2023 Tournaments
National Senior Games-Pittsburgh
July, 2023
Gold Medal 65-69 Bracket
Woke Up a National Gold Medal Champion Today: Summary of July 2023 Senior Games in Pittsburgh
To say that the last five days have been a dream that I could never have imagined is an understatement. This morning we woke up US National Gold Medal Champions in basketball for our age group. The first words of Biggie Smalls classic Juicy rap song, “It was all a dream,” keep ringing in my head.
At 4:42 on Thursday July 6th I boarded a JetBlue flight to Pittsburgh to play in the National Senior Games with people I had played some basketball with before and one who I had never played with but it was all good because everyone was friendly. We had a good enough team to compete but most of all it would be fun to compete with a bunch of basketball junkies in their mid to late sixties for a weekend.
In 2019 three of us had played on a team in the National Senior Games in Albuquerque, New Mexico and done phenomenally well considering we had hardly played together before. We achieved a 7th place finish in the 60-64-year-old division which pleased us immensely and encouraged us to come back in the future, but there is clearly a big gap between us and the final four teams. But it was just so much fun to compete at a high level, we got hooked.
I should explain here that the National Senior Games are like the Olympics for Seniors in the US. It is a 21-sport biennial competition for men and women over 50 years of age. The year before, there are qualifying tournaments in every state. It is held in a different city every two years and it is a big deal. Over 10,000 athletes descend on the city and the competition is fierce. For 2023, the city chosen was Pittsburgh, appropriately known as the City of Champions.
Because of the age difference two years ago, we did not participate as a team in Fort Lauderdale as I was under 65 while the rest of the team had aged out to the 65 plus age division.
So, as I boarded the plane, I felt good but had that nervous anticipation one has before a sporting event of what if we are not as good as we think? We certainly had aged from the last time and one of our key players was injured. Nonetheless, there was no going back and this was all natural. I liked our team and our chances and hoped we could duplicate or improved on our 7th place finish from before and maybe make it to the final four if we got a lucky draw.
I will try to condense the story but upon our first practice, on Friday, things did not look good. We could not even get a place to practice because other teams were more organized and they had all the courts and were running plays. We had no plays and not even all of our players yet. In fact, some of us had never played together before. It was about to get worse.
Our hopes for a lucky draw were smashed immediately at 9 am on Saturday morning as we played a team from Maryland called “Baby Boomers” which was not even the top seed in our pool. They were big, skilled and experienced. We got blown out despite giving it everything we had and had a run at the end of the game to cut the final deficit to 6 points. We now were wondering if we were going to win a game because we hadn’t even gotten to the toughest team (we thought) in our bracket.
Well that bracing wake-up call was just what we needed. We regrouped for our second game at 1 pm that day in a do or die situation to keep our hopes alive to end up in the gold medal bracket and played wining by 39 points against a very good team that would go on to perform very well the rest of the tournament, except for this game. It was a complete team effort where players who had played a lot less the first game came on to take a lead and double it and essentially end the game early which was key for us to get some rest for the critical games to follow the next morning.
After such an up and down day, we went to dinner with our now local coaches and fans, Andy Caso, Vince Lackner and the completely unique Mother Dunn. Andy Caso and Vince Lackner both live in Pittsburgh and were experienced basketball players and coaches and offered great perspective as well as tips on the city. Mother Dunn, Richie Lanchantin’s brother-in-law, had driven across the state of Pennsylvania. He had played and captained the football team at Penn State and gone onto to be a strength and conditioning coach for many teams in the NFL and sported a Super Bowl ring. He became our inspirational leader. His presence is larger than life and you could see why the players loved him. He was now all in with us too and his competitive juices were flowing and he delayed his trip home for 48 hours.
It was on now. The vibe was good but the #1 seed in our bracket and previous Gold medalist, was on for 9 am Sunday morning.
We were ready, despite being considerably outsized, we now had figured out what our advantages were and how to tilt the game in style and pace to benefit from this. Again, we got a good lead and then the second unit came in and built the lead to the point where they waved the white flag. We won by a shocking 20 points and the word was now spreading about the Cranbrook Courters. Mike Partington came in and lit it up from 3-point land and Keith Anderson gave us invaluable low post presence and made shots when they gave them to him. All six players on our team were finding their roles and feeling good in them.
The last game was at 11 am against the supposedly weakest team in our pool. They had not won a game but they were tough and put up an epic fight. It was clear by the end, that they were good and they would go on to do fabulously well outside of our pool, going 3-1 and losing only to the winner of the Silver bracket while giving them their closest game. No doubt we had the toughest pool top to top.
We had qualified for the Gold medal bracket and now it was single elimination but we were jelling as a team and now had a following. Shawn Hawkins, the grandson of all-time great, Hall of Famer and NYC playground legend Connie Hawkins and a Long Beach State Hall of Fame basketball player himself who had a long professional career in the states and overseas, joined our “Junior Mafia”. Andy Caso’s wife, Laurel Shoemaker, was now our official team photographer. Mike Partington’s wife, Sue (who gave us a critical insight as well to cut down on turnovers), was with us the whole time but now started to bring her local friends. We started to have a fan base.
Big dinner that night at Fogo de Chão with all the above in the picture further cemented the team, and needed because our next goal was to win against yet another higher seeded team to get to the final four at 10 am Monday morning.
Lancaster Warriors had earned a top seed in their pool by going undefeated for a reason. They were extremely good with a talented set of big men and two strong wings. But they made one bad substitution and we jumped on it to get six quick points and then they had another breakdown and that turned out to be the difference, plus Bruce and Richie were shooting lights out. Damn, we were in the final four!
Not a lot of time to celebrate as we now had the NBA All-Stars from Virginia who were an unknown but we were playing with house money at this point and as Mother has drilled into us, “we didn’t know about them, they knew about us.” Unfortunately, Mother had to leave and we were on our own now. Significant withdrawal but our fan base was growing. Sue Partington had brought more friends and Laurel Shoemaker was now a regular, plus dozens of others watching our games now.
In shockingly one of the weakest teams we faced in this final four game, we played our second worst game of the tournament but were saved by a now fast rising meteor called Len Shepard. Some thought he was unleashing his inner Connie Hawkins inspired by Shawn and his kids. He made a critical steal and hit critical fouls shots, and again, Bruce was automatic at the foul line, a Senior Games Rick Barry. Richie was now used to banging down low with people much larger than him and not getting in foul trouble but still it was a nail biter that could have gone either way. In the end, the Cranbrook Courters where more resilient and made smarter plays down the stretch. Coaching advice from our extensive staff of Coaches Caso and Lackner was helpful but the best was yet to come.
Holy Cow!!! We were in the finals for the gold. Who would have ever believed this?!?!
The only thing left was our friend from our pool that we played in the first game Baby Boomers who had blown through their side of the bracket without a close game, winning by 13 and 12 points including against the many time former champions USA Global who recruits nationally. They had a tall but also intelligent and savvy 6’5” who were also bulls inside who we could not stop in the first game. They had played at basketball powerhouses Norfolk State and Virginia Union. They had another lights out shooter who we had now identified and another defensive stopper. It did not look good except we were not in a flow.
We came out and controlled the game and got a nice lead but then they came storming back with an 8-0 run. It looked grim but a timely three pointer and then incredible play by the now inspired Len Shepard kept the game close. The crowd was now gathering around the court. The pressure was now on Baby Boomers. How could this be happening? They started to panic. They fouled us with the scored tied. We made the shots and went up two. They went down inside and quickly bulled us over for 2 points and tied the game.
Time was running out and we had them where we wanted them. Tie game and we patiently moved the ball around and finally got the best match up we could get. Still we waited because we wanted to get the last shot but you have to be careful. You want to leave time for a rebound. Still it was go time, and I got the corner on one of their big guys and got a lefthanded layup (all those tens of thousands of practices shots were worth it), and we were up 42-40.
But they immediately called time out with 2.9 seconds left. Dang, they had time for a last shot now too. On the benches the teams were plotting their strategy. The experienced baller he is, Keith Anderson, checked to see if we had a foul give which seemed impossibly unlikely because the fouls carried over from half to half. Incredibly, we had not fouled in the second half and were sitting on 5 fouls with a foul to give! We tripled checked with the table and referee without attracting too much attention from the other team and yes it was true.
So, when they inbounded the ball with 2.9 seconds we waited a second but not too long so as to avoid fouling in the act of shooting, and fouled them. The Boomers were completely caught off guard and it threw them off. After a long delay, they gave them a generous 1.9 seconds to get a shot off and they did but not to the person we feared and the ball bounced off the rim. We were National Gold medal champions! Beyond belief.
Boomers were stunned. Fans were stunned. We didn’t have the best player. We didn’t have the best set of individual players but we had the best *team*.
As many of you know, I have played basketball my entire life all over the world and with hundreds of teams in leagues, tournaments and just pick up. There are very few things that I really understand in life but basketball is one of them and it is a beautiful sport, when it is played properly. Playing it properly means playing it with individual disciplined but also integrated with others who are doing the same to create the magic of a high-performance team.
I have had similar experiences before but honestly, I can say that I am not sure I have every had any that I enjoyed more. When we are young, we assume it will happen again and we focus on the next one. With age comes wisdom and we also realize that this is not that common. It might not happen again and you should not look ahead but savor and enjoy what is right in front of you right now.
Every single person in our Junior Mafia, including the players (Bruce, Keith, Lenny, Mike, Richie and myself) as well as Andy, Vince and Mother knew it as well. Mother even said it best, “I don’t miss the NFL, I miss the locker room with the guys.” It was such an honor to achieve all of this again with perspective with such a group of diverse but completely aligned people. Damn it felt good waking up a champion this morning and doing it the right way with others. Never ever gets old. Mission accomplished… beyond our wildest dreams.
And to complete the circle on the song we started with by Brooklyn’s finest, Biggie Smalls:
I’m blowin’ up like you thought I would
Call the crib, same number same hood
It’s all good
Uh, and if you don’t know, now you know
See you all back on the courts soon. We don’t stop playing hoops because we get old, we get old because we stop playing hoops.
Master’s Five on Five Tournament-Coral Springs May 15-19
Angelo Tarantino participated in the Master’s tournament with the Patterson Construction team consisting of players from Canada, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania in the 75+ age division. The team finished 0-4 but Angelo was named to the All tournament team for his age bracket. Angelo also won the individual 3 point shooting contest for the 75+ bracket with rounds of 12 for 15 and 11 for 15. A performance befitting one of the CSBL’s all-time leading 3 point shooters. Congratulations Angelo!
Connecticut Senior Games- May 20
Massachusetts Black Bears with Angelo Tarantino, Ed Dassatti, Tom Winters, and Robert Bence. 75+ Bracket Gold medal
Massachusetts Senior Games-June 17 Massachusetts Black Bears with Angelo Tarantino and Jim Carroll from the CSBL plus Tom Winters and Pete Haviland. 75+ bracket. Gold Medal
Vermont Senior Games – Sept. 29
80+ Age Bracket-multi-state team included former CSBL players Dick Vosko, Wayne Kristel, and Joe Walters – Gold Medal
Vermont Senior Games – Sept 29
70—74 Age Bracket CSBL 70+ team included Geoff Coufal, Jerry Wall, Angelo Tarantino, Joe Tewksbury, Kim Burns, and Chris Burke. There was only 1 other team in the age bracket so the team played two younger teams and lost both games. They played 1 game within their age bracket against a team from Rhode Island, losing a very close hard fought game.
