Sam Tzou made noise on the court. Photo by Patrick Stumpf.

The Foster-Walker basketball players pose for a picture. Pictured (from left): Mike Stern, Matt Wong, Elia Powers, Marcus Schwarz, Patrick Stumpf, (far back) Alex Burness, Josh Kriegel, Tommy Alter and Sam Tzou. Not pictured: Ellery Kauvar. Photo by Jennifer Pritchard.

After the first week of cherubs, the intensity of the program smashed my notion that playing hoops on the side was possible.

However, as basketball interest picked up, I realized my vintage cut-off Bucks' tee would turn out to be anything but sweat-free.

Many people think of journalists as the ones who are supposed to report on basketball games, not play them, much less play well.

On the first walk over to the asphalt courts with a group of guys, no one knew what to expect from anyone else. Could he dribble between his legs? Could he dribble at all? Could he shoot? These were some of the burning questions running through our heads.

A group of us hand-picked Foster-Walker's exclusive street court as our basketball oasis during a campus tour. Sure, there were more attractive options like SPAC, the student workout center: the cream of the crop, but what semi-frugal college hopeful would want to lay down eight bucks everyday for pick up games?

Now as you could imagine, picking teams for the first go-round was difficult. After all, nobody looked particularly menacing as far as height or weight standards are concerned. So as good journalists do, we objectively shot free throws to split up.

Without a doubt, the biggest surprise was Sam Tzou. This reticent cherub in the newsroom was anything but reserved on the court. Grunting, groaning, squealing, Tzou had the will power to score. He was indeed, at least for the few games, a man amongst boys. Thanks also, in large part, to his dark goggles that easily transcend Bo Outlaw's defining NBA ritual of wearing glasses.

Sam was for real. We all were in awe of his star high school basketball playing presence; at least we thought he was the team stud. Nevertheless, his unexpected skill certainly made for a great topic of discussion at dinner that night.

The best part was that he wasn't the only person to be marked as a "diamond in the rough." Turns out, Ellery Kauvar had a silky smooth turnaround jay. So did Marcus Schwarz. Matt Wong could run the court and finish on the other end. Josh Kriegel made Elia Powers look like a terrible defender, doing his best to be the Jewish Mighty Mouse. Mike Stern made strides everyday, in every way. Alex Burness knocked down treys left and right. Tommy Alter has the best Anthony Mason impersonation I've ever seen. And despite his lax defense at times, we all learned the hard way about Elia's classic running three. You knew it was coming, he repeated the same steps. Steal. Ignore the fact I have numbers on this fast break. Dribble. Pull up abruptly. Drain it. Unstoppable.

Despite our whole impromptu operation, where scoring is a paramount when only playing up to 11, not a single one of us plays on an organized team, not even Sam (OK, well one if you count Alex's bench warming). The way we play, everyone looks good. It's a game of run and chuck, ala Phoenix Suns. At times, defense was played. However, when it wasn't, which was often the case, we dolled out the punishment to the lone ball we had, just as Tom Hanks did to Wilson. Kicking, throwing, bouncing it over a nearby fence into the neighbor's yard; it never deserved any of it.

Walking back to Hinman, we all wondered how this makeshift group of journalists could gel so well and perform at such a high level, after all, we were just… journalists.

Maybe are destiny isn't to become NBA All-Stars, or even to play college basketball, but who said we can't like to think so?