If we are mark’d to die, we are enow To do our country loss; and if to live, The fewer men, the greater share of honour.
So, it turns out that the Henry V speech was prescient, if not exactly for the reason we thought. It seems clear that Kansas won because they outnumbered us, and our guys finally got run down enough to make for a one-basket difference. This is no knock on our bench -- as that Jason Whitlock guy said, when the other team brings a potential NBA starter off the bench, well, that’s something. Curry outran everybody who tried to keep him from getting the ball and an inch of daylight until four guys finally slowed him down just enough to reduce him, momentarily, from transcendent to merely brilliant.
Sixty five teams enter this contest, and the players and partisans of all but one will go home disappointed, so one must be prepared to expose one’s character at a time of loss. Our guys did that well. I can’t think of a more honorable way to fall short than to just run out of gas. No one needs to look back on a bad shot, a missed free throw, a bad call by a ref. All those variables were within the normal range.
Whitlock’s article, posted elsewhere, makes some good points, and it is a warm feeling to know that just about the whole world wanted “us” to win. But I respectfully disagree with him on one point. The players and fans of Kansas need feel no regret about stopping Davidson one step short of the goal. Because Coach McKillop and his team aren’t pesky, and they don’t need anything other than a fair chance to run any team in the country off the court. They played the 1, the 2, and the 3, and fell short by that much. They don’t need a pat on the head. They belong, and I’m sure they are prepared to deal with what happened.
By winning the Southern Conference tournament, the team earned the privilege of playing one game on what is arguably the largest stage in amateur sports. They fought their way -- like Wildcats -- to the opportunity of playing four such games, each more important than the previous. There were so many highlights that it will take all summer to sort them out. Just the second half comeback against Georgetown was a big enough highlight for a whole season.
When Jason’s shot was in the air, everything was possible. That moment is why we take the ride, and I thank the players and the coach for that moment, and all the others.
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