Generous Gophers give Nittany Lions Valentine’s Day gift
Posted on February 15, 2009 by JF in 2008-2009
Maybe you have seen a game like this before. The Gophers get out to a dreadful start that is matched by a just as pathetic effort by their opponents. The Gophers fall behind on a momentum swinging buzzer beater at the end of the first half. Turnovers, poor decisions, and embarrassing mistakes, give their opponents a lead. However, a hot shooter keeps them in the game, only to have the mistakes return at the worst possible to cost them the game.
If you have seen a Gopher road game since January, the above scenario has probably been drilled into your mind with all the familiarity of a bad horror movie. You know the protagonist will end up dead, and in gruesome fashion, yet you watch anyway. The outcome is predetermined. You know when the Gophers can’t string together two possessions in a row without a turnover. You know the precise momentum shifting play that will not let the sleeping conference scoring leader lie. You know when shot after shot for the other teams finds a way to the bottom of the net, and when, in typical Minnesota sports fashion, the Gophers play just well enough to taunt you into believing again. But you’ve seen it all before, and that some things are not meant to be.
But we watch because things might change. Their might be a new strategy or a new starting line-up. You don’t watch because the outcome is preordained. You don’t follow the team because you know that they will do the same thing over and over again and expect different results. You’ve learned long ago that expecting different results will only leave you disappointed.
You ask why Tubby Smith apparently expects things to turn out differently. You ask why the team’s best rebounder and most aggressive offensive player spends more time on the bench than on the floor. You ask why the team’s best interior player is forced to play out of position and take outside shots when he is unstoppable from inside of seven feet. You ask why a small forward who should be a power forward is played in a position that requires an outside shot and an ability to drive to the basket even though he possesses neither of these skills. You ask why the teams only perimeter scoring threat hasn’t started a game yet. You don’t, however, ask why the same thing happens over and over again. You aren’t insane.
You do ask if the coach is. You understand that he has won a lot more basketball games than you have even watched in your life. You are grateful that he is in and the old coach is out. You cherish that your favorite team is relevant again and that the outcome of the season is not a foregone conclusion, but you see the writing on the wall and know that something needs to change before the season slips away.
You wonder what it will take, or if the coach even cares. You wonder how what is so obvious could be so invisible. You wonder if a change that produces negative results would be preferable to what has happened again and again and will happen again and again.
And then you remember that you have seen this all before, and wonder why you got your hopes up again.
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