After a week off, both girls played in the Atlantic City Showcase, a three day event with hundreds of girls teams and the chance for the older girls to be seen by actual college coaches.
We already did a showcase at Spooky Nook, and I'll spoil the story: the competition was tougher, but the other showcase seemed far more productive and cost-effective.
Atlantic City, the Las Vegas of the East, was the gambling mecca that was crumbling well before other states legalized mainstream gambling and games of chance. I've done a few trips, by bus and overnight, even won $1,000 on the slots in the Trump casino (and promptly high tailed it out of there.... and this was pre-Apprentice. Nowadays, declining busloads of senior citizens and the AC Convention Center appear to be the only things keeping the city from imploding.
After the final schedule was published a week before the event, there were two more significant "adjustments" but the long of it was, Millie was playing Friday mid-afternoon. As we're in the two-car/two hotel room living arrangement, so Millie and most of the crew went down Thursday night to enjoy a relaxing beach morning, and I shuttled Maja to her practices and we left around noon to get down to AC before three.
We have three more trips to KOP and Lancaster this year, and between traffic and poor drivers, I will appreciate them far more in June and July. Philly traffic was horrendous at its usual level, although we didn't actually stop the car until we got on the ramp for the Walt Whitman Bridge.
For any HMGS fans reading this post, REASONS Historicon doesn't use the AC Convention Center.
Too much square footage and too expensive.
On-site food options are stadium pricing.
Twenty bucks to park in the garage, per day, and you have to pay each time you leave and return (Outside lots were cheaper and more forgiving, but the rain was coming this weekend, and those who dared got absolutely drenched.
So, for $60 in parking and $70 for the entrance fee, I expected some lights out basketball.
While it was vast, and the courts laid out in the convention halls with plenty of space, volume was manageable, but the only games I saw that were truly great involved teams that had already played each other in a regional tournament that cost less than a third of this one.
Millie's team was short players and going up against a team that had one numerous tournaments in New York State, and also played the "sponsored" teams from Manhattan.
Millie's team won 47-6, and it wasn't even that close.
Maja's 8th graders didn't play till 8 that night, so I survived on some overpriced but pretty large portion of Chickie and Pete's chicken and reaffirmed my previous claim.
Maja's team was placed in the "A" pool and that was confirmed with one of the premiere teams of the Mid-Atlantic, not sponsored by Nike or Under Armor, but financed by a veteran NBA player. Every girl was fundamentally sound and aggressive, and our girls couldn't hit the broadside of a barn if it was dropped sideways on top of them. With 18% shooting in the 1st half and a twenty point deficit, things looked bleak, but that's usually when they realize they should be playing a basketball game. The other team's shooting revert to human levels, the rebounds evened out, and they got within four, before faltering and losing by nine. A +11 versus the -20 was a good turn around.
With Milie's team playing out of the city, and in the equally squalid town of Northfield, I took Maja to my hotel since she had an 8am game.
The morning opponent were the local "Jersey Shoreshots" a team that's only gotten some recognition playing in some of the D-level tournaments, or in the lower pools at Spooky Nook. Again, the girls could not convert a simple lay-up for most of the game, shooting 25%, but still winning by seven, a entirely too small margin for the caliber of team.
I tend to be a quiet guy, plugging stats into a scoring app, but the parents of this were simply horrible, citing NBA rules that did not and have never applied in and level of basketball from college or below. Knowing the number of tournaments they attended, and the number of years that program has been in existence, it's a sad fact that the parents care more about pro-sports than to understand what's required for their daughters' sport.
Meanwhile, Millie's team manhandled another team 47-16, with a big challenge in the afternoon.
For Maja's lunchtime I got the explanation of the laundry list of abbreviations that follow some programs, as the team they got to play was one of the 36 Under Amor elite programs they sponsor across the country. And I don't mean free uniforms and some updated gym equipment. Cost for the girls to play? Zero. Cost for tournaments? Zero. Cost for transporation/lodging, and possibly admission to the tournament for the players and their families? Absolutely nothing.
Obviously the attract the best of the best, and it showed. Maja's crew recovered, shooting just under their normal average for the season, but the last three minutes turned a 6-8 point deficit to 20 at halftime. There was no quit from either team, although our coach subbed in girls for more playing time an survived, only losing 53-38.
We had some proper team-building time at a lunch and the proper, only Boardwalk overpriced Chickie-and Petes and wandered AC in a group back the Convention Center, right before the heavens opened up again. Maja and I escaped the parking garage to try to reach Millie's game before it ended.
Intermittent communications were coming from the other site.
"18-17 us at the half"
"25-25"
"30-28 them"
"Tied, Overtime"
"Double Overtime"
And as we finally made to an overcrowded parking lot a quarter mile from the school:
(39-36 them, double overtime).
They had a history with the Ducks from Massachusetts, their true "big" girl dominating ours in the last two minutes of the 2nd half to tie, and ultimately win in double overtime last year. This year, our new "big" was a no-show to the entire tournament, but against the same Ducks players, they the big girl to zero points and her teammates rose to the occasion. Can't argue with that storyline, even if we don't like the result.
Maja got transferred to the other parent for Saturday night festivities, and ran back to the hotel for a quick nap and a rainy adventure involving the Black Horse Pike, a game store, and a perfect little Thai restaurant for dinner. Years ago, when I still worked downtown, the local Thai place was a celebratory lunch... or a some much needed comfort food after a bad day. No one else in the family likes it, so a relaxing hour by myself and some Drunken Noodle put me at ease in a way I have not felt in quite some time. The twenty minute drive back to the hotel (with a stop at Wawa for gas) through pea-soup fog was still oddly calming.
Sunday was an bad schedule in an opportune location. Both girls played at the same time in the morning and thankfully, played diagonal from each other, allowing me to watch both, and keep stats for Maja's game. We weren't the only folks lucky, as other parents from other teams were doing the same thing between other courts.
Millie's game was another team from Massachusetts, and every game they had played had been a close grind. In a facility where parents were already hostile to the refs, it was amusing to see parents on both teams gang up on the duo to actually make calls. The refs acquiesced and surprisingly the injurious acts vaporized and the game became much more lively. The small lead Millie's team had during the early game mob rule slowly grow to a 21-point lead, although even the last seconds were as intense as the tip-off.
Maja's team was hoping for a split of the four games with a Sunday win, but no one anticipated the other team hitting 7 of 8 3-pointers in the first four minutes. Mix in a some abysmal 12% Field Goal shooting and (0-for-10 from the 3-point line), and I'm surprised they only lost by 10. \
The good news was that I was in the parking garage by 12:30, circumvented Philly traffic, and made it home by 4:00. The girls have a week off, Maja has a dance competition next weekend, then another free weekend, before our final joint tournament, June 10-11, while Millie makes her school debut hopefully the very next day.
I'm always happy for the experience. I've been part of the "watch the tide roll in from a deck" guy at the Shore for the last twenty years. I see no reason to return, specifically to Atlantic City, ever again, especially when the Spooky Nook showcases have more college coaches, more competition, and far cheaper and convenient.
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