Ty Watches "Last Chance U: Basketball" Season Two

I just finished watching season two of "Last Chance U: Basketball". This show is right up my alley. It hits all the marks for the sports fan inside of me. It is very cliche, very formulaic, very easy to follow, and I adore every second of it. This is the type of TV I'm interested in watching daily. This show goes down like a wonderful milkshake. It is comfort food. The cast of characters is great. The stories are nice. The way it unfolds makes it a fun watch. The editing is done very well. This show works on every level.

A while back I wrote about my love for the movie "Hustle". That movie and this show are the same thing for me. The only difference is "Last Chance U" is about real people. I am an avid college sports fan, I love basketball and I like to watch, if you will, "how the sausage is made". I like seeing high level college basketball, but at the bottom level. This show is about JUCO basketball players who may only have one or two more shots left to do something with the sport they say they love.

What I think I enjoy most about this show is how unabashed it is at showing us the true colors of the people involved. The coach is hardheaded, at times mean and demanding, but he also truly cares about these kids. He wants them to move on to bigger and better things. His staff is great as well. They are the level headed ones. They are the ones who console the kids when they get upset or angry. They also dream of bigger and better things for themselves.

What makes this show, why it is a joy to watch, is seeing the players and hearing their stories. It is fascinating because you get a real sense of why they are at this level and not playing high D-1 basketball, or even professionally somewhere. The kids they highlight all have had wonderful high school careers. A lot of the featured players were marginally high level recruits. They had D-1 offers, some went D-1, but they ended up at this JUCO for a variety of reasons. This season we saw a kid who didn't have the grades, another kid who was a D-1 player who transferred out of two schools and ended up at JUCO because of an injury, there is a kid whose father was an NBA player and he is living in his shadow. There are a number of reasons why these kids end up here. But when you watch the show and see how they act, and react to different scenarios, it all makes sense. I have told my son a million times that all the kids who play, and start, at D-1 schools were the stars of their high schools team. And the kids on the bench were also the stars of their high school teams. That is the same here. These kids were studs in high school. But now they have to actually work and fight for playing time. They have to out hustle others. They have to play system basketball. For some players it works. Other players, not so much. There is one kid in this season who has all the talent in the world. He is hyper athletic, can score at will, can create and do amazing things on the floor. He was stuck on the bench all season. He did not play defense, he would not show up to practice, he would gripe and complain on the bench. When asked to play system basketball, he was lost. But there was another player, a smaller, not as athletic player. But he ended up starting. He was an excellent defender. He was a pro at running the offense. He took charges all the time. He played with heart. That is why he got the spot. There are two big men on the team. One is the former D-1 player, who happens to be 7'1. The other player was lightly recruited, didn't get a ton of offers and has autism. He was the starter because of his never ending motor. This is what the show shows us. They want the viewer to see all the work that goes into finding the best way to build a team. I love that about "Last Chance U".

Watch this show. It is a sports fan's dream. It is exactly what I want put of a sports show. This is good TV. Check it out. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

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Ty Watches "Last Chance U: Basketball"

As I said earlier this week I am catching up on shows and movies I have wanted to watch, but wanted to wait until I got home. One such show is the newest season of "Last Chance U". I have watched every season of this show. It is a very cliché sports show. It has all the usual drama, the big ups and downs, the messy stories and I love it all. It is my jam. When I watch a show or movie about sports that is what I have come to expect. What made this most recent season of "Last Chance U" even better was the fact that they switched from football to basketball.

I love basketball as you all very well know. The football seasons were fine and all, but having a basketball team as the story, that ruled. With a basketball team you can focus more on almost everyone on the team. At the very least you can focus on all the starters, not just the stars of the team. With the football version they really focused on QB's and skill receivers. There were very few defensive players, hardly any O or D lineman and almost no love for the assistant coaches. It was the "important" players and the head coach. With this basketball season we got multiple stories from about seven of the twelve players on the team, and we learned all about the head coach, but also his two assistants. They each had full episodes or big, big story arcs in multiple episodes. And as for the other five or six kids on the team, I knew at least one or two things about them. That was awesome. As for the "highlighted" players this season, their stories were even more compelling than any of the football players. In watching any season of "Last Chance U" you understand that most of the players on the team are at these community colleges because they couldn't make grades to go D-1, they transferred there, they got cut from their original choice, they lost their scholarship, all of those stories are at the forefront. That is why it is called "Last Chance U". This season is no different in that regard, but the stories are way, way better.

The stories involve a player losing both his parents and has to survive on his own or a five star recruit that has a real, real bad temper or a great player, the LA County's top player, who didn't get the grades or the quiet kid that couldn't cut it in high D-1 so he is returning to community college to bump up his stock. Even the kids that do not get all the shine, we get similar stories of why they are at this particular school. As for the coaches, this is the best, most relatable group that this show has ever had. These guys are not dopey cliché filled coaches that just curse and yell and scream at players. These guys actually care about these kids and care about moving them along in their college careers. The head coach is a weird dude, but with every episode I grew to like him more and more. He is a good guy who really, truly wants the best for these kids. He also feels like he is in the exact right place for him. He could have taken other jobs at some high level schools, but he likes where he is, and I feel like he will be there for the long haul. The assistants are great as well. He has his lead assistant that is the level headed one. He calms everything down. He is the voice of reason. He does the grunt work, but he never complains. He seems to really like this job and, much like the head coach, wants to stay. The other assistant, he is a great and relentless recruiter. His backstory was very intense as well. But he is still there, he is still doing it and he cares a lot.

This new season of "Last Chance U" is the best, by far, that they have done yet. I hope they stick with basketball. It is so much better because you really get to know the players and the coaches since there are less by the number of players allowed on the team. And the way this most recent season ended, with the pandemic coming into full effect right near the end, it was gut wrenching. I am so impressed by this season and I cannot wait for more. Hopefully they get to film another season. I don't know yet because community college basketball postponed the 2021 season, but maybe, just maybe they can get some kind of season in. That would be great. I sure hope so. "Last Chance U" took a chance with the switch, and boy did it pay off. This was a gem. Now I hope we get more.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.