In the right place at the right time

No matter how much you plan, you can’t quite predict how things will go wrong.

Just as unpredictable as a problem can be, the solution can be as simple as being in the right place at the right time.

That’s exactly what happened for the Robert Morris Colonials and myself.

Dec. 12 had a nice slate of sports for the folks of eastern Indiana to watch. The Pacers took to the road for a 126-108 blowout of the Atlanta Hawks. The Hoosiers won their fourth Big Ten contest 74-62 over Minnesota. Those local to Jay County may have made the short drive to Monroe to watch the boys and girls high school basketball games. Others made the trip to Kokomo to watch a trio of Patriots compete in the state tournament.

While I was at Kokomo High School to cover the wrestlers’ runs for state titles, a different game caught my eye.

A little bit before Mallory Winner was set to take the stage for the 155-pound state championship match, the Purdue Fort Wayne and Robert Morris men's basketball teams took part in a game that came down to the wire.

With only a couple of seconds left, I logged into my ESPN+ account to watch how the game would wrap up.

As I watched the final play, I couldn’t help but think about how well it matched an experience from a few weeks prior.

Jackson Last took the ball out of bounds for the Colonials with the game tied and two seconds left. Nearly all of Robert Morris’ players ran to the front court, meaning Last would have to attempt a full-court heave.

I haven’t watched every basketball game played in the last 24 years, but I have seen more than the average fan. Out of every game or highlight I have ever watched, I can count on one hand how often the full-court inbounds pass has worked. The only two that I remember are Christian Laettner’s in the 1992 NCAA tournament and a random full court heave that Joe Wieskamp of Iowa hit to beat Rutgers in 2020.

In short, the odds weren’t in the Colonials’ favor to end the game.

For me, it all started about two or three months ago. 

The check engine light came on. That dreaded light signaled the end of my brother’s car as well. We both drove Ford Focuses at the tail end of high school and throughout college — Nick’s was a 2013 mine was a 2012.

I knew the model was recalled and I likely was on borrowed time, but I was taking the easy way out — ignore that there could be a problem and milk the clock for as long as I possibly could.

Hope of Robert Morris ending the game on a last-second play appeared to vanish when the Mastodons’ Eric Mulder got his hands on the ball during its flight, starting the clock.

My car started to struggle with the automatic gear shift after a game I covered at South Adams High School, forcing me to have a garage check it out.

The diagnosis was the last thing I needed to hear — the transmission was blown and replacing it was going to cost easily more than what the car was worth.

A glimmer of hope shined through for Robert Morris. Despite the ball being tipped, Markeese Hastings only needed to take a step forward to grab it. Hastings also happens to be the Colonials' best 3-point shooter.

So with 1.1 seconds left, Robert Morris got the ball in the hands of its best shooter all because he was in the right place at the right time.

While there was nothing that was going to change the diagnosis my car received to make things better, I did luck out in another way. My parents happened to come down the day before to celebrate Christmas as I wasn’t able to make it home for the actual holiday.

So I didn’t have a car, but my parents taxied me for the next two nights to Pendleton and St. Henry, Ohio. They also didn’t need to dedicate any extra time to make a trip down to help me find a new car, all because they were in the right place at the right time.

Hastings did the only thing he could do. He turned as fast as possible and chucked the ball up in toward the hoop. As the buzzer sounded, the Robert Morris grad student laced the ball through the net, winning the game 91-88. Cue the celebration with his teammates dog-piling onto him.

Instead of 1.1 seconds, I had about a day and a half to figure out my problem. We went to a few different dealerships, had some test drives and weighed pros and cons.

Ultimately, it boiled down to if my brother was free. My dad agreed to sell me his car and save me the hassle for a couple more years. A day and a half later, Nick drove down what will soon officially be my car and rather than a dog pile, we celebrated with dinner at Brothers Bar and Grill in Muncie.

Sometimes planning just won’t work. Sometimes you just simply need to be in the right place at the right time.