The day after the finals season ends, Kent invites Audrey into his office, and not just to show her highlight reel from the basketball season.
“Audrey, I know it’s three months late, but I want you to understand that I made the effort to compile your highlight reel for the season: when June fifteen comes, you then have something to show to college coaches when you start contacting them” Kent explains to her as he shows her the video, which contains footage from games against Lacassine, Eunice, as well as all three VA playoff games.
“Some coaches won’t be satisfied with a montage of my best moments of the season. They might want to see a few minutes continuously” Audrey retorts.
“That sort of coaches would prefer to see clips from playoff games. I’ll just leave out the buzzer beater from Wossman though”
“One more thing: right until the ACT scores came out, Heather kept obsessing about getting me to play in the Ivy League. Sure, I might be the brainiac of the basketball teams, and I know it’s not a GPA issue...”
“I advise you against contacting coaches at elite colleges before you get actual ACT scores back, so you should sign up for the earliest ACT date possible. I will then contact college coaches accordingly”
This means the July date, and I will even tutor the other sophomores on both basketball teams for it! Audrey thinks while texting Pablo about signing up for the July ACT date.
“Heather told me about how, for me, the Ivy League is going to be a question of playing better on the court!” Audrey retorts.
“Sorry, but Heather is right. Playing in the Ivy League would be a far bigger basketball stretch than an academic stretch for you. And even then, if you were playing for, say, WUSTL or UChicago, or even a NESCAC institution, it would be a crushing academic schedule, the same as if you were playing in the Ivy League. Don’t fool yourself: playing for the WUSTL Bears or the Maroon is going to require approximately the same amount of work as playing for an Ivy, if we consider the athletic plus the academic work! If you want, you can always watch highlight reels from Ivy League commits. Or even commits of other Division I colleges within the same academic range”
Most players who make all-state teams can’t sniff even the Green Wave from an academic standpoint, and Tulane is perhaps the college whose athletic recruiting practices look most like the Ivies’, Kent ruminates while he also prepares the same materials for Heather so he can send both to Tulane’s coaching staff. It might be a Hail Mary, but even though I don’t expect much from either, because I don’t feel like Audrey is significantly better than Heather, I may as well kill two birds with one stone!
Audrey returns home, the night before they leave for Atlanta, and invites not only Pablo, but also Heather, Carrie and the underclassmen on the girls’ basketball team. And their love interests as well.
When they arrive, there is a large number of people in Audrey’s home on short notice, and she is owed a few explanations to her parents.
“We trusted you a lot for the past few months. Why is it that you invited your hoops teammates here tonight, before the start of the HSNCT?” Audrey’s father asks her.
“The coach wanted me to watch highlight reels of Ivy League recruits and Heather kept obsessing over getting me to play in there for months. However, I feel like all non-seniors should be given a chance to see the cold, hard truth of what it takes to play basketball in college!” Audrey retorts.
“I understand what the basketball team means to you, so I will let that slide so long as you do what you claim”
Audrey then starts looking for showcase videos of the most recent Ivy League basketball recruits. Heather might have watched some of these videos, but I didn’t. And I don’t expect anyone else on the team to have done so.
“First, let me preface this by saying that you already know what an Ivy League basketball recruit looks like from an academic standpoint” Audrey starts the session.
“What do you mean?” Cora asks her.
“Ivy League colleges won’t compromise academic standards just to get athletes to play for them! If you want an idea of what someone who meets these academic standards look like, you only need to look at my quiz bowl teammates! Nadine, Lilina, Myriam and so on”
And then the videos start. She doesn’t discriminate by position because several players can play more than one position. However, she showcases the entire Harvard Crimson women’s basketball recruiting class of 2030, one by one. All three of them. And then Yale’s two recruits. And the one Princeton recruit.
“They obviously have talent, but do you really think the Ivy League is representative of Division I hoops?” Carrie asks Audrey.
“On a purely basketball level, yes. Sure, they won’t get to the Final Four, but the Ivy League’s level of play is not for the faint of heart. On an academic level, definitely no”
“The big sports bottleneck of the Ivy League is academic. Do you think the star players of the Wossmans, Albanys of this world are all on Audrey’s level academically? And Wossman and Albany both had one Division I prospect each!” Heather asks the other underclassmen.
“If I had to guess, no” the second-string center hazards a guess.
“One question: I might be wondering how I stack up to them as a basketball player. Stats aren’t the end of the story on the court, and by now you all seem convinced that I am the same as them academically”
“It’s because you are” Audrey’s dad deadpans his daughter. “Of course, I will be a little biased, so I won’t answer my daughter’s question!”
“Thank you, Audrey. Now I have a better idea of what level we need to reach as players to make it to Division I hoops!” Cora sighs.
And Wossman and Albany duked it out in the final of the state championship with one… ONE D1 prospect apiece! If there were three of these on next season’s VA roster, because, as good as Carrie and Heather are, they aren’t D1 material, then we can go all the way, Audrey ruminates, before playing her own showcase video against Wossman in the final quarter.
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Because, for everyone on the team, the last 2-3 minutes of that game against Wossman were some of the most heart-wrenching moments in their hoops lives, everyone starts crying when they relive it through the showcase video.
“For the record, I plan on taking the July ACT, and I won’t pitch to anyone until I get my scores back. If you need help for the ACT, I will be there for you” Audrey suggests the others.
“Audrey, for months, you were told about what sets the Ivy League apart from other mid-major college basketball conferences. About the academic inclination of the programs. If you were playing for, say, UL-Lafayette, which, on a basketball level, is more or less the same as the Ivy League, you might find the athletic pressure overbearing!” Heather explains to her teammate. “And, in a typical VA fashion, getting any VA to play in the Ivy League would show that you can have sports and brains!”
“You were the one obsessing over getting me to play in the Ivy League! I showed all the non-seniors the high school showcases of Ivy League basketball recruits in an attempt to motivate them on the court!”
“As you said before, we all played our best game that night, including you. Much like Livonia played their best basketball against us. Maybe it’s your quiz bowl background, where there really isn’t much of a defense to speak of, but you seem to have a few issues, especially passing and rim protection” Heather explains to her teammates.
“Our system attempted to mitigate individual weaknesses with teamwork based on assigning players to certain tasks. Like Heather is our rim protection person, Carrie is our ball carrier and passer, not that I am necessarily bad per se at either, but these are my relative weaknesses. Relative to these Ivy Leaguers, or to my other basketball skills!”
“Heather, all this seems to describe my daughter as being like Huiling but better at other aspects of offense! Or as needing a certain type of system for her to play well!” Audrey’s dad yelps upon hearing this description.
“I won’t hold you here any longer, so goodbye” the other players go to the nearest park and then plan on playing basketball.
I guess, I have a better idea of what I need to work on, Audrey ruminates as she changes clothes for her away basketball uniform. Heather’s idea of greatness for the basketball team is that, if no one can sniff the Power-6, the next best thing would be, well, getting a VA to play in the Ivy League. The sign that you can have both athletics and academics in the same person. For that, both top-tier academics and basketball talent is needed, and I have by far the most basketball talent of anyone at VA for whom attending an Ivy is realistic academically. No one else on the quiz bowl team would be able to make the basketball team...
After the basketball session ends, she feels a little tired and goes to sleep early. However, she shakes in her bed, as well as turn in it as her dreams get more troubled…
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Audrey found herself in an oneiric locker room with Aija and Huiling at a basketball showcase. They both came to her to ask her help, but for different reasons.
“Please, Audrey, help me improve on my rim protection game!” Huiling pled to Audrey.
“There’s no one I know in Courland who could help me with either the SAT or ACT, so can you please help me study for it?” Aija then handed her contact information for study.
“Huiling, I have the impression you’re asking this of me because you had issues with your previous program at Pearl River!” Audrey tried to reason with Huiling.
“Not really, just that if I can’t get my defensive game in order, all the offensive abilities in the world won’t matter anymore!” Huiling started crying in a heavy Chinese accent. “And same goes of the ACT!”
“I’m afraid I’m not the best person to help you with rim protection. I need help in that area as well! Just not the same as you!”
I feel like both Aija and Huiling are going to need help in English and reading. However, Huiling makes me feel like there are so many question marks about Chinese youth sports, Audrey ruminated while the Chinese shooting guard wondered how she was going to work on defensive skills, knowing that offensive skills are easier to work on by oneself than defense.
“I would never have played against players who actually have skillsets as complete as even yours back in Handan. Sure, there might be good players, but they always seemed, in my hometown anyway, to be good at specific things” Huiling explained to her.
“When VA played against you, you seemed to be good only at three-pointers, but that was early in the season!” Audrey retorted.
“The good thing about American high school sports is that you still get an education while you play sports. In China, whether you can play sports at a competitive level and, if applicable, which one, is essentially determined for you at a young age”
“Huiling, you seem to be implying that Chinese sports training camps only provide sports training…”
“Not… quite. However, the sports school I attended has some serious academic problems that would make Pearl River look good”
From what I’ve seen, the longer athletes stay in the sports school system without making it to pro sports, the worse off they will be once they get out, so in a way, playing for Pearl River is really a way for me to prevent such a grisly fate, Huiling ruminated on her life as an athletic prospect in Handan. Also, it seems like Chinese sports culture emphasizes piecemeal skill development the way it isn’t here.
“I guess… we may as well practice defense together!” Aija suggested to the other two basketball players.
The three practiced defensive plays as warmups prior to being assigned to teams for sample games, in hopes of catching the eye of college coaches, and everyone played two quarters apiece.
The roster of scouts present at that showcase included coaches from Harvard, Yale and Princeton, for whom only Aija and Audrey were deemed of interest since the others were apparently too weak academically. And Tulane’s coach, too. They were playing in the same game, which felt like a repeat of the second-round game at VA, in that it was a tight, exciting game, and with the two on opposing sides.
To Aija, that showcase felt much like the U17 Latvia national team tryouts… only with the stakes being college scholarships instead of spots on a national team.
At the end of the game, the Ivy League coaches in attendance asked to meet with the pair, and tell the two the cold, hard truth about whether they were Ivy League material on a basketball level. Princeton’s coach appeared ecstatic towards Aija:
“On behalf of the Princeton Tigers, I hereby extend you an offer to join the team starting in the 2031-2032 season, contingent on academic requirements being met” Princeton’s coach solemnly told Aija.
On the other hand, Audrey seemed not to have garnered any interest from Ivies. Meanwhile, Tulane’s coach seemed to have a different discourse with Audrey:
“Right now, you’re not the priority for the team, but if other power forward prospects end up either falling short academically or playing elsewhere… because Tulane is committed to keeping Louisiana talent in-state, you may consider walking on the Green Wave”
Shoot! The AAC is, in basketball, a Power-6 conference, and replaced the Pac-12 as such when the Pac-12 collapsed; walking on the Green Wave for basketball is not a good idea! Walking on a Power-6 team means working like crazy for little to no playtime! I may as well play quiz bowl for the Green Wave if I was going to Tulane on some combination of academic and need-based scholarships! However, at ivies, whether you’re a walk-on or a regular player makes no financial difference! No more than it would at WUSTL or UChicago… The oneiric Audrey mused and kept to herself before her real self awoke to a heightened heartbeat.
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“Now I can’t seem to decide what place basketball will hold into my educational future anymore!” Audrey cries after awakening.
Audrey’s cries awakens her parents. “Could you please put basketball aside for this weekend? You’re going to play at the HSNCT, and, if the VAs play well at the HSNCT, you won’t need to worry about where basketball fits for college as much!”
“If all you wanted was to attend a college up to Tulane’s level, just winning quiz bowl-State and competing at the HSNCT would have meant a lot, coupled with your role on the basketball team and tutoring. But I have the impression that you want to aim higher than even Tulane…” Audrey’s father adds in an attempt to defuse the situation.