Steve Christilaw: Poise is the most important ingredient for a championship team

Somewhere along the way I’ve lost track of how many state championship basketball games I’ve witnessed.

Not that I was ever really keeping track.

It’s almost easier to track the arenas I’ve been in to cover those title games.

There were a bunch of them in the old Spokane Coliseum – just the title games. The preliminary games were played at Spokane Falls Community College in those days. There were a few at the Seattle Center Arena. Then there’s the SunDome in Yakima and the Tacoma Dome (in the early days we called it the Aroma Dome after the famous Aroma of Tacoma).

And, of course that new place downtown (yes, I know it’s more than two decades old, but it still feels like the new place).

Title games themselves add up fast, especially when you aren’t keeping track. Sometimes it feels like they’ve run together in my memory.

Looking back at all those games, all those tournaments, a few things stand out.

First, never buy a hot dog after 9 p.m. And if you’re going to eat the nachos, don’t stop to ask yourself “what kind of cheese is this?” Nothing good can come from the answer to that question.

And never, ever pick a courtside seat in front of the pep band. Trust me on this one. My ears still ring thanks to a slightly out-of-tune trumpet section from the pep band at a high school that no longer exists, circa 1987.

There is a perspective that comes with longevity.

Championship teams come in all shapes and sizes.

I can honestly say that I met Cinderella and watched her discover the slipper. Roy Graffis and the Hunters Lions were nobody’s pick to win a State B title, but four games later they were holding the big gold ball.

Sometimes letting go of expectations frees a team to discover the unexpected. Graffis, a bigger-than-life character with a heart that functioned 10 times bigger than his barrel chest, treated his team as if they were a collection of granddaughters rather than a team of small-town girls.

I have covered hard-nosed coaches. Old-school coaches who barked and cursed and cajoled. Roy Graffis was different. He quite literally loved his team through a voyage of self-discovery and into the record books.

Sometimes the state championship is secondary to something bigger between two teams.

The rivalry between Reardan’s Aileen McManus and Creston’s Tammy Tibbles was an entity unto itself for four incredible years at the State B tournament. The fact that they played for state championships was always secondary to an intense rivalry that played out over the course of each season.

And in the end, it’s impossible to define either of these two outstanding players without invoking the other. Would either be such an iconic part of the State B legend if it weren’t for the other? Can you truly define Magic Johnson without using Larry Bird?

Game plans can change when you get to the championship game.

There was the year Jim Green’s young Reardan team came into the State B intent on running any and all opposition into the ground. They ran, they pressed and they created havoc with three straight opponents at Spokane Falls Community College and reached the title game in the old Coliseum to face a Willapa Valley team that wasn’t sure how it would handle all that pressure.

And in the end, he never used it. Reardan didn’t press. It didn’t run. It walked the ball into the front court and ran its offense on every possession.

Willapa Valley was confused and never quite figured out what was going on and Reardan won another title.

Afterward, Green smiled a sheepish smile and shrugged his shoulders. Frankly, he said, his team was exhausted. They ran the legs off themselves getting to the championship game.

There have been state title teams that featured sharpshooters from all over the floor, and teams that were dedicated to preventing opponents from scoring. There were teams that loved to run and teams that were much happier slowing things down.

But there is one thing that each state champion has had in abundance: poise.

Poise never quite gets enough credit when you break down a championship team.

We love to credit determination and drive. We give props to preparation and commitment. And we marvel at skills.

But all of that can fall apart of a team doesn’t keep its poise. Being shaken is good for an iced tea, but for a basketball team it is deadly. Panic never leads to good decision-making.

There were two great examples from last week that make my point perfectly – from two top-ranked teams.

Freeman trailed Medical Lake in the second half of the Class 1A boys regional and watched as the Cardinals rained field goals to start the second half.

The Scotties rallied and held the lead by the end of the third quarter, and the final play of the period stands out.

Freeman didn’t panic and the Scotties maintained their trust in each other no matter what. On the final play they passed the ball through four sets of hands before finding Ryan Maine for a wide-open 3-pointer that he drained as if it were just another practice.

Central Valley played Gonzaga Prep to cement the girls Class 4A subregional’s top seed.

In this game, the Lady Bears struggled to get shots to fall. And there wasn’t a hint of panic in anyone, and the team stuck with the same philosophy that carried it to a state championship a year ago: They played fierce defense and passed the ball to the open player.

And in the end, they still won by more than 30 points.

No matter what else your team has, without poise it amounts to little.