Saturday afternoon, somebody asked me, “What’s wrong with West Rowan’s boys
basketball team.”My
response: “Nothing.”
Questions like that arise when
teams like West don’t win by 25 points every night, despite a 13-1 record. Questions
like that arise when players like Scooter Sherrill don’t have five highlight dunks
per game.
And just one loss is all it takes
for people to assume you’re struggling.
Falcons coach Mike Gurley has
resigned himself to the fact that he simply must live with it. His team received more
publicity in August than most teams receive the entire season. It was — and still is
— the most high-profile team in 3A.
Forget the games. Celebrity status
can be just as draining.
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Friday night, before his team took
apart Sun Valley 74-52, Gurley was once again marveling how his team can make just about
every story written on prep basketball.
This time, it was the
Winston-Salem Journal who ran a feature on Davie County’s Duane Phillips, the MVPof
the Sam Moir Christmas Tournament.
Scooter, a North Carolina State
recruit, and West were mentioned almost as much as Davie.
“In the last two years of
going to that Catawba tournament, everything you hear is Sherrill, Sherrill,
Sherrill,” Davie coach jim Young told the Journal. “Both years, every time
coming out of the gym, people are talking Duane, Duane, Duane. He has really upstaged
(Sherrill) both years.”
Gurley doesn’t know whether
to laugh or beat his head against the wall.
“The funny thing about being
West Rowan and everybody saying we’re struggling is that everybody still measures
themselves against us,” he said. “Everyone measures their best player against
Scooter. I read in the Journal that Scooter was the measuring stick to how good Duane is.
Duane’s a good ballplayer. He doesn’t need to be compared to Scooter Sherrill.
But invaribly, everybody compares themselves to Scooter because he’s the best.”
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Don’t believe that stuff
about being a measuring stick? West’s only loss came to North Rowan in the Moir
Tournament semifinals, which set off a wild celebration. Several fans told me it
didn’t matter that the Cavaliers lost in the finals to Davie the following night.
They won their title when West went down.
Maybe that one loss made West
focus more. Against Sun Valley, the Falcons played as well as they have all season. The
team is starting to get all the parts in sync.
“I’m not crying the
blues,” Gurley said. “I like the lineup we have. But let’s be honest.
Tonight, we started two sophomores (Horatio Everhart and Donte Minter), one junior who
didn’t start last year (Terris Sifford) and a transfer from Lexington (Scooter
Dalton).”
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The 6-7 Minter is finding out for
himself what stardom is all about. He is thought of as a sophomore phenom who teams
concentrate on stopping.
“Last year, he was that
freshman,” Gurley said. “Now, he has to deal with being Donte Minter.
Everybody’s prepared for him. Everybody’s going a little harder against him.
People forget he’s 15 years old.
Scooter still commands most of the
attention and well he should. Anyone else around here going to play in the Atlantic Coast
Conference?
But Friday night, he wasn’t
himself. He had three chances early in the game to dunk and each time, he gently laid the
ball in.
The highlight-reel 360 dunk that
he performed earlier in the season against Northwest Cabarrus may be a thing of the past.
Instead of Showtime, winning seems the only important thing now.
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Gurley got in the spirit of the
NFL playoffs by bringing up a quote from Dick Vermeil after his St. Louis Rams quarterback
Kurt Warner was named NFCMVP: “What makes Kurt Warner so great is that he’s not
into personal credit. He’s into team results.”
Gurley also liked what Bill
Parcells had to say when he stepped down as coach of the New York Jets: “Whether
players like me or not, they knew I tried to win every game.”
“Then, it dawned on me,”
Gurley said. “Maybe (the players) don’t understand why I do the things I do or
react to the things the way I do in certain situations.
“But we’re trying to
mold team spirit. It doesn’t score points for you but when you’re in a battle,
you’ll fight a lot harder.”
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Gurley has won a state title but
never, ever has he been a part of something like this. When Scooter entered the gym Friday
during the girls game, people in the Sun Valley stands were whispering, “There he is.
There he is. There’s Scooter.”
And the beat will go on. This show
is in demand.
This year’s biggest threat to
the West throne in the South Piedmont Conference, Central Cabarrus (7-0, 12-2), visits
Mount Ulla Tuesday.
If Central wins, coach Scott
Brewer will probably say it is a landmark victory for his club and it’s the biggest
victory of his career.
If West wins, there will be
somebody asking, “Why didn’t they win by more?
“What’s wrong with
them?”
What’s wrong with West Rowan
basketball?
Nothing.
In fact, after Friday night’s
impressive win, it was clear that this “struggling” 13-1 team is doing quite
well, thank you very much.
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Ronnie Gallagher is the sports
editor of the Post. |
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