4/06/2008

How Do You Express This Feeling?

Unless you are a Monk in some remote place, you have been informed of the scores of yesterday's games. The true Memphis team showed up and whipped a great UCLA team. UCLA has been to the finals for about three or four years now and will be back. This was Memphis's first time in a long time and they played with the wild abandon they have demonstrated all season. The only other game I saw of Memphis was a televised "Conference America" game against Tulsa. Tulsa went on to win a post season tournament after Memphis beat them soundly in their tournament game.
Now, back to the subject, How do I express my feelings about the win over North Carolina? A part of me wants to declare it revenge to their "rat" coach Roy Williams for leaving Kansas. Another part of me wants to express nothing but pride in the team from Kansas. I want to be as magnanimous as Barb and just say, "Roy Who?" A very small part of me is still scared that Boone Pickens will open his wallet and lure Bill Self back to OK-State. I know that there are a bunch of coaches that can take a great team and win games. In fact a lot of NC's coaching staff are former players from KU learning the ropes in hope of becoming another link in the Dean Smith legends of the game continuum. Dean played for Kansas and coached for NC. Roy was a Dean Smith assistant and a coach at Kansas. Coach Larry Brown played for NC and coached at Kansas and he brought the skills of coaching to a long list of young assistants. He even had Bill Self as an assistant and Bill went on to Oral Roberts and then Illinois before coming back to Kansas when Roy left. Mark Turgeon is in Texas and Danny Manning is still learning the coaching game under Bill Self. There should be no doubt that the coaching ranks will be filled by coaches with the NC/Kansas connection.
Barb's good teaching buddy offered us tickets to all the home games of the hawks in January. We had a great time going over and participating in the festivities there in Allen Field House. To get to cheer acomplishment and sing the Alma Mater each time just made it special. I think that's what college games are really about. It shouldn't be about winning or losing, it should be about the student athletes competing as they represent their school(s).
The little kid in me still wants to shout like I did when the Yanks won the world series of my childhood. I guess it will wait until Monday night when two great teams from the list of great teams meet for the National Basketball Championship in San Antonio. I don't hate Memphis but I don't want them to show up with their "A" game either.
Rock Chalk to all my sports fan friends out there.
MUD

3 comments:

  1. This tournament keeps proving that no one should listen to any of the talking heads at EPSN. HEad on down to San Antonio for the game, I hear that you can get a hotel room on the outskirts of town for three hundred dollars.

    Go Hawks.

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  2. That was a fun game to watch - when I wasn't watching my kids... Looking forward to Monday night.

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  3. I am a monk. No, wait, I would have to be a nun. And I am praying hard that this will all pass quickly. Rock Chalk Jayhawk...blah, blah, go team, go:o) Na's coach made the girls all chant that at gym tonight. Well, minus the blah, blah part.

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