Jazzy's Blog: It's Winning Time

Added 28 July 2008

Sean Combs once preached...
"The sun don't shine forever,
But as long as its here then we might as well shine together,
Better now than never, business before pleasure
Jazzy and the fam, who you know do it better?"


Alright I may have replaced Diddy with Jazzy, but my point is this - We are the defending champions. As much as we want it to last forever, reality is it will not unless we come together, shine together. We sacrifice for the ultimate prize. We are in the business of winning and nobody do it better than us when we are on our game.

In 17 short weeks, 20 games, a 10W - 10L record and the Big V regular season is over. The playoffs await us. We have secured 4th spot. Our wins got us that. I am proud of the team for getting this far, when only a month ago all seemed lost. But who you beat and who beat you during the season doesn't matter anymore. Throw out past performances, good or bad. All the matters is the next game, the next 48 minutes. Win or Lose. Step up or go home. Playoff Basketball is like nothing else. You either love it or loathe it. The pressure, the spotlight. The intensity goes up a notch. The fouls are harder. The stadiums are louder. The stakes are higher.

Early on in my Big V years, we didn't handle this very well. It might have been our inexperience playing at this level, or just nerves but losing in the first round in both our 1st and 2nd seasons hurt. We were overwhelmed in 2005 in our first Grand Final series, and in 2006 we again succumb to the pressure. Before game 2 of the Grand Final series in 2007 I gave each of my team-mates a letter, the first line read this "Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships."

Lessons learned from the previous 2 years of heartache was the difference between winning and losing. We were playing against some great individual talent, but our teamwork, our execution, our ability to sacrifice for one another was the difference between winning and losing. This same mentality needs to be taken into Saturday nights game, this is no secret, it's a mentality that all teams have, but not all teams do it.

Our game this weekend (Saturday night 7:00pm tip off BSC) is against Southern Peninsula. A team that arguably boasts the best individual player in the comp in Jarrad Swanson. It will be a very exciting contest and I hope you can all make it down.

Like to give a special shout out to the women's coach Andrew Knightingale, who after 3 seasons is leaving the Magic program to return home to Sydney. Andrew played a massive part in both the success of the men's program, assisting Coach Rees in 2006 and 2007 as well as laying a very strong foundation for the women's program over the past 2 years. From a personal standpoint he constantly preached the value of hard work, intensity and doing the extra things that make the difference between winning and losing. The one thing I will never appreciate is you introducing the drill '10 in 2' to our practices!. Andrew, we thank you for all your hard work, and wish you much success back in Sydney.

1Team1Goal = Back2Back

See you Saturday

Jazzy

Jazzy's Blog: Season on the Brink
Jazzy's Blog: Livin' It Up at the Hotel Mildura
Jazzy's Blog: Winning Ain't Easy
Jazzy's Blog: Singing The Song
Jazzy Jay Blogs on hawthornbasketball.com.au
Emily Matheson Blogs on Hawthorn Basketball Online
Hawthorn Magic Kick Off BigV Season
2008 Hawthorn Magic BigV Fixtures
2008 Hawthorn Magic BigV Squads
2008 BigV Season Photos in the Gallery