Reflecting on Video Games and College Basketball

Last Saturday, I participated in a video game tournament that made for a really good story and one I thought I would share with you. To preface, in January I started listening online to a sports radio show out of Nashville called 3 Hour Lunch. I spend my middays working on homework and listening to their show. Well, I found out that they were holding a video game tournament and it just so happened to take place while I was back in Tennessee for spring break from seminary. So I signed up and looked forward to it.

The tournament was held at The Score which is a video game store in Cool Springs. Not only do they buy, sell & trade games but they have places where you can play games including the "arena" which is in the middle of the store and has like stadium seating and two big screens projecting games. It was pretty cool. So I got there kinda early and just kinda hung out and looked around. It was to start around noon but didn't officially get going until around 12:15.

The rules were then laid out for the tourney. It was a single elimination tournament playing NCAA Basketball 10 on XBox360. The brackets were just like the real brackets. Each participant would draw the name of a school from a box in the order in which they signed up online. The team you drew was the team you played with. There weren't 64 participants so if there was a matchup and there weren't two participants then you got a bye. It was to be 5 minute halves on varsity and played on neutral courts.

So each person's name was called and drew a name. I was probably the 10th person or so to be called. I went up drew a name and got....East Tennessee State. Yup, a 16th seed from the Atlantic Sun Conference. I wasn't the only one who got bad draws. A lot of the ones who went early got bad draws. At the end 3 of the 4 #1 seeds finally got picked and I think only 1 of the #2 seeds. There were a lot of high seeds that were pulled.

When I first walked in, my goal was to make the Sweet 16. When I saw a lot of teenagers there, I adjusted my goal to not getting embarrassed. I found myself playing in the first round against a kid who was probably 8 or 9 years old. He was wearing a Kentucky jersey and was there with his dad who was also wearing a Kentucky shirt. Needless to say, there was irony in the kid drawing Kentucky.

So it was Kentucky vs. ETSU in round 1. And I met my first goal....I didn't get embarrassed. In fact, I ran the kid right out of the gym. Even with him having John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins, me and my Bucs beat the Wildcats and advanced into the 2nd round. How do you ask? Well I did the only thing I could do with a team that wasn't that talented or had great 3 point shooting, I played an up-tempo game and ran, ran, ran. I would get a rebound and sprint down the court and get a layup. I'd inbound the ball and get it to my point guard, who happened to be my best player, and just went coast to coast with a layup. He couldn't ever stop it so I kept doing it. I was like, well if it works, keep doing it.

So, I got one win. I was happy and waited around until the next time I played. In the 2nd round I matched up against Texas. This was an interesting matchup as I was going against one of the hosts of the show, Brent. He had never played the game and so during the loading time, he asked me a few questions and I told him what to do (like what's the shoot button, what's the pass button, etc.). This was a tough game as he got ahead on some quick buckets. But I just went with the same gameplan as in the 1st round and it worked according to plan. I sped up the game and in the end pulled out another victory. 2-0 for ETSU and onto the Sweet 16.

So I made my original goal, at least make it to the Sweet 16 and I earned it with two victories. Now I had a matchup with Temple. This game was with one of those many teenagers that were running around. I was kinda worried but I was like, I'm playing with house money, I got nothing to lose. So again, played same up-tempo style...and it worked again. I got so far ahead that in the game the fans started chanting "Warm up the bus". 3-0 and onto the Elite 8

It was getting nervous time as I got ready to play in the Elite 8. I went up against a guy who had West Virginia. This was going to be hard because 1) he was a good player and 2) he had a talented team. So I had to buckle down and play well. In the first half I got ahead but then went cold and he was head by a point at half. In the second half I got down at one time by 6. I then switched up how I was playing defense and that coupled with him missing shots crawled back into the game. With 8 seconds left, I was down by two. I went the length of the court and tied it up with 3 seconds left. He then inbounded the ball went the length of the court and hit a shot at the buzzer to win the game. It was a tough way to lose but in gracious fashion I shook his hand and congratulated him on the victory. He later ended up winning the the whole thing so I lost to the champ.

In the end, I didn't do too bad. I took East Tennessee State, a 16th seed to the Elite 8. I was the highest seed to advance to the Elite 8 and did so winning 3 games with no byes. I was even complimented on two occasions including the guy who beat me as saying that I was "one of the best ones here". And though I didn't win a prize, I did a pretty good job and I have a great story to tell.