If you have ever played the game of basketball, you can appreciate that at times, the art of shooting makes no sense.
There are times you just can’t miss. Pull up for a jumper in traffic and it swishes. Get it down in the post and try a turnaround jumper without even seeing the basket and it goes in. You don’t know why, but you want the ball every time you can get it lest whatever magic is causing this runs out.
Then there are times when you can’t buy a bucket. It’s the same you with the same stroke and same jump but it just misses. Hits the front iron, then the back iron, then misses the bucket altogether. You slow things down in your mind to fix this, focusing on form, making sure you follow through, concentrating on getting your feet set. You even think about your aim, making sure you’ve calibrated your shot perfectly.
And in the process, you make it worse.
Just as that magic was lifting you to higher highs when you could not miss, its evil brother has now cursed you and you don’t know when that’s going to end either.
Finally, one day you just stop thinking about it altogether and say “screw it.” You work hard on every other part of the game before there comes a moment when you’re not thinking at all – you let muscle memory and all the abilities you have by benefit of shooting thousands of shots in practice – and the ball goes in.
Not soon after, your shot returns.
Which brings us to the topic of one Greek gentleman by the name of Neoklis Avdalas.
There was a point in yesterday’s loss to Duke when he got the ball right at the 3-point line and was wide open. If you were to compare it to his form when he scored 33 against Providence you’d see what I’m talking about. Against Providence he got the ball and let it fly toward the basket.
Yesterday he measured it like he was shooting a free throw. You could just feel the hard drive in his head running like it was caught up in a Microsoft update loop. He thought about everything he needed to do to make the 3 pointer. And because of it, he hit the front of the iron and missed.
Let’s face it, Neo is pressing. He’s a young man from another country who knows all of you in the stands expect him to have a game like he had against Providence every night. He knows he makes a lot of money, and he knows he’s not playing well right now. He doesn’t need some of you guys in the stands booing him to remind him of it.
He’s fortunate he’s got one of the better basketball psychologists on the bench in Mike Young. Mike will work with him, probably moving him temporarily to a different role and try to get him back into a frame of mind where he’s not pressing. Against Providence, Neo looked like he was having the time of his life. Against Duke, he didn’t look like he was having any fun at all.
I know expectations were that Neo would be an NBA draft pick after his year in Blacksburg, and that’s a subject for another day. But I do know this: Shooters have to keep shooting because they don’t stay hot all the time, just as they don’t stay in slumps all the time. There will come a time before this season ends when Neo regains his form, scores a lot of points and probably wins the Hokies a game they didn’t deserve to win.
I just wish people who were booing yesterday understood that.
