VanderBeek: Modesto Christian’s MMC debut a blowout, but who really won?

There’s a long history of what happens the moment the Modesto Christian basketball program joins a new league.

The Crusaders were members of the Southern League when the school committed to playing elite basketball in 1996. Then, after eight years as an independent (1998-2006) they were placed in the Trans-Valley League, where they went 104-0 over eight seasons.

Strange things tend to happen when Modesto Christian walks into your gym. Host teams tend to go through a range of emotions not unlike the five stages of loss and grief.

And on Friday night, as Davis welcomed the Crusaders into the Modesto Metro Conference, the Spartans went through three distant emotional phases during what eventually became a 76-46 MC victory.

There was fear as the width of the talent gap became almost immediately evident to Davis.

There was frustration as Spartans began to realize there was very little they could do to stop Modesto Christian, and indeed this became a running-clock game less than three minutes into the third quarter when the Crusaders built a 61-21 lead.

And then, almost surprisingly, there was growth as the Davis players – having accepted the outcome – dedicated themselves to competing at a base level. Forget the score. Win the ball. Win the play. Win the moment.

“They did back off their pressure in the second half, which allowed us to run some offense,” said Davis coach Dan Pacheco, whose teams have won four of the last five MMC titles. “I thought our kids did a great job executing when that happened and this is something we can build on. The kids learned something tonight.”

What the Spartans experienced in this first-ever league meeting between MC and any MMC member school is similar to what TVL programs Riverbank, Ripon, Escalon and Hughson have gone through in the last eight years. At some point, all four of those programs decided to commit to beating MC, and although it never happened all four had leads on the Crusaders in the final two minutes of games.

All four programs got better through accepting that challenge.

“It’s a learning situation for our kids,” Pacheco said. “We understand they have great athletes with size and that gives our kids a chance to compete against an outstanding team. They’re well-coached, disciplined and run great plays, and they work hard on defense, so all of that only makes us better.”

So that’s what’s in this for the MMC – the arrival of a new measuring stick and the chance to get better, but only for teams that accept the challenge.

But what’s in this new partnership for Modesto Christian?

“Travel-wise, this is great,” said Richard Midgley, five games into his solo tenure as MC’s head coach after two seasons as co-coach with Gary Porter. “It’s a new league, so it’s different teams and a lot of new experiences. I’ve never been in this gym. Playing some of the bigger local schools I hope will give us some bigger crowds, which can bring some excitement.”

But the fact remains that the Crusaders would rather be playing an independent schedule, giving them the chance to play teams that will force them to improve their own skills.

“The coaches really would like to go independent, but for academic and financial reasons it really wasn’t feasible,” said MC athletic director Greg Pearce. “We did that for eight years. It’s just a lot of time out of class and a lot of transportation costs, and I understand that. The MMC was a good financial fit.”

The challenge that will confront the Crusaders on most MMC evenings surfaced during Friday’s final 13 minutes. When the margin hit 40 points, Midgley pulled off the press and went into a sagging man-to-man defense, and MC’s intensity disappeared as Davis outscored MC 25-15 to the final buzzer.

“It will be a challenge to keep the intensity up,” Midgley said. “We have big goals this year, so every second we’re on the floor we’re trying to improve to where we can reach those goals. We’re not playing to win the MMC, we’re playing so that we can improve to beat some of the better teams in the state. That’s what we have to keep focusing on.”

The Crusaders have ways to accomplish that. They keep their preseason schedule light, which enables them to plug other high-level programs into their schedule as the season goes on. Tonight’s game in Hayward against Moreau Catholic, as well as the tough-as-nails 16-team Modesto Christian Holiday Hoop Classic all are examples of that effort.

But on this night, in a scenario likely to be played out 13 more times in the MMC schedule, the team that improved by playing better competition wasn’t the Crusaders.

That’s OK with Davis, and time will tell how the other six Modesto City Schools choose to accept the challenge.

“I think it will be difficult for anyone to give them a game in our league this year, and that’s not taking anything away from the other teams in the MMC,” Pacheco said. “This MC team is so skilled and they have all the pieces to not lose a game and not even be questioned.

“Our kids want the challenges. They want the chance and the honor of playing against great teams. We grew tonight and that was very positive for us.”

This story was originally published December 19, 2014 at 10:07 PM with the headline "VanderBeek: Modesto Christian’s MMC debut a blowout, but who really won?."