They all started out but Jo-Jo. He held Cal and me back until everybody had left.

“What’s up?” Jo-Jo asked. “You know I can’t play with that Tomkins. I want to play real bad, but you got me on their best man, and I know I can’t handle the dude.”

“I got a reason,” Cal said. “Lonnie will tell you all he can about the guy. What I want you to do is just to stop him any way you can. Keep the ball away from him. Hang on him, foul him, get him mad. Just don’t let him bust loose. You got something going for you that you didn’t have in the first game. You got all these television cameras. He’s going to try to look pretty instead of just playing his best. You take that away from him, and you might just get his game. Don’t worry about fouls; don’t worry about scoring. Just mess with Tomkins. You got that?”

“Yeah.” Jo-Jo looked at me, and I gave him a little punch. I told him about how Tomkins shot off his left dribble and passed off his right and everything else I could think about. I told him he could stop him, even though I didn’t believe he could.

We went back out, and there was a wall of noise that was unbelievable. Manhattan had a whole cheering section. Joni and her girls looked okay, too, and I was glad for them. The Sweet Man was there, with his shoulder bag on, and he came over and said something to the Manhattan coach; then he said something in passing to Cal. Whatever it was, it made Cal smile.

“What did he say?” I asked.

“Same thing he used to say when we played ball together years ago,” Cal said. “Kick their butts!”

The television guys came over and told us to keep the time-outs to a minimum. The game was being taped, so they didn’t need them. Then the buzzer went off, and the game started.

The first play of the game went wrong. Roy got the tap and sent it to Jo-Jo. Jo-Jo brought the ball across court, and Tomkins took it from him and went for the lay-up. Jo-Jo tried to stop him and fouled him. We were behind by three, and we were only six seconds into the game.

Cal went up and down the bench, yelling for everybody to play defense.

“Fall back! Fall back!” he shouted.

They scored the first ten points of the game. We finally got on the scoreboard when Ox hit a jumper over Tomkins. But Tomkins brought the ball down and got it right back.

Then Jo-Jo got on Tomkins and started keeping him away from the ball. He got two quick fouls and looked over to the bench. Cal gave him a clenched fist. I looked at Cal, I couldn’t believe what he was doing.

“You making Jo-Jo take your weight?” I asked.

“No,” Cal said. “You’re going to take all of it.”