Hello basketball world. Monday I had way too much homework for hoops or other activities, therefore Tuesday at the JCC was the beginning of my basketball week. The kids at the JCC are looking better and better so my dad let everyone get into some 5 on 5 full-court games, which was a lot of fun. Khalif and I played on separate teams and my dad refereed as my team went on to get a 1-point victory in the last second. Khalif was really mad because all of us Battles hate to lose at anything.
Wednesday, I went to workout at Hoops America. I didn’t stay long because I went to my first school practice at 7pm. When I arrived at my school practice we did a little ball handling. Idris Joyner’s father was running the practice and he did a great job. After the ball handling we split into two groups, one for post moves and one for moves to the basket. We went over some basics like drop steps and jump hooks. After the skill work we played some full court. All I was really doing was fooling around with Idris and some of my teammates and at the end of practice I went to steal the ball from Idris and he crossed me over. Of course everyone went crazy, LOL. After that Idris just did not stop talking about it and neither did my brother. As my father always says, “let your game do your talking, son” Idris and Khalif know my game spoke real loud during the 5 on 5. He did get me with that one sneaky crossover dribble, though.
Thursday, I went to The Club at Woodbridge to workout with 3 kids from New York. One of the kids was my age and 6’10 so I was really looking forward to seeing him in person. The kid just started playing basketball so he is putting in a lot of work to develop his game. I think he can be very good if he continues to put in the work in the gym. One of the great things about being my father’s son is that I get to meet some really unbelievable people from different places. I believe this kid’s name was Emanuel and he was from Nigeria.
Friday, I got an 83 on my science test. I did all right considering that the test was very difficult. My mom and dad were not that excited though. “You killed your A average”, my dad said when I told him. I will definitely do better on my next science test. When I got home I was supposed to have team practice with Final, but my dad called it off. So all I really did was sit back, relax, and play MW2 with a few kids from my school on line.
Saturday, I woke up at 6am to get ready for my tournament. Our first game was at 10:35am and we were playing up to 16u. The game was close throughout, and went into double overtime, but fortunately I hit a pull up with 2 seconds left to put us up by one to win the game. I hit a buzzer beater last season in the same gym. The second game we lost by 1 to a team we should have never lost to. Our transition defense was bad and we were not executing well. I missed a buzzer shot with from 25 feet as time ran out on us. Our last game we blew the team out by 30 or 40. We played well for our first tournament. We still need to work on a lot of things but overall I think we will be very good.
I went to my mom’s house after the game. I was trying to go see Paranormal Activity 3with my uncle but he got sick. So instead I just watched a few horror movies. Next week I have a few quizzes and tests so I will make sure to tell you how I do.
Peace
Tyus Battle
