To reach any destination, one must travel from point A to point B, and throughout history, humans have designed and built roads as the line connecting dot A with dot B. By foot, by horse, by wagon and cart, by chariot, by car and by truck, people have travelled by roads, laid by hard work and perseverance.
The land between A and B is not always flat and passive. Roads are not always greeted with open arms and a kiss upon the cheek. Rivers, lakes, marshes, valleys, and mountains all take their turns impeding the construction of roads, of one's journeys. Hence: the need for bridges.
North Carolina is a talented team, but they are also a very young team. Young teams commit turnovers and fold under pressure. Young teams have a tendency not to win championships or meet their fanbase's expectations. Experienced teams tend to accomplish all the tasks that leave young teams as a starting point for a discussion on potential rather than on accomplishment. Young teams enter the discussion on accomplishment by fording rivers and building bridges. They must find a way, somehow, to get from point A to point B, proving through survival tactics that they are worthy of arrival.
Building bridges and fording rivers is a difficult undertaking that requires more than whistling. A Georgetown gust can topple one's means of construction, or a Kansas flood can washout the bridge's supports, but these disappointments, full of dynamite and gunpowder, often lead to much bigger bridges and from the smoking ruins of defeated prison camps rise 89-72 victories over Michigan St. It's been done before, and it can be done again.
As I watch this young Carolina team face off against Kentucky, I find myself staring out the window, watching snow cover the earth like so much flour on a baker's countertop:
BRIDGE ICES BEFORE ROAD
Carolina swerved off the bridge somewhere in Lexington. The team bus toppled over the guardrails and landed on a cold mirror of ice. Larry Drew, Ed Davis, even Deon Thompson and Marcus Ginyard looked timid and scared crawling and staggering out of the wreckage's smoking, steel body. Meanwhile, John Wall flew by as if he were wearing skates, as if everyone else were dough, and he was the baker's cookie cutter. For the first half of yesterday's game, John Wall was both beautiful and devastating.
Then Wall stumbled into the locker room as if his skate caught a snag in the ice, and a Kentucky lead that seemed frozen at 19 points began to thaw. Carolina got huge plays from several contributors: a Dexter Strickland dunk cutting the lead to single digits, a three from David Wear with 9:33 left, Ed Davis blocking a spinning runner in the lane by John Wall, Will Graves taking a charge and hitting a three with 1:45 to play, and a barrage of Tyler Zeller jump hooks and put backs throughout the second half. But the Kentucky lead never dipped below three points.
Kentucky's first half intensity and the splendor of John Wall decimated whatever Carolina's 7-1 start to this season seemed to have built so far as a means to crossing over from rebuilding to contending. I called my Dad, as I turned up the thermostat in my apartment, looking for some silver lining in Kentucky's 28 to 2 run that flipped a 9-2 Carolina lead into a 30-11 deficit, and we really couldn't find one other than the fact that UNC features eight underclassmen on their roster, which means the construction of this bridge is just beginning.
Construction on the Brooklyn Bridge began in 1870. The bridge was completed in 1883, and cost 27 lives. Huge sacrifices are required to cross the chasms of fear and disappointment that separate humanity. Be assured that Roy Williams will take these building blocks of rough stone and stack them one upon the other, pouring mortar in the spaces in between, building the means to go on from here, a 68-66 loss in Lexington, to Indianapolis in March. After all, what drives humanity other than a need to migrate from point A to point B?
Do not be surprised if these two teams meet again, on a bridge of interlocking brackets.
0 comments:
Post a Comment