SOUTHPORT — No…it wasn’t a dream and you weren’t lied to on Saturday night that the Ben Davis Giants won the regional championship and is now heading to the Final Four. In other words, Don Carlisle’s squad has reservations at the Semi-State with V.I.P preferred status. When the smoke cleared at Southport the kids from the westside of town were walking out of the joint after, not only knocking off No.2 Lawrence Central, but after beating New Palestine to advance.
Now hold on a second, folks are starting to think that I’m dissing BD for pulling off the surprise in winning the Regional but you’ve got to understand that I’ve been covering them all season and this is not the same team that started the season. What we’ve seen is a beautiful butterfly emerge from the cocoon to win 8 out of their last 9 games.
What we’ve seen over the course of the season is a bunch of kids playing basketball individually that suddenly started to trust the process of what Don Carlisle was trying to get them to understand from the beginning. Sure, they jumped out of the ride and won 6 straight to start the season and as soon as they won them they thought that they were invincible until they loss the next three. It was a roller coaster ride after that.
I watched Coach Carlisle try to reign these cats in that didn’t want to listen. I saw the talent that wasn’t initially coachable. I saw boyz whining and complaining about every call or missed called instead of literally playing the game. We all did. How many times were parents and coaches frustrated by the lack of trust the kids had in the process because they thought they were better than the process? How many times did we see Coach Carlisle look like he wanted to shake a boy real hard because he wouldn’t listen? Too many times to count bruh.
So how many times did I, as a reporter, covering their games say that they would be a quick out because they won’t listen and won’t allow Carlisle to coach them. They’ve got all of the talent in the world but talent doesn’t win championships. Talent only looks good in the open gym.
Then all of a sudden they knocked off Cathedral at the end of the season and the light bulb popped on. They finally got it!! They stopped trying to ref and coach and just played the darn game. It’s much easier to do. There are people doing that already just play. They rattled off 7 of 8 games including knocking off No.2 Lawrence Central with crazy defense and an excellent attitude. They weren’t trying to ref the game and they were finally listening to their coach. It’s an amazing thing to see.
“Trust the Process” is some old colloquialism that just sounds good. It’s real and you only get to win once you do. Good luck fellas and remember that championships are TEAM awards. Individuals win nothing. Stop me when I start lyin’!
