Pitchin with Pritch: You win some, you lose some

The NSAA made some changes to how things will work at the state championships in a couple of sports and at least one activity. 

I think that they are pretty good changes that will be received by the schools that it affects.  

At the present time, these changes will be for NSAA Class A&B State Baseball Championships, the NSAA Volleyball State Championships and the NSAA State Championships in all classes in Speech.

The changes made were not all that controversial as the baseball and state speech changes were moves in where the events will be held. 

The entire baseball championships will be held in Omaha. The championship speech event will be held in Kearney on March 16, 17, and 18th.

The NSAA also voted 8-0 for adjusting the 2021 State Volleyball Championship schedule to a four-day format. The NSAA will have more information on the State Volleyball championships later on.

NBA Playoffs are in full swing and I have found myself spending more time watching them than usual. The talent on teams and I think all teams are good. Most of the time, the really good teams have talent, they play hard, and they play some pretty good defense. 

I watch the game and I see that skill set and offensively I am always shocked at their abilities. 

I have watched many shots go up and I have to check really quickly to see what side of the backcourt the player shot from because there are a bunch of players that have no problems in putting up one from somewhere in that area of the court. 

Because the players have such outstanding shooting ability, the game can change and that sure look of a sure win in the first half or the third quarter can turn into a nightmare.

I ran across an article from a Philadelphia newspaper sports writer. I assume his take on the fifth game that the 76’ers played against Atlanta in this year’s playoffs had some of the following traits. 

This is when a game turns into a nightmare and maybe will have an effect on the rest of your playoff hopes.

 He mentioned that some losses, you see coming, you run out of time and every team has had them. 

The fifth game of this year’s playoffs had a loss that wasn’t like that at all. It was more like a 3 a.m. phone call, a car door opens in the bike lane but this wasn’t anything like that because the final score was Hawks 109 and Sixers 106.  

This wasn’t just a loss, this was a defeat. This was the Lincoln Christian in 1991. The 76’s had blown a 26-point lead and now have to win two games in a row in order to advance. This was game five and now the 76’ers HAVE to win the next two to advance. 

I watched the score get closer and closer and then the 76’ers would make a little run and you would think, now they get the win but the Hawks would come back again and when it was all over they were down 3-2 in the seven game playoff. 

There are plenty of moments that don’t look all that bad at the time, but this loss could be one of those that takes a long time to come back from. 

This wasn’t just a loss, it was a defeat, a defeat that might affect their play for a while and the 76’er don’t have a while, they are now on the outside looking in and I would imagine that the Hawk’s confidence has taken a big leap in positivity. 

Even the big boys of the game sometimes have the same problems as some of the high schools and colleges. I have mentioned this before and here it is again. The ball is round but sometimes it takes some really crazy bounces.