More Pieces to the Puzzle

More on NCCS: They must see themselves as the northwest suburban Atlanta equivalent of Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy, the basketball powerhouse that recently produced NBA players Dwight Howard and Javaris Crittenton. Nothing wrong with recruiting players and playing a strong schedule, or hiring competitive coaches. Giving kids opportunities to get college educations is a noble goal.

The varsity boys coach is the brother of Ohio State’s head basketball coach, Thad Matta. Having such college contacts help recruit blue-chippers: two of the varsity boys have already signed letters of intent, one with Georgia and another with Indiana. I was told that during last Saturday’s blowout varsity game the varsity coach got so out of line that the referees told the athletic director he was close to being thrown out.

Matta’s nephew plays on the JV. Last Saturday he made about half of his three-point attempts, and this Saturday in made three or four straight three-pointers in the second quarter to put the game out of reach. He's skinny, athletic kid with an unorthodox jump shot, featuring a low release. He has undoubtedly been raised in a competitive environment…at one point Saturday he grabbed a loose ball, but Connor made a good play to also take hold of the ball a split second later. Jump ball. But before the ref could whistle the call the Matta boy turned with the ball, making it appear the slighter Connor was going over Matta’s back for the ball. When a foul wasn’t called, the boy grimaced and look to his JV coach for support.

This past week North Cobb traveled to Chattanooga to play the Mccallie School, the private boarding school where Ted Turner graduated. The JVs lost by five points, though the varsity won. With this tough game looming on their schedule, it makes more sense now why North Cobb played a hard pressing game last Saturday in preparation.

In both games the young JV coach remained animated and loudly worked the referees, regardless of the score. In his view whatever DJ did was illegal: walking, fouling, etc. Halfway through the fourth quarter DJ earned his fourth foul. Seconds later a North Cobb player went in for a layup. Sitting at the scorer’s table I had the same view as the coach. DJ was in the area, but the offensive player quite obviously moved not to the basket, but sideways into DJ. The ref made the correct call; an offensive foul. The coach erupted, and angrily berated the ref the rest of the game. At the time of the foul Flight was losing by 29 points.