K Academy Day 4

This year at K Academy there are 12 teams, which means that the top 4 teams get a bye into the quarterfinals. With the 35+ crowd rest is a good thing. Team San Antonio (my team) went into today feeling pretty good at 4-0. But there five teams at 3-1 and we had no idea how tiebreakers were going to work. The best thing we could do was win and make sure that we got a bye. The only issue with that was we were playing a very good Team Indianapolis coached by Jon Scheyer and Luke Kennard. (One note on Scheyer - that guy is lucky / good at K Academy considering his all-tine record is 46-13. Scheyer picks good teams.) 

How did the game go? Well it was a little bit tough at the start. Teams seem to be missing significantly more shots than in early games. The good news is that we were playing pretty good defense. I was able to hit a key 3 when we were down at the end of the second half and made a great pass (in my humble opinion) to one of our best players when we were down 1. He made 1 of 2 (which is better than me since I missed the front end of a 1-1) and we went to overtime. Overtime we again found ourselves down....this time by 3 with about 40 seconds left. I found our big man (who has a good shot) in the corner for a 3 and the tie. We did have to hold off as Mark Kennard (Luke's Dad) had a baseline jumper that would have won the game.....and would have won it against me since I was his defender. 

Anyway, I am getting long-winded but the game was very dramatic. Nothing was more dramatic then the end. The second overtime was set up as first shot to make it wins. My assistant coach told me to try to steal the back tip and take it in for a game winning layup. Well the ball was back tipped, but Mark Kennard had the angle on me. I dove for the ball and undercut Kennard for an obvious foul on me. At that moment in time I thought I cost the team the game because Kennard would get free throws because of my foul. Also, I looked down and he is in obvious pain from my undercut. I felt so horrible on both ends and truly had my "what did I just do" Cameron moment. (I didn't expect to have that moment and wouldn't recommend it.) Anyway, Coach K was watching and said the sudden death couldn't end on free throws. We ended up playing tough defense and came down and one of our shooters hit a big time 3 pointer to send us home happy. I felt like Quinn Cook / Seth Curry watching Austin Rivers shoot against UNC at the Dean Dome. I could see the ball in the air and I felt like it was going in. After he made it we all jumped around in the middle of Cameron. It is hard to explain how amazing that was to actually experience.

The rest of the day included the following:

•  Relaxing while watching other teams play. There were two great / dramatic games and a common theme from the people attending the camp is that this is a very evenly matched camp.
• The old Duke players played the current Duke team in a scrimmage. It was very intense and the only prediction I can make is that Alex O'Connell is going to have a huge year for Duke. He was the best player on the court for a good portion of the game.
• We had a fun talk and question and answer session with Coach K and the Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett. Garrett was very open and engaging when asked some relatively tough questions
• Tonight we had another great dinner, but this time with our team. After that we went up to one of the luxury boxes at the football stadium. Our coaches (Duhon / Parks) gave us an amazing inspirational speech and right now as I write this I feel like we are in a great spot to win the title tomorrow. Like Duhon told us "We don't have to change anything we are doing. We are 5-0 for a reason." 

Anyway, more to come tomorrow - the unfortunate last day of camp