Cougar Nation!

With two games remaining, we needed two victories. Due to our record, the chance of making the conference tournament had disappeared yet we still had a few things to play for. The most important factor in the final two games was pride. Honestly, with two games left and no postseason, the team could have buckled. It would have been very easy for our seniors to forget the final two home games and set their sights on spring break and graduation. They did the opposite. The job was not finished and we were playing for something - Pride! We were playing for the name on the front of our jersey. We were playing for tradition. We were playing for a positive way to walk off the court on senior night. We were playing for you! Before the Shawnee State game, Coach spoke about the pride you should take in putting on the Mount Vernon jersey and everything it represents. Using his motivating tone of voice and selective vocabulary, I would have guessed his pre-game speech came from Hoosiers or Remember the Titans, but in fact it just came from his heart. He wanted us to understand for who and why we play the game of basketball. We play basketball for The Naz!

The Shawnee State game started off like a Cleveland Cavaliers game and Rob Taylor was Lebron James. Because the Lady Cougars were away on Thursday, the team was able to come down to the gym early and shoot some extra shots. Whatever workout R.T. went through needs to become a pregame ritual! Rob came into the game ON FIRE! He drained five 3-point baskets all in a row, made a layup which he was fouled on (yes, he made the free throw), and then he made two more free throws after being fouled on another layup attempt. The score was Rob Taylor-20, SSU-5. Had Rob maintained his scoring pace, he was on track to score 160 points! We needed every basket he made because going into the half we were only up eight points. The second half we were able to extend our lead and never looked back. The Cougars pulled away with a 15 point victory. (Editor’s note: After Taylor’s five-minute scoring outburst to start the game, the score was 66-66 the rest of the way.  Click here for the complete recap of the game and video of Taylor's great start.)

At 6:00 in the morning two months before we played our first game of this season, we were running in sub-40 degree temperature with rain pouring down upon us. Senior Night was the last thing any of the Cougars had on their mind! Yet, Coach has a way of motivating the team and he did not disappoint on Saturday. Before warm-ups, Coach pulled the team in to the Cougar room where he played a video that recapped the entire season from the Crossroads through the season. The video reminded us of everything we had gone through in the past few months and how much we really had accomplished. Motivated, excited, nervous, and hungry for our last victory of the year, we came out to battle. Malone University needed a win to help their playoff standing. We needed a win for our seniors! The first half was a little slow and we just were not able to get into a rhythm. Missed layups and poor execution of plays allowed Malone to extend their lead. We entered the half down 11. During halftime, the entire team knew what needed to be done. We needed to come out and leave everything on the court. Senior Travis Brown knew it was his last game to play for the Cougars and he wanted to make his mark. TBrown made basket after basket and lots of free throws to get us back in the game. Malone still held the lead by two with just over three minutes to play. After some free throws and great defense possessions, we held the lead with 18 seconds left. Malone brought the ball up the floor and the Cougars were in lockdown defense. Malone’s point guard drove to the rim and at the last second (literally 0.7 seconds) passed the ball to a wide open player for a layup and overtime. Overtime, the story of our entire season! The way we looked at it, the seniors had five more minutes of Cougar basketball. We are extremely familiar with overtime and very comfortable playing an extra few minutes; Malone, on the other hand, was not. In overtime, we made the first two buckets and Malone answered back. With under 20 seconds to play, we were up one point and had the ball. After a miscommunication on our team, we turned the ball over and our one-point lead started to look like a one-point upset. Malone came down and used all 20 seconds to get their shot. Fortunately for the Cougars, our seniors, the Cougar Crazies and our pride, Malone missed two close shots and we came out victorious - 65-64 MVNU.

Well, Cougar Nation, I cannot believe the season is finished! It really is amazing how fast these games come and go. It has been a pleasure to report from Inside the Huddle and I hope you have enjoyed reading this blog. As for next year, if you have any ideas or suggestions for Inside the Huddle please feel free to find me on Facebook or send me an email (shilbert@mvnu.edu) with your thoughts. And for the last time this year, Let’s go Inside the Huddle.

Inside The Huddle:

Name: Jonathan Gurney (below far left)

Number: 20

Year: Senior

Major: Financial Management

Nickname: Gurn, Sparta, Iron Man and Sir.

Hometown: Shelby, OH

Favorite College Activity: Iron Man enjoys working out and when he is not working out he likes to rock out on Guitar Hero, eat healthy and drive his bright yellow Volkswagen Bug through the hills of Knox County.

Relationship Status: Jonathan is engaged to Mandy Belczak. Their wedding date is set for July 10th of this year. Good luck and God bless you both.

One Quick Fact: Many of you might be aware of the triathlon known as the Iron Man. A Triathlon is a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and 26.1 mile run. What many of you do not know is that Gurn was the inventor of the Triathlon. He was simply going through his daily exercise when some people asked to join him for a little workout. Gurn was more than happy to have some company. When they realized the intensity of Jonathan’s routine, they decided to go public with his workout. They named the race the Iron Man, after Jonathan Gurney. Gurn has only competed in one Iron Man race. In that race, he broke every record set, but refused to allow his name to be released publicly. Iron Man himself finished the Triathlon in 3 hours and 20 minutes, smashing the current record by 5 hours and 31 minutes.

Peace!

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