Postseason-Finishing strong

"The Look"

Trevor Waite, Sophomore

There was a look in Bob’s eyes during tournament time that gave me such confidence.  I swear I’m not making this up… when Bob had ‘the look’ I knew we weren’t losing.

When our team was warming up for our first round game and I was rebounding for Bob, he was knocking down a lot of his practice shots.  He was locked in.  This was the first time I saw ‘the look’ in his eyes.  I could see his confidence building with every shot that went in.  As our warm-up time came to an end and the game was about to start, I sat down on the bench with a sense of reassurance.  There was no way Bob Peters was going to let his team go out in the first round. 

Bob hit big shots throughout the tournament, such as the three free throws he made in a row with under a minute left after Tabor had come back from 15 down to take their first lead of the second half.  Or the 3-pointer he made with under a minute left in the Sweet 16 after Northwestern had tied the game after being down 8 with four to go.

But ‘the look’ that I will always remember came in the first half of that game.  It had been a back and forth battle, with the lead changing multiple times.  When Northwestern took a seven point lead with under three minutes left, it seemed like momentum had shifted in their favor.  With the time ticking down in the first half, we ran a play for Bob to get the last shot.  We had cut the lead to one, so any bucket at this point would be a huge momentum swing going into halftime.  With a few seconds left, Bob got the ball at the top of the key and hit a dagger three to put us up two to end the half.  As the team was running to the locker room, Bob gave me ‘the look’ and yelled, “it’s over! That’s it!”  

It was only halftime, but everyone knew in the locker room that we weren’t losing that game!