The MCTC New Mavs played two games this week and outscored their opponents by about eighty points.  By half time, both games were so far in the bag that we fans could sit back, chat, open a bottle of wine and just relax.  If only they sold two buck chuck at the concession stand...

I've been thinking about it and I've decided that the new nickname "Mavericks" is actually perfect, if based upon the fictional gambler, rather than the historical steer.  The word "maverick" refers to an unbranded steer.  According to my history of the old west expert, Louis L'Amour, a rancher named Maverick refused to brand his cattle, so whenever the other ranchers found a stray with no brand, they assumed it was Maverick's.

Then one spring, Maverick tried to claim all the new, unbranded calves in the region as his own and was promptly hanged by his neighbors.  Then shot.

Well, I don't know if that's what became of the idiot known as Maverick, but it should be.

However, in the old tv show (starring James Garner) and the not quite as old movie (starring Mel Gibson as James Garner's son) Maverick was a gambler.

He played games for a living.  Poker games.

He was very, very good at it.

In the movie, Mel gets in a game at the beginning, where he promises he won't win a single hand for at least an hour.  Sure enough, he loses and loses.  For an hour.  After that he cleans out the table.  Afterward, he explains that he spent the first hour learning all the other player's "tells".  In other words, he studied them for weaknesses.  Then he took all their money.

Coach Pivec's teams have always been second half teams.  Those of us who have been watching them forever know that if the Mavericks (formerly known as Marauders) are even within ten points at the half, the opponent is in deep trouble, even if they don't realize it.

Usually.

Anyone who watches a lot of basketball knows that anything can happen.  That's why my personal comfort level is thirty points with two minutes left on the clock.  I've seen teams lose with a thirty point lead and five minutes left on the clock, and I've seen teams lose with twenty points and a minute forty left on the clock.

But it usually isn't the Mavericks (formerly known as the Marauders).

Nope, the Mavericks have not yet lost a game and they haven't yet lost a game by less than thirty.

In fact, I have seen the Mavericks do things I've never seen  before in the gym at MCTC.  We've had a lot of good players, a lot of players who could dunk like nobody's business.  Jerry Holman and Andy Hannan come to mind.  Neither of those excellent, D1 players ever did what I saw Cortez Wallace do this week.  The first dunk was from so high up, and driven in with such authority that I swear, Cortez' elbows were in the rim and his slammed that ball all the way through the net.  That dunk silenced the entire gym for the second it took us all to realize what we'd seen.  The next game, Cortez put up a lazy, beautiful windmill dunk.  Kareem would've been proud of that one.

It's going to be a fun season.