Summer Ball by Mike Lupica, Vocabulary List Chapters 4-6

the scene or scenery that is in the background

It made a backdrop for all this basketball like something you'd put up for a school play, like somebody had painted a picture of trees and water underneath blue sky that seemed to stretch all the way to Canada, which Danny knew came next after Maine.

a group of teams that form one section of a sports league

"D-2 is Division II."

to make greater or better

"We usually like to mix everybody as a way of enhancing the whole camp experience."

to judge the value or condition of

Mr. LeBow said they'd been evaluated off the morning workouts, and now the coaches and counselors were going to basically choose up sides.

at some later time : in the end

Eventually the bus passed underneath a huge arch.

having good luck : enjoying good fortune

"Thought he was going to be the one to put me in the Final Four, which I was never fortunate enough to make in my long career."

a person who has a lot of experience in or knowledge about a particular subject

"I don't know how this guy got to be some kind of offensive guru, but he did."

a slightly higher or lower level in a series of levels that measure something

"Hey, take it down a couple of notches," Danny said.

preoccupied with or haunted by some idea, interest, etc.

"'Cause the guy's probably going to be as obsessed with winning there as he was coaching college."

having unreasonable feelings of suspicion, distrust, and persecution

Danny thought he was already getting paranoid because of this guy.

something (as land or money) that is owned

Then Nick showed him where the showers and bathrooms were at the end of Gampel, told him the rules about no cell phones-Danny told him no problem, his parents weren't getting him one until next year-and respecting everybody's property.

to give up a job permanently : quit working

He'd been the head basketball coach at Providence College for thirty-five years before the good fathers there - the way he said it didn't make it sound as if he thought the fathers were all that good - had decided it was time for him to retire and turn his job over to a younger man.

opposite to a previous, normal, or usual condition

Will reached in then, flicked the ball away from Danny, drove in for a reverse layup, did a kind of shimmy that made Danny think he'd come down with the chills or somethings.

to search through quickly and roughly often to steal something

He flopped back on his bed and started rifling through the pages of a Hoop magazine.

to move the body from side to side

Jeff said that anybody who didn't want to stay for the move could scatter, as long as they were back at their bunks by ten o'clock.

a practice game between two teams or between two groups from the same team

His ball. Not Danny's. Before they'd even scrimmaged.