South Jeff again releases the hounds of Bassettville

So I'm going to hurl myself against the wall; 'Cause I'd rather feel bad than not feel anything at all.

JAN. 28, 2010: Consider these scores: 73-11. 71-6. 74-19. 66-25. 68-21. 72-11. 65-9.

The first number belongs to the South Jefferson girls basketball team. The second number belongs to other teams in the Frontier League.

No, it ain't that pretty at all, as Warren Zevon would say.

South Jeff is blitzing the landscape in such a fashion that some opposing teams celebrate if they can keep the final score within 30 points. And the Lady Spartans are not just beating up schools with the smallest enrollments. Watertown High, with its 1,000 students, owns that first and sixth scores noted above.

You would figure more than one opponent has accused South Jeff Coach Pat Bassett of running up the score.

But that's not what's happening.

“After the first four games, the other coaches all thanked me for easing up, you know, calling off the dogs,” said Bassett.

Coaches understand. Their teams need to get better; they can't expect South Jeff to get worse.

Bassett tries to sound diplomatic as he walks that fine line between preparing his team to compete for a state championship — South Jeff has been to the Final 4 five times — while playing each local team in a way that leaves no hard feelings. In other words, stay friends with the neighbors and prepare to destroy the strangers down the road.

“Transition” sounds like a charming word as compared to, say, “execution.” But in basketball, transition, when executed for 32 minutes, is how you burn the air out of opponents' lungs. That is what happens when you play South Jeff. The Lady Spartans don't run up the score, they just run.

Defenseoffensedefenseoffense. There is a seamlessness in which South Jeff players transform immediately rather than evolve slowly as they move up and down the floor. In so doing, they are often several steps ahead of most teams they are playing.

Bassett has nine players, but they all play a lot. That means nobody should ever suggest that the word “starter” begins with “star.” During all those Frontier League championships, South Jeff never had a player lead the league in scoring because, Bassett said, “everyone is willing to sacrifice (playing) minutes,” in the annual quest to win one more title.

And this year is no different. Despite all those points the Lady Spartans have put on the board, no South Jeff player is averaging more than 14 points a game.

But more important is that Bassett has a group of players who are avatars of their self-proclaimed motto “Defend every trip” up and down the floor. A day or so after each game, his girls study game films, but they always gravitate toward what they did wrong to allow another team to score. And they have plenty of time to figure out where the breakdown occurred — and assign or accept blame — when an opponent scores only one basket during an eight-minute quarter.

Bassett admits to being occasionally startled by the defensive relentlessness of his players. “We were up by 40 points and the other team scored in the fourth quarter, and the girls on the bench started yelling (at their teammates) about allowing a basket.”

Not everybody is enamored with the source of such intensity. It's doubtful most South Jeff science students would vote Bassett as “teacher most likely to say only charming things.” And some parents wish Bassett would ratchet the intensity down a notch so their kids might consider trying out for the team. A lot of kids want to play, but not many want to make such an exhaustive commitment to excellence.

And speaking of commitment, Bassett has decided to stay in high school coaching, despite getting a few feeler calls from colleges in recent years. It is interesting to speculate what would happen if his coaching philosophy was suddenly merged with some of the nation's best heaven-blessed athletes.

But then you realize the word “star” would soon rear its ugly head, and the whole thing would likely implode.

Somebody might knock off South Jeff during the regular season or the Lady Spartans might choke in the playoffs. They're kids, they're not perfect. But they are relentless. And they will be as long at Pat Bassett is in town.