Neckbeard Paradise will take you down

Tonight was the debut game for Neckbeard Paradise.

I had some trepidation. As much as I love basketball, I have been playing so much racquetball that I was afraid my fitness gains...which have been many in weight loss, inches lost, strength gained, aerobic and anaerobic capacity and endurance gained...would not translate to running up and down a court, jumping, shooting...

Turns out they did. Despite having played 2 hours of basketball Saturday and 2 hours of racquetball Sunday, I was more than ready to run.

I find that I am a more skillful player as I age...my picks and rolls were much better, my boxing out superior, my rebounding is coming back to me and I remember more and more where to go on the floor.

My stat line was nothing spectacular...5 points on 2-3 from the field, 1-2 from the line, 6ish rebounds, 3 or 4 steals, a couple fouls...but I knew I was making an impact on the game.

More importantly, I could have gone another game straight away no problem...which even last year was a bit of a stretch for me.One game was a stretch.

But I think the key thing was my post defense; I was matched up against a guy about 7" and 50 pounds heavier than me. And he did score on me...he got me twice. I got him about 8 times though...steals, forced turnovers, missed shots...a year ago he would have rampaged over me. Not so much anymore.

So I am feeling pretty good at this tangible progress.

Oh, and we won 69-49, so that was pretty good too...the team we played averaged 65 points a game last season, so holding them 16 under their average while scoring 4 more than they gave up when they had team continuity and we were playing together for the first time...I think we played some D.