  And not just at bball games.  All. The. Time.

See that's good to know too.  FWIW, 7th grade B team was as far as I got.  I took that as a hint and started working on my training for a life of screaming and drinking.

[MUinCO]

Finished up my one-season long basketball career in the 8th grade with the mighty St. Mary's Roadrunners back in New Mexico.  
I probably had something like 8 min all year when it was clear that I couldn't even in-bounds the ball without steping on the line and was so nervous that when someone would even think about passing the ball to me a little bit of pee came out.  Later in life as a spectator in The Pit, I finally did grasp the concept of the 3-second lane violation and slowly discovered what all the paint/lines on the floor stood for.  

[Fullodds]

Tom Copa??

Despite being a 2-year starter for my (very bad) HS varsity team, the best way to describe my basketball abilities would be to tell you that I was a 6'4" tight end who was recruited to play (small-time) college football. I played the post and was the epitome of a garbage man. I pretty much just hung around the basket waiting for put backs. I couldn't shoot a lick (still can't) but I was actually my team's leading scorer as a senior, primarily because I had a ton of opportunities given the number of shots we missed.

I graduated as my school's all-time leader in blocked shots, FG% and (presumably) moving screen violations. My career highlights include missing a dunk on a breakway, grabbing 6 consecutive offensive rebounds off of my own misses, and banking home a halfcourt shot at the buzzer...to get our margin of defeat under 20.

[Jay Bee]

Freshman year, a buddy and I would go to the Rec Plex and literally play one-on-one, full court, up to 100.  It took forever, even though a lot of the shots were uncontested layups.  Each time down we'd call out who we were impersonating, and then try to mimic our play/moves as that person.  Most of those people were not basketball players.

I am getting tired just thinking about it and probably couldn't make it for a game up to 6 now, much less 100. 

Also played some (if by played some you mean rode the pine and could do nothing worthwhile on the court other than shoot from 25 feet) in high school.  My favorite part of practice was shooting free throws.  Damn you, Buzz.

Also, I once puked into a cup until it overflooded at Pizza Joe's while standing at a little table with the place packed.  I think ZFB cleaned it up.

[avid1010]

I played varsity my frosh, soph, junior years (loved the game) and then the summer going into my senior year played in a summer league hosted at UWM.  Bo was there at the time, gave a nice speech to a few of us telling us how much he loved us (I think he made it legal by showing a video on how to box out), and I didn't pick up a basketball for two years after that summer.  While I never figured my quitting had anything to do with Bo, I'm now convinced he can take the fun out of basketball without players even realizing it.  You can literally see this happen to UW opponents throughout the course of a game.

[MerrittsMustache]

What's your point? To know about people's background in hoops or to brag about walking on at Old Dominion? It strikes me that the latter was your point.

You have an impressive background, but maybe it's time to move on from the "glory days?"

Personally, I think it's interesting to hear scoopers' playing backgrounds. I never would have guessed that so many posters never played much beyond middle school.

[cheebs09]

I played varsity my frosh, soph, junior years (loved the game) and then the summer going into my senior year played in a summer league hosted at UWM.  Bo was there at the time, gave a nice speech to a few of us telling us how much he loved us (I think he made it legal by showing a video on how to box out), and I didn't pick up a basketball for two years after that summer.  While I never figured my quitting had anything to do with Bo, I'm now convinced he can take the fun out of basketball without players even realizing it.  You can literally see this happen to UW opponents throughout the course of a game.

You were Markolf-ed?

[augoman]

I got talked into playing tavern-league ball by guys from my muni-league softball team.  At the time had a 3-pack-a-day camel's straights habit.  Agreed to be the '6th' man if I didn't have to run too much.  Showed up for first game just in time to hear "great, now we have enough players and don't have to forfeit"!  We played full court pressure for about 3 minutes and I ran off the court to throw up in the drinking fountain.  I committed 5 quick fouls trying to get ejected, but they "let" me stay in because of our lack of players.  Finally called the ref names and was banished from the league. 
I stuck to playing in my driveway after that.  Finally quite the cigarettes years later.

[StillAWarrior]

Personally, I think it's interesting to hear scoopers' playing backgrounds. I never would have guessed that so many posters never played much beyond middle school.

I'll do one better (worse?).  I never played "organized" basketball in my life.  Not sure why because I played every other sport.  My memory is fading, but I imagine it was because I was a wrestler and a swimmer and those sports overlapped basketball.  Only one of my four brothers ever played any basketball (the only one who wasn't a wrestler).  I'm a big fan and watch quite a bit of basketball, but I don't have the understanding that comes from having played.  I helped coach my son's team (it's his favorite sport), but I was pretty much worthless for game planning and strategy.  I was good at teaching some fundamentals, mechanics and footwork, though.

[bork]

Played sparingly in 5th-7th grade.  I played center since I was the tallest on the team.  I was 5-10 in 7th grade.  Didn't grow much after that and not having any talent, I didn't play after 7th grade.

But in High School I was a manager for all 4 years.  Then I got "called up to varsity" my sophomore year.  I worked both JV and Varsity games that year.  That just happened to be the year that Dominican High School won the WISAA championship over Marquette High (1991).  That team was led by Shannon Smith.  The head manager was Peter Ranola, who went on to be a manager at MU for 4 years.  Then I was head manager for the next two years.  I learned a lot about basketball in those 4 years.

I had a chance to be a manager for KO, but I declined due to the time commitment.

[reinko]

Played sparingly in 5th-7th grade.  I played center since I was the tallest on the team.  I was 5-10 in 7th grade.  Didn't grow much after that and not having any talent, I didn't play after 7th grade.

But in High School I was a manager for all 4 years.  Then I got "called up to varsity" my sophomore year.  I worked both JV and Varsity games that year.  That just happened to be the year that Dominican High School won the WISAA championship over Marquette High (1991).  That team was led by Shannon Smith.  The head manager was Peter Ranola, who went on to be a manager at MU for 4 years.  Then I was head manager for the next two years.  I learned a lot about basketball in those 4 years.

I had a chance to be a manager for KO, but I declined due to the time commitment.

I too declined to be a manager for Majerus, because I didn't want to clean up after he shat in a t-shirt in the middle of a meeting.

[5YearsatMU]

I didn't pay attention to college or pro basketball until 2002 - halfway through my freshman year at MU.  Played hockey and golf growing up. 

[NYWarrior]

I was on the team in high school but didn't play much....Still, I loved the game and became a manager at MU for my soph through senior seasons.  The first year was with Dukiet, the last two with Kevin. He was demanding as hell, but I learned a lot during that time with him and the rest the folks in the program. 

[4everwarriors]

I was on the team in high school but didn't play much....Still, I loved the game and became a manager at MU for my soph through senior seasons.  The first year was with Dukiet, the last two with Kevin. He was demanding as hell, but I learned a lot during that time with him and the rest the folks in the program. 

I'll bet Kevin taught you some new words too. BTW, are the managers compensated?