Thomas Jones is the number two high school basketball prospect in the country. He is a seven foot, three inch tall center at Westford High School in New York. His friend and teammate Jamal is the number four prospect in the nation. Jamal plays point guard on their basketball team. Thomas and Jamal have both been four year starters on Westford’s varsity squad. Westford never had much of a basketball program until the dynamic duo came in as freshmen. That year they went from 9 wins and 23 losses from the last year, to 29 wins 5 losses. They finished second in their conference. The two freshmen were unanimous picks onto the first team for all-conference. They did better each year after that, winning more playoff games each year. Their junior year, they made it to the semi-finals, but lost in double overtime.
Westford was the class B preseason number one ranked team according to a poll taken by all of the state’s coaches. The Dark Knights had two out of the four best high school players in the country and now had better players to complement their game. With the players he had, the coach implemented a 1-3-1 defense with Jamal up top and Thomas down low. The team mainly ran a 4-1 offense looking to pass to an open Thomas down low. With Thomas being 7’ 3” tall, with a 7’ 9” wingspan, it’s easy for him to score against the much smaller defenders. Even when the opposing team had two or three players on him, he could easily make a shot.
Jamal and Thomas were both being heavily recruited by the best colleges in the country. They wanted to play in college together, so when coaches came to talk to them, Jamal and Thomas did it together. Jamal and Thomas’s dream school is the University of Kansas.

The Westford Dark Knights were on their way to play in the class B state championship game. Thomas and Jamal sat across from each other on the bus, thinking about the biggest game of their lives. Winning the title has been their goal since they first played a high school game. This was their last chance to win the title.
Westford will play the Falcons of Harlem Heights High School. They had a fast paced team led by the number one overall prospect in high school, Tyrone Jenkins. Tyrone is considered to be the best basketball player ever to surface. Jenkins is a 6’ 9” small forward who can run a 4.3 40 yard dash. The kid is a freak of an athlete and is almost unstoppable. His team only made the playoffs because of his outstanding play. The rest of the team would probably only manage about 10 wins if they didn’t have Tyrone. Tyrone is special in every aspect of his game and has no weak points. He had averaged 38 points, 19 rebounds, and 6 steals per game during the regular season. Westford is thought to be the only team who had the talent to have a shot at stopping this kid.
The bus finally arrived at Aspire Stadium where Westford would be playing the big game. As the team came off the bus one by one, they gathered to let their coach speak. Thomas stood next to Jamal, towering over everyone around him.
The coach began to speak, “All right boys, this is where we will be playing tomorrow night. You better look now, because we need to focus on winning. I didn’t come all the way down here just to see us lose! Let’s go to the locker room and get ready for practice. Be on the court in 30 minutes.”
After that, the coach led them into a large dark tunnel. The team walked into a huge bright room. The room had about 20 lockers big enough to fit three of the lockers they had back at their school. The floor was laid with a thick velvet carpet. Off to the side was a room for the coach and on the other side an L-shaped couch and flat screen TV.
After about a minute of looking around the locker room, the players put their gear into a locker of their choice and began preparing for the practice ahead of them. Thomas began to put on his practice clothes, including his size 21 custom Nike LeBron VII’s in all black. He left the right shoe off and headed to the trainer’s room so the trainer could tape up his ankle. Wrapping his ankle takes a whole roll of athletic tape to make it secure. He put on his other shoe, and he and Jamal headed out to the court together.
The two friends came running out of the tunnel and stopped at the end. They looked around the huge stadium. There were bright lights from all angles and thousands of seats. Tomorrow night, all of those seats would be filled with thousands of screaming fans there to cheer them on. There were two rows behind the press row that would be filled with many scouts. Many college and pro teams wanted to see the game. A game is a big attraction when there are three out of the four best prospects in the country playing in the same game. They will be watching them and every move they make, looking for anything that might help them evaluate these great athletes. These three players could be making millions of dollars in as little as two years from now. The scouts needed to tell their bosses whether they were worth a free ride to their college or if they deserved a first round pick in a future draft. All three of the prospects have already been on the cover of ESPN’s magazine. Almost everyone in the world of basketball knows about them by now. It’s hard to have not heard about them.
Thomas and the rest of the team gathered at the center of the court around the coach. The team then began its normal routine for practice. They started by working on ball handling and then went to shooting and rebounding. After they finished those they began running through the offenses they would be running against the Falcons. The coach tried to make it so the plays would keep Tyrone Jenkins out of the play as much as possible. Tyrone played tenacious defense and was the only real threat to them. Most of the plays kept Jamal and Thomas spread apart from one another so Tyrone would only be by one of them at a time. Whoever he didn’t cover of the two had a huge mismatch. The Dark Knights were counting on to dominate on offense. They ran through the offense for about 45 minutes, making sure everyone completely understood every little detail. The team then started to work on the defensive scheme.
They made a plan where Jamal covered Tyrone one on one, and the rest of the team played a 3-1 zone. Thomas would be the one down low while the other three would be spread across at about the elbow. The plan was set so Jamal would always defend Tyrone, Thomas would stop any penetration, and the other three would worry about the other players. If the team could stop Tyrone, the game should be an easy victory. The problem was that a lot of teams have tried to stop Tyrone in similar ways, but didn’t stop him at all.
“All right guys, bring it in! Good practice today, you all seemed to be focused. We have a team dinner tonight at seven. Be ready in the hotel lobby by then. After that, you all should get to bed early so you won’t be tired for tomorrows big game. That’s all I got for you, bring it in.” The team did their chant and left.
Thomas and Jamal walked down a dark tunnel, each with a basketball in their hands. The rest of the team and the coaches followed them. The Dark Knights wore their black warm up gear. They looked out ahead to the edge of the tunnel as the lights dimmed in the stadium. The announcer came over the intercom and announced Westford as lights shined where the tunnel ended. The Dark Knights sprinted through the tunnel and the crowd erupted in cheers for them. As Thomas raced down the sideline, he glanced into a sea of people here to watch him and his team compete for the state title. There was a very little amount of light in the stands, but it seemed like every light in the stadium was shining on the floor. The team began their pregame routine with precision, running at full speed. Every single one of them had adrenaline rushing through their veins.
After about 20 minutes, the scoreboard buzzer whined. Both teams gathered by their bench and the lights dimmed across the entire building. A spotlight shined over Westford’s bench as the announcer began to introduce them. The announcer presented each of the Dark Knights a great introduction and then introduced the Falcons. The lights came back on and the starting five for both teams came onto the floor. Thomas and Tyrone lined up at midcourt for the jump ball. The referee blew his whistle and tossed the game ball in the air.