Last weekend I drove to Dayton, Ohio to attend a tryout for the Dayton Air Strikers of the PBL.  The drive from Virginia was about 9 hours.  There's always a element of mystery when it comes to these tryouts because you never know what to expect.  Will the coach do a hour of conditioning drills? How good will the competition be?  These aren't worries but just questions.  As a pro athlete you should be in great shape and confident in your game always.

The tryout was held at a YMCA and the turnout was decent. After we warmed up the coaches broke us up into groups and sent us to different stations. Drills are pretty much to seperate guys early and show who is skilled enough for this level of basketball. 

After a good workout we finally scrimmaged, 5 on 5 action is what really matters.  Whenever I'm at a tryout or camp my mindset is always "make a play". As a guard you want to score, assist, or just make a good play whenever you have the ball.  On defense you just want to compete and not get beat. Showing you are a confident player and standing out without being selfish are extremely important.  I feel like I did a good job of displaying my talent in short amount of time.  I shot the ball well and showed my scoring ability. The scrimmage went into OT and we lost by 4 points. Even though its a just a tryout I still want to win. 

Just when guys thought the day was over we did a conditioning drill.  That dreaded word "baseline" can change a guy's attitude quickly.  The run wasn't too bad, but I did notice some guys struggling to finish it and cramping up.  One thing that was different about this tryout was they fed us afterwards which was definately appreciated. 

Day two started early at 9am.  This was the last day to show what I could do and I stayed aggressive the whole time. Again I scored the ball well and had a crazy sequence of back to back highlights. One of my teamates drove and went up for a lay-up that came off the rim.  Once I seen him drive I crashed the boards and followed up the miss with a 2-hand putback dunk. Then the next time down the court I caught the ball on the wing and gave my defender a hard dribble left and snatched it back to my right hand.  The guy literally fell on the floor from the move.  Then I pulled up from 3. Swish!  Best feeling in the world.  

I did have a Not Top Ten moment that day too, I damn near airballed a free throw. You have to blame something so like all players I looked at my hands in disgust and wiped them on my shorts even though they were dry.  After we wrapped up the tryout I talked to the staff and hit the road back to Virginia.  I was proud of my performance and left feeling positive I would be hearing back from them.  Later this week I did and I'll be going back to Dayton soon for the next tryout.

Here's a video of me playing at the tryout. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgaVTxward0 The dunk and crossover are included.  Enjoy.