Why isn't there more on TSF about Hokie B-Ball??

There are times in a man's life where he needs to sit back and gain perspective. I say a man's life because in a woman's life she never needs to gain perspective because she knows everything at all times about each individual situation. Or so I've been told. Well I'm no woman, but after the Hokies loss to Ole Miss I sure was acting like a little girl.

I threw a tantrum and didn't want to go to bed. I kicked the furniture and I pouted. I cussed Seth Greenberg, hoping that they could retroactively de-award him the ACC Coach of the Year. And just in general pitched a fit. And here's why:

Unlike football, I take the basketball team seriously. Now for those of you who think that throwing up after a Hokie football loss is taking it seriously, I probably need to explain that a little more. See, football is my love. I've watched the game since my earliest memories and I appreciate what the Hokie football program does for the university I attended, so I follow it religiously. Yes, the games may stress me out but I love it and it's fun. Basketball, however, I can't really watch and enjoy. I get too worked up over it. 

The reason took me a while to figure out, but as nuts as it is,  I'm apparently under the insane delusion that I can play basketball. I have this hallucination that if I were out on the court I could make a better decision than the players or coaches out there. Despite the fact that I don't have even remotely the athletic ability of these young men I watch the game differently because I have played basketball since the 7th grade. So instead of watching as a fan, I am watching to see what gameplan Coach Greenberg is using or how the big men are positioning themselves for rebounds, or if the players are moving well without the ball. 

And the problem is that the Hokies are so young that they aren't doing these things as well as they will when they have some experience. In the meantime it is frustrating for me to watch to the point where I can't even enjoy the game. And on top of that, when the Hokies play a team like Ole Miss and lose to the same gameplan that has been beating them for 3 years (see NC State, or Illinois or any other team that crashes the defensive glass and slows the game down to a halfcourt struggle) it makes me want to have a bonfire burning Coach Greenberg in effigy and dancing around the towering flames like I'm part of a Cherokee Indian war party high on peyote. I mean it infuriates me.

So I stepped back after the loss to gain some perspective before writing this. And I recognized just how far this team exceeded this year's expectations. If someone would have told me NIT quarterfinals and a #1 seed at the beginning of the season I would have taken it without thinking twice. And next year this team is still young so I try very hard not to get my hopes up too much. But they are so talented and if they can get a point guard (no Hank Thorns is not the answer at the point and don't let anyone tell you differently) and Jeff Allen turns up the intensity one notch in the weight room and on the court, then next season this is truly a team capable of contending for the ACC title. 

You have noted that there aren't many posts about the basketball team here on TSF and I guess it boils down to wanting to do a proper job. For reasons mentioned above I truly just don't feel like watching the losses again. I can watch Hokie football losses and try and analyze and offer my views, but watching the basketball losses again is something I'm not willing to do because I find it so damn disheartening. And reviewing game footage is something I feel like I need to do, to provide any decent insights that would be of interest to our readers. It's the same reason I don't post recruiting analysis until I've seen footage on each of the players.

Perhaps as I grow less and less athletic in my graceful journey through time (read: get old and fat), I can watch these games with a little more distance and provide you, my Calm and Beloved Reader with the perspective you deserve on a program that is growing in stature by leaps and bounds. But the basketball season's over now and we are about to get back to something we love here at TSF, and can cover with no perspective needed, whatsoever - Spring Football!

GO HOKIES!!!!!