Breaking Down Cory

I originally tried to post this right after the Mixdorf one, but the post bombed out on me. Haven't been able to get in at Big Buy since then-hopefully, that's not the new step internet treachery by my workplace. Would certainly be the last straw.

But on the the breakdown...

I've definitely played less with Cory than with either Pat or my brother, but this will be to the best of my experience and, admittedly, not drawing on any changes to your game in the past couple of years. But I do picture you as a 2-guard (shooting guard). Somewhat of a scorer's mentality, relative to a "run the offense" mentality.

Good stuff:

• Able to get "in a zone," where you are nearly unstoppable (though see bad points, below). This happens, in particular, when things are going well and you are in the lead. Actually a very underrated ability-that of being able to step on an opponent's metaphorical throat when you've already got him down. Something Duke does in to 16th seeds. It is human nature for 95% of us to get lazy and let our guard down when we get a big lead. Not so for Michael Jordan, Karl Malone, or Cory Levendusky.
• Very good at playing the "back to the basket" game. Kind of working back and forth until getting good position, then hitting a nice little baby hook or fadeaway, either of which is relatively high percentage and very tough to block.
• Fast, with also a very quick first step. If you get your man beat, you're in for a score. You also have a good ability to finish with a reverse layup.
• Considering that you didn't have much of a background in your three favorite sports growing up, your ability to master the fundamental skills (in basketball, shooting, dribbling) to the extent you have is nothing short of phenomenal. Obviously, your learning curve is a lot less steep in the last number of years, but you didn't really do much of anything until college, and then you really were a natural. If you really think about it-it's amazing.
• Slightly related: considering you don't do much cardivascular exercise, your ability to play for long periods of time is extraordinary. Not something I'm sure I could do. Sure, you bitch a lot, but somehow you keep going.
• Surprisingly good at shot blocking. I don't think you're vertical is all that high, so it must be timing-which would be related to "being a natural" (above).
• You have a good sense of where teammates are and are good at keeping moving in the offense (e.g. moving without the ball), rather than just standing around at the top.

Challenges (in my recollection):

• As the counterpart to getting in a zone, when it rains it pours. Once you're get down, you can begin a tirade-laden, hot-and-sweaty spiral down into despair and failure. You wear your frustration on your sleeve and thus send out perfume-scented invitations for your opponents to enter your head. A very difficult thing to do, when shots aren't falling, is to concentrate on those things that you DO have control over: defense, decision-making, effort, and positioning-all of which can get you back in the game. You have gotten better at this over time (and maybe in your time being a teacher, your patience and frustration tolerance have been elevated to new heights), but it is something I recall you struggling with throughout our history of playing.
• Defensive positioning. Maybe it's too high of a stance, or not cutting off the angles, but for how quick you are, you can be driven around. Sometimes your footspeed helps make up for it somewhat, but you'd do yourself a favor by hitching up your shorts and widening your stance (though it wears you out faster), cutting off the driving lane, and giving people low percentage shots if they want them.
• Rebound positioning. You tend to sort of watch shots go up and run to where you think the ball is going, and then just waiting to jump for it rather than getting a bead on where your opponent is and then driving that ass back at them.
• Those shots you take often are pretty high percentage and work well for you, but overall you seem to have a somewhat limited offensive repertoire (drive to the right, outside shot, back your way in). I think I big part of this is that almost all of your experience has been playing in real games or one-bounce, rather than just sometimes taking a ball out to the nearest hoop and working on different moves, footwork, and shots for countless hours, something the rest of us have done. I think if a couple of moves you really want to do aren't working, this can lead to extra frustration-you don't feel like there's a lot you can fall back on.