100 Years...
In the end, no one that bleeds Carolina Blue wanted a season like this one. It has been hard, knowing the talent is there, if you believe both the hype and the stars players are given, the coaches are there, because what head coach Roy Williams and his staff have done in Chapel Hill few staffs will ever do wherever they are. It’s also hard to swallow, because like it or not, this is the 100th year of this wild and wacky game we call basketball at the University of North Carolina and this is going to be the team that will be remembered for that season. I am a forgiving person/blogger, if you have not realized that by now you must not read my web site too much, but in the end what you have this year is my motto for 2009-10: “it is what it is”. And this year it is just a perfect storm that has hit this team every way possible with whatever they can be hit with.
From injuries, to not meshing, to the wacky Ed Davis/agent debacle that I am still scratching my head about. Opponents having runs at the end of the game, then opposing teams having those runs to begin the game, then just being a haze of small runs here and there that turned an even game into a lopsided affair. We have seen a good game from one player, then another, then another, but have never been able to see any game with all the players having their top performance of the season. A good job on offense is cancelled by a bad series on D. A good defensive stop is negated by an errant pass or an untimely turnover. It’s been that kind of year, as I said before “it is what it is”.
There have been rumors about this team, mostly not very pleasent ones, but that is what happens when you are not winning. The web boards have used so much bandwidth with the things that the fan base has needed to say. Things that have been said because this team has lost, things that only months ago to even think them would have been committing cyber suicide on those very same boards. If winning cures everything, losing makes every single ache and pain come out and haunt you! If I could say my two cents, in a year, when this very same nucleous starts winning, saying some of the things that were said this season will once again put you on the hot seat, but for now everyone can say them. And maybe that is why I am the way I am. Because I won’t attack players and/or coaches.
While I don’t condone some of the things I have read I can understand why some fans choose to say them. Be it the pain they feel, that we all feel, for the losses. Be it for the frustration, once again, that we all feel. Whatever it is, I am still a firm believer that for as much as a fan can hurt/be upset/be mad/whatever about a loss, they will never feel it as much as a player or any coach. In the end, when we separate all things, as fans, heck even as a blogger, the basketball team is not my priority. For the coaching staff it is, for the players it is (alongside their school work), it’s their job. For the coaches it’s a way to keep their place, for the assistants a way to move up. For the players it’s their year long try outs, as we all know that there are always plenty of scouts coming to NCAA games.
A team loses and the fans might be disappointed, they might be pissed even. A team misses the Big Dance, as this one will most likely do, and the NBA scouts, the college basketball analysts are going to say “this is the first time that this fan base misses the NCAA Tournament in seven years”, it’s going to talk about the fact that this coach missed the tournament, that this is one of his worst years, that these players were not up to par, etc etc etc. So yes, as a fan of a team for over a quarter of a century I can feel the positive or negative emotions, but I am not part of the team, I am part of the enviroment of that team. Being a good fan and keeping the chin up will show the rest of the college basketball world that I am proud of being a Tar Heel, putting the negative just makes the rest of the rivals laugh at the program and puts even more of a spotlight on the bad season.
I’ve been through the 8-20 season, been behind this squad for four of the national titles, been there for everything in between. I remember crying only once (besides when the teams won it all), the day that Dean Smith decided it was his time to retire. On the other hand I have cried most every night since October, when my wife began to fight leukemia. I love North Carolina, I have loved it for over 26 years. I am an old, old Heel, that will bleed Carolina Blue until the day I die, and until that day happens I will always wear some UNC. That is just the way I am, but I know that all of that will not make the team win, because I am just a passerby that has a lot of love for the program. The best thing I can do is support it through thick and thin, enjoying the good times and hanging in there in the bad ones.
As I began this post I will end it, no one wanted a season like this, but that is the hand we were dealt. I will keep smiling about what we were able to achieve, the little that might be, knowing that in the end this is Carolina and that means that the team might dip, but it will be right back up next season.
