After last week's first-ever athletic defeat to Dartmouth track star Joe Tracy '12, the Rec League Legends iced their biceps, rebuilt their egos (by looking up their high school stats) and came back ready to take on the D-I establishment once more.
All week, the Legends' inboxes were flooded with challenges from the top athletes in the Upper Valley. After weeding out the club athletes and facetime fiends, the Legends contacted Kirk Crecco '12 and Clive Weeden '11 of the Dartmouth men's basketball team for a game of H-O-R-S-E.
Crecco hails from Gilford, N.H., where he claims to have been "the greatest public school athlete in New Hampshire history." In addition to showing a D-I basketball skill set at a young age, Crecco also excelled in soccer, baseball, Facebooking and kissing he captained all of these his senior year at Gilford High.
From seventh grade on, Crecco was a regular at Gilford's Senior Prom, winning king five times (he missed the event in 11th grade because he lost track of time at the gym).
Weeden attended Northfield Mount Herman in Massachusetts, where he was not only a star basketball player, but also the tallest javelin thrower in the state. Weeden hit 6'9'' in fifth grade, permanently placing him in the back row of class pictures. He crushed sports dreams on the playground, averaging 37 rebounds per recess.
Yet Weeden revealed a softer side to the Legends when he described his inability to ever get his feet off the ground on the monkey bars.
"Everyone else was swinging from bar to bar," he said. "I could only walk."
Weeden entered Dartmouth with hopes of settling down with a "nice girl," spending a lot of time studying on first floor Berry and getting a sandwich named "The Clive" at the Hop it's just nuggets.
While the Legends' track challenge was short, requiring only blue Powerade and Gusanoz for a respectable showing, basketball required a different sort of training.
Ludlow and Katz hit up Sports Authority where they bought matching pairs of Jordan AJF 13s, which they never wore but kept very clean. Ludlow also worked on his shooting by playing "Around the World" with professor Donald Pease after English 42, using pages of "Deerslayer" as his shooting material.
Katz watched "Space Jam" four and a half times and listened to all of Ron Artest's rap CDs. He also was trained by Luc Longley of the late 90's Chicago Bulls dynasty, "known for his passing ability and free spirit," according to Wikipedia.
Feeling fully prepared for their upcoming challenge, the Legends capped their training off by eating bowls of Grandma Katz's "legendary" matzah ball soup and visualizing half-court shots all day leading up to the competition. The duo donned their squash headbands and blasted Aaron Carter's "How I Beat Shaq" on their boom box while entering Leede Arena, where Crecco stood shirtless and Weeden, shortless. While the two "official" D-I athletes warmed up, Katz phoned in a workout special from the Hop and Ludlow ironed his Jordan #45 jersey.
Katz started hot versus Weeden with his trademark eyes-open layup. Weeden dunked in return but then received a letter because "a dunk isn't a layup jerk."
Weeden stormed back with a half-court bounce shot, "the Undergrounder," a shot clock rock, a Tilt-A-Whirl and his famous "bench-warmer three-pointer." Katz missed all of these.
While Weeden brought creativity and showmanship, Crecco was all about the fundamentals. He looked Ludlow in the eyes and said, "I know you're here to have fun, but I'm here to win."
Crecco then proceeded to shoot free throw after free throw until Ludlow earned his H.O.R.S.E. It took six shots.
Katz was consoled by basketball captain Robby Pride '10 in the locker room while Ludlow brought out his Fisher Price hoop and demanded to play Crecco again. When asked what went wrong this week, Katz ripped his trainer, Luc Longley, and commented, "I should've called Steve Kerr."
Ludlow graciously shook the D-I ballers' hands, helped them clean up the courts and then t.p.-ed the locker room toilet on the way out. Legends always win.
"Yeah, I have a lot of respect for the Rec League Legends," Crecco later said in an e-mail to Katz. "They didn't give up and had a lot of sick gear which goes a long way in Ivy basketball."
The Legends would like to thank Crecco and Weeden for taking the time to face off on the courts. Men's basketball plays Ivy leader Cornell University on Friday in Ithaca, N.Y., followed by Columbia University on Saturday in New York City.
Tune in next week for a guaranteed Rec League victory over a D-I athlete to be determined. Until then, Be Legendary.
