Whatever Tremaine Mills' was witnessing right now, he could only gasp in admiration.
Desperation could be seen out of every failed switch, out of every failed steal, out of every failed perimeter defensive play, and out of every basket allowed by Dwayne Evans.
The junior guard was run ragged by the extremely skilled and polished freshman Jaylen Mitchell. In just the span of eight plays, Jaylen buried eight shots from a variety of situations against Dwayne Evans.
It was a show of sheer force and will from the highly touted forward.
Tremaine felt like he was nothing but an inbounding bot at this point. He and Lamont watched and exchanged small talk on the corner as these two proud small forwards duked it out for supremacy.
One was a junior, whose experience in Coach Roughan's system was a cut above, but whose skills and tools were undoubtedly inferior.
The other was an out of this world prospect, someone whose skills were above and beyond, and whose preternatural physical abilities were unrivaled.
Tremaine and Lamont looked at each other and decided to sit out the match, since they were just passing bots to these two anyway.
What was once a spry match of freshmen versus juniors had devolved to a personal small forward against small forward slugfest.
After Jaylen buried another tough fadeaway jumper on Dwayne's face, Tre and Lamont had decided to fight each other on the other half of the court. It was nine to three anyway.
"Wanna play a game of horse?" Lamont was the one that gave the idea. "I have lost my motivation to do the same thing they're doing anymore."
"Yeah, sure! That would be fun and chill!" Tre was onboard to showcase his on the fly, showmanship skills.
"Can I join you too?" Caleb abandoned his refereeing duties outright. "Those two are so intense."
"Okay, rook, you go first." Lamont passed the ball to Tremaine in anticipation of what the youngster would do to start. He had high hopes for the best performing walk-on.
But when Tremaine walked to the free throw line, and took a boring free throw. He didn't add any rules to his shot. It was boring.
"Just a normal free throw."
Lamont didn't voice his disappointment about what they're trying to copy, but he missed after airballing the shot. He then became more disappointed in himself.
Caleb, meanwhile, had a quirky free throw motion… it's an underhanded free throw… that he buried effortlessly.
"So Lamont has an H after obviously being disappointed? What a scrub." Caleb bantered to great effect. "Onto the next one, rookie!"
Tremaine had nothing hard to do in mind. It's early morning, and he just wants to play a nice and chill game of horse to start his day.
So he casually attempted a floater from behind the three point line.
"What the fuck?" Lamont was scared. "Dude, are you a hidden master?"
"Wow, that's still boring, but that was for sure hard to do as fuck." Caleb took the ball and attempted it… only to airball it. He knows it needs a lot of luck if you don't have the skill.
"I'll just take the O, man." Lamont was aggrieved.
"Damn, I didn't think you two would be boring opponents." Tre laughed in an easygoing manner, mirroring the two junior guards' thoughts.
It was at this moment that a man of Asian descent walked over with a smile on his face while chewing gum he undoubtedly got from someone else.
"Yo, you guys playing horse?"
"Sean! Join us, we know you aren't boring!" Lamont rushed over and asked for a piece of gum while he was at it.
"Okay, I'll take another turn." Tremaine was stationed behind the left corner three point line. "Here goes!"
Tre bounced the ball hard on the floor, and as it rose and bounced once, he followed it and got closer to the rim. After the ball rose a certain height the second time, Tre jumped to catch it with both hands, and during the short hangtime, he released it in a floater… that magically swished through the basket.
"What a jerk." Lamont lamented his luck.
"Oh, this guy is good at Horse." Sean was giddy at the prospect of trying a trick shot like this one. "Lemme try it, man."
Sean went to the corner and bounced the ball without much preparation, as it whistled through the air, Sean seemed to glide, as he caught the ball with two hands before releasing at around the same height Tremaine did…
Even the result was the same.
Caleb and Lamont were clapping on the sidelines, having taken their seats at some point in time. They want no part of this Horse battle between the gods.
Why are they unlucky today?
The two swiveled their heads as one to the other side, and saw their utterly exhausted classmate Dwayne barely hanging on against the inhuman freshman Jaylen.
"Man, what's with the intensity this morning?" Lamont was jogging in place to compensate for his reduced exercise time.
"Let's just do some circuit training or something." Caleb got down to do push ups.
While this was happening, Tre took it upon himself to fight his upperclassman. Tre thought those two were boring opponents, however Sean Nguyen was different.
His naturally flashy, creative style of play makes him a great opponent in a mini game like Horse.
Tremaine was currently attempting a ridiculous shot Sean had made.
Sean threw the ball high up around twice the height of the rim into the direction of the basket, from the three point arc. After bouncing once, it bounced straight for the ring.
For Tre, it was already a good thing that Sean promised he wouldn't dunk, since that was pretty much an automatic win for him. Tremaine wants to improve his vertical and leg strength but those improvements will take time.
Tre didn't want to overthink such a thing so he threw it high up in an angle, and as it bounced for the first time, he thought it had a chance.
But he overshot the rim.
"That's now an HO for you, rook!" Sean wants to ramp up the pace and run up to the rim with a dribble. He leaped to the air and was about to lay it up with his right hand, before switching at the last second to his left, burying the layup off the glass. "Just lay it in with your non-dominant hand."
It was eerily reminiscent of the legendary Michael Jordan shot during the 1991 NBA Finals… which occurred half a century ago.
His hang time was immense.
The two shooting guards running around the court were surprised that Sean was already bringing out the big guns.
Without a single word, Tremaine ran straight towards the rim, and applied the switcheroo as he reached the rim, with ease.
A wide smile appeared on Sean's bright face, as if he's found his long-lost stylish brother.
"Man, you're actually good at this!" Sean yelled in happiness.
Tremaine hid his feeling of satisfaction, as he was never someone that had a lot of flair, but working across different countries as an import, this showboating element of his game came about as a product of the somewhat superior status he's gained in those leagues.
"You know, it's as they say, in the game of Horse, as long as you make a shot, however dull it is, you can beat your opponent." Tremaine looks at the two running on the sidelines. "Even if it's a free throw, or a basic lay-up, if you miss it, you'll still lose."
One by one, the members of the men and women's basketball varsity teams of the University started trickling in, as the clock neared eight.
Some of them watched as Dwayne and the rookie Jaylen Mitchell continued duking it out for supremacy, both of which showing signs of fatigue. No one knew what the score was.
While most of the more laid back athletes went to the other side, where there was somewhat of a trick shot competition between Sean Nguyen and another rookie, Tremaine Mills.
Their Horse fight had reached its climax, both of them an E away from defeat.
As the other athletes gathered on the sidelines, Tre was dribbling, while wondering what would be the best knockout punch.
A free throw.
He'd done it the first time around, but this time, he knew… he'd exploit something that was a glaring hole in Sean Nguyen's game.
It had been the biggest weakness that stopped him from ever playing as a starter in Illinois. Coach Roughan never trusted him in crunch time because teams would just foul him rather than allow him to use his exceptional creativity to make plays on the ball.
"I'm just going to shoot free throws until this game is over, because everyone's already itching to play." Tremaine gave a good reason for his change in style. He lined up, dribbled the ball thrice, breathed in deep, before his fluid, repeatable mechanics sent the ball through the basket.
"Fuck…" He'd been working doubly hard as a free throw shooter, from his mechanics, to his release… one of these days, he'd be good at this. "Damn it, Tremaine, you're pretty much cheating at this point… I shoulda dunked that ball earlier."
"Let's go man! Show him how you've improved!" Khalil, who was unexpectedly early today, was shouting his friend some encouragement.
"Yeah brother!"
"Show the rook!"
Sean lined up, breathed in deep, and dribbled twice.
He then pushed the shot out amid the eyes of the crowd.
HORSE.
Exasperated sighs echoed from the sidelines as Sean's free throw did not go into the net.
Tremaine won.