FBA's Future Spotlight
Edition #12
By Fred Muringer, FSCM

One-point-six seconds. One shot. One gesture.

Inevitably when a huge city such as Los Angeles boasts two prestigious and large university campuses, crosstown rivalries will blossom with various degrees of intensity. It is their sports programs where the rivalries between the two universities truly manifested themselves as the most intense and expressive, and none is more intense than with the sport of basketball. With gridiron football, FuSC's dominance is so clear over the past three decades that even the students in both schools don't consider it a rivalry; UFLA's football program haven't scored a victory against FuSC since 2004. But in basketball, both schools consider themselves on equal ground, or greater depending on who's talking. Both UFLA and FuSC are in the same Conference, SCAL-12, and while UFLA has greater prestige and history, owning eleven FCAA championships since the early 20th century, FuSC has grabbed the upperhand in recent times, defeating UFLA six times in their past eight meetings and winning the SCAL-12 Championship in the past two years in a row.

On March 2014, due to freak circumstances and coincidence of scheduling, the very last game of the regular season in SCAL-12 was going to decide the conference's championship between UFLA and FuSC, with both having similar win-loss records. With the championship on the line and on FuSC's home court, the air was abuzz with the roar of 9,200 rabid FuSC fans awashed in a sea of dark red and silver. Despite the schools located merely within 40 miles from each other, there was just a scant hundred or fewer UFLA fans in attendance, mostly due to actual fear of physical retaliation for stepping foot inside the fiercely rival school grounds.

"I've always hated going on a road game against FuSC," Adam Tevela (Linsang) stated on record. "I've received slurs I can't repeat here, death threats, taunting from the masses, and I've actually been spat on from behind when I'm sitting on the bench. One fan dumped beer on me as I entered the corridor toward the locker rooms a few years ago here. Going to FuSC is like stepping into a faraway hostile country, when my home is just a few miles away. So surreal, dude..."

When Vance Adelson (Hyena) declared eligibility to enter the FBA Draft in 2013, senior Adam Tevela took the mantle as UFLA's team captain. Scoring an average of 16.5 points and 4.5 rebounds per game, Tevela led the team as their starting Small Forward, and save for one ankle sprain injury that shelved him for a week, he had played for UFLA in every game since his freshman year. Yet growing up amid the shores of Huntington Beach, California, he was raised in the shadow of his father, whom was a professional surfer.

"My Dad wanted me to make a living riding the waves," Tevela said to me during our interview, his surfer-accent clearly pronounced as he speaks. "But as a young kid, I took to the outside basketball courts. So whenever I'm not riding the waves or wearing a wetsuit, I would be out there on the pavement making shots with this old ball I found lying on the sand when I was like, five years old, dude. My Dad at first thought I was whack when I told him I wanted to go to college and play b-ball, but now he thinks it's a gnarly thing to do, man. I have primo respect for him."

Perhaps it was a good thing that he chose basketball over surfing, as UFLA finally got a chance to win the SCAL-12 Conference championship for the first time since 2006. From the very first minute of the game, the FuSC fans rarely let up on their cheering and taunting, and their team fed on their energy, starting the game on a 12-5 drive and by Halftime, they still led against UFLA, 52-45.

"Ugh man, the noise," Tevela remarked to me with an amused chuckle. "They're not known to be the loudest in the country but day-um, whenever we're in their court? It's like all of them have loudspeakers hidden in their mouths and have iron lungs. We try not to let it distract us, but dude, it was hard to hear the coaches with all that yelling and buzzing in the background surrounding the court."

Although FuSC continued to lead throughout the second half into the closing minutes, UFLA never trailed far behind, snapping at their heels the entire way. With two minutes left to go, UFLA was set to lead the game for the first time. When UFLA sophomore Derrike Whisker (Armadillo) drove toward the basketball for a lay-up, FuSC's Center, Gregory Salack (Grizzly Bear), slammed onto him for the block and his massive 330-pound bulk figure sent Whisker down hard to the court, injuring his right elbow in the process. When no referee called for the foul, the entire UFLA bench stood up with their coaches, screaming for justice onto deaf ears.

"Yeah, I remember that moment clear," Tevela said, shaking his head. "Derrike was screaming, holding his elbow and I winced... but for some reason, I glanced up at the crowd. They were cheering, dude... some fans in the front row were laughing at Derrike, calling him a pussy and a flopper, thinking that injury was fake, man. That's FuSC for you, dude... very classy peeps," he said with a large degree of sarcasm. "I wanted them to shut the hell up, but I can't just say that. I have to physically shut them up."

When FuSC star junior Yesina Sela (Ruffed Lemur) knocked down a critical three-pointer with a minute to go, the entire stadium rattled with the crowd noise and UFLA called for a time-out. Most of the UFLA players slumped their shoulders, meekly retreating to their bench huddle as the mere noise suppressed their own fleeting hopes for a victory.

"We were four points down with... what, a minute or a minute and a half to go?" Tevela sighed, leaning back on his couch before looking back at me. "We never did take the lead up to that point, and now we're four points down with that much time left and the crowd going crazy? Of course we were starting to feel hopeless, dude. Who wouldn't be?"

Despite the clock running down and the pressure intensifying, Tevela grabbed the ball as it passed inbounds and calmly dribbled his way toward his half of the court. Watching the video replays of the last few minutes of the game, I noticed that his demeanor was calm and yet with a silent confidence. Here he was with his team four points in the hole, and he's acting like he's in no hurry. For some, it may seem like he had already given up and felt content to run out the clock in defeat, but I watched his eyes as he was moving down the court. One important trait for a basketball player is knowing how to read the court, calculating and predicting the defense's next moves along with the positions of their own teammates and anticipating their moves as well. Who's on the low post areas? The perimeter? On the paint? How are the defensive players positioned? Zone or one-to-one? He was well aware that he's running out of time... but it didn't bother him. As soon as he crossed the half-court line, he passed the ball to teammate Junn McDowell (Meerkat) and it wasn't until then when he finally picked up the pace on his steps, quickly moving to the perimeter, his favorite place to be in.

It has been long-documented that Tevela loved to take jump-shots from the perimeter, the area beyond the free-throw lane and within the three-point arc. FuSC knew this too though, especially junior Mark Archer (Tiger) whom was assigned to guard Tevela.

"Yeah dude, they knew what I'm capable of," he told me. "That Archer guy is very good, and he was on my face for most of the game. But I knew he was cocky, and I could tell on his face that he thinks the game is already done for and he's getting the Conference champion trophy. I love it when people lower their guard down because they got too cocky!"

McDowell leaped to attempt a three-point shot with just one second left in the shot-clock, only for the ball to bounce off the rim. Tevela, with Archer right beside him, jumped to grab the ball for the rebound, and as soon as he landed, he pivoted to face the basket. Eight times out of ten, a player in his situation would immediately jump to try a shot, and that was exactly Archer anticipated Tevela to do and he leaped vertically, possibly expecting to block the shot. Instead, despite the heat of the moment, Tevela 'hesitated' and leaned against Archer to jump just a split second after Archer leaped, slamming onto his body in mid-air while throwing the ball underneath one of Archer's arms. The ball bounced within the rim of the basket and it came in just as two referees blew the whistles to call a foul on Archer.

Tevela laughed loudly as I recounted that moment to him during our interview. "Oh dude, that tiger was pissed. He was pissed as hell, man! He started screaming and ran to one of the refs, didn't he?"

That was exactly what Archer did, but the referee wasn't listening. Not to him and not to the heavily-booing crowd of 9,200 angry fans. But as they watched Tevela walk up to the free-throw line to make his shot, a good number of fans started sweating. One of his greatest strengths on the court was his accuracy behind the line, and throughout his career in UFLA he mustered a remarkably decent rating on his free-throw shots total. Sure FuSC was still two points ahead, but with Tevela on the line, the majority of the fans predicted that it was going to be a one-point game very soon. Not that they made it known to him at the time, as they screamed and taunted him as he prepared to make his shot, waving their red and silver flags and Styrofoam signs and mock-fingers. Just as they feared, Tevela's shot cleanly went through the basket, and FuSC took the ball with just one point in the lead.

"And who did they pass the ball to?" Tevela said with a grin. "They passed it to that tiger dude Mark Archer. Now he still got that pissed look on his face, and I could tell that foul on him still bothered him a lot. That meant he's distracted, so I went up to his face."

With just five seconds left in the game, Tevela came up close against Archer, trying to strip the ball from him or force a foul to stop the clock. Instead, Archer made perhaps the biggest mistake in his college basketball career.

Tevela shook his head as he recounted what happened. "He threw the ball. He threw the dang ball, dude. Seriously why did he do that?"

In a moment of uncharacteristic panic, Archer lobbed the ball above Tevela's head only for UFLA freshman Lisa Esia (Wolf) to dive toward the ball as it descended and caught it before hitting the floor. The crowd roared in shock as Esia quickly rolled to face one of the referees and crossed her paws in a T-motion for a time-out with just one-point-six seconds left in the game. Archer bellowed in anger and stormed back to FuSC's bench with a scowl, protesting about a foul call that never came.

"Yah, he thought I fouled him which caused him to throw the ball like that. Pfft. I never touched him. I had my paw up to his face just inches away, but I never touched him. Anyway, that was actually the quietest I heard the crowd be, but it was still noisy. I could tell they were getting nervous, but they survived close calls before, so they still think the game's won for them. Less than two seconds to go? Easy to imagine why they would think they got the game won."

"What happened during the huddle on that last time out?" I asked him.

"I told my teammates and my coaches... 'give the ball to me, I'll handle this'. That's basically what I said," Tevela said with a shrug. "I also told them that if I miss this last shot, I bear full load of losing the championship. Not the team's responsibility... it would be fully on my shoulders, no matter what they say. So I told them to give the ball to me. I don't care if there's four players in red and silver covering my linsang ass. Give the ball to me. And you know what, dude? They trusted me."

When Lisa Esia accepted the ball from the referee behind the court line, the main clock read 1.6 seconds left. Both UFLA and FuSC players scrambled for positioning and finding an opening, and with the referee counting next to her, Esia appeared flustered as she held the ball. The crowd sensed blood at such a pivotal moment, their noise rising again back to their feverish pitch. Less than two seconds to go before their school could raise the Conference trophy for the second time in two years. Just before the referee finished the five-count on Esia, she finally bounced the ball past her defender and it ended up on Tevela's paws.

"As soon as I grabbed that ball, I didn't even think. No time to think, man."

For UFLA and FuSC fans alike, the next one-point-six seconds seem to come in slow motion. Tevela immediately leaped to make his shot, despite having FuSC players Mark Archer and Thomas DiMigio (Zebra) jumping with their arms stretched high in front of him. With 19 feet between him and the basket, Tevela released the ball in a slow arch over the paws of both his defenders and all 9,200 members of the stadium audience turned their heads to follow the ball with their eyes. The game-ending horn rang and just a split second later, the ball swished through the rim.

For the first time in the entire game, UFLA took the lead and it was the only lead that mattered. Tevela turned away from the basket to walk toward the center of the court as his elated teammates raised their fists in triumph, ignoring some of the FuSC players that were so shocked that they fell to their knees. Tevela turned his head toward the crowd, the same crowd that refused to quiet down for the entire game. The same crowd that heckled him, laughed at his teammate's injury, and mocked his surfer culture. He raised a finger to his lips like a scolding librarian would, and for once, the crowd obliged, succumbing into complete silence.

"I honestly don't know why I did that," Tevela told me. "I'm not someone who would brag, ya know? But... these guys. They hate me, and I was angry at them for how they behaved. They can boo us all they like, that's their own right, but to laugh at Derrike's injury? That's bad mojo dude, so I shut them up."

He then smiled at me. "I shut them up pretty good, didn't I?" He laughed.

The silence gesture was captured on video and the image plastered on newspapers throughout California. It only lasted for a few seconds as his teammates soon embraced him in tight hugs, but it was more than enough to burn the image into the psyche of FuSC fans for perhaps years to come. Now with Adam Tevela declaring his intentions of entering the FBA Draft later this year, I asked him if that gesture in a moment of victory was something he wanted people to define him with. He shook his head.

"Naw man. Holding up the FBA championship trophy? That'll be my defining moment, and I'll do everything I can to achieve that."

Only time will tell.

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So here's my FBA Draft prospect story! Hope you enjoy it.

Art by the awesome  Pac

FBA created by  BuckHopper