Aisander
Duda wrote this. He’s been here many times before. Somehow
someway this post is about the mixed feelings of optimism and pessimism that
surface at the start of any NCAA Tournament run:
"So, let me get this straight. You're saying we're not losing to Robert Morris? That I can just 'chill' for the next couple of hours while the illusion of a basketball game takes place? One more thing, are these wings real or not?"
On Sunday evening,
Icarus awoke. He first tried moving his arms and then his legs, but his whole
body felt stiff and unable to easily rise from the surface of his bed. His head
ached terribly, and his eyes were blurry and unfocused. As he regained some
sense of the past 48 hours, it dawned on him why it was so difficult to
move.
Yesterday, Carolina rolled into the ACC Tournament on an ox like Mongo in Blazing Saddles, and Psycho-T saved the game by forcing a jump ball on Virginia Tech's last possession. In other words, Psycho-T punched a horse in the face, which prompted Seth Greenberg to complain, "Holy @$!%!" and "Tyler! Santa Maria!"
Today found Carolina a little more subdued, like a drunken Waco Kid, waking up from a stupor. Without Tywon Lawson, the ACC Player of the Year, playing for the second day in a row, the team's best days were behind them, and the present left us all saying things like "No thanks, food makes me sick" and responding to news of our demise with a melancholy "when."
When Gene Wilder's character gives his backstory in the film, he says, "I used to be called the Waco Kid," and the sheriff responds, "He had the fastest hands in the West," which prompts the Waco Kid to correct the sheriff, "in the World." Without Lawson, this team can steal a chess piece or two, but our shooting hand is a bit shaky, as shown by our inability to create good shots down the stretch and our inability to get Danny "MF" Green going in both games this week. We had the fastest team in the World.
In other words, today Florida St. played the role of some "piss-ant prairie punk who thought [they] could shoot a gun...to try out the Waco Kid....[Today, Carolina] was just walking down the street when [they] heard a voice behind them say, 'Reach for it, mister!' [They] spun around... and they were, face-to-face with a six year-old Toney Douglass. Well, [they] just threw their guns down and walked away. Little bastard shot [them] in the ass. So they limped to the nearest saloon, crawled inside a whiskey bottle, and have been there ever since."
The good news for this Carolina team is that the Waco Kid never stayed inside that whiskey bottle, and this team will get its steady shooting hand back for the NCAA Tournament. Rockridge, here we come.
Other Lessons to be learned from Blazing Saddles about the ACC:
Here a typical day at one of Duke's practices...
Clemson on its way to anything meaningful...
A conversation between Wojo and Coach K...
Mel Brooks impersonating Gary Williams since his national championship...
A game with Boston College...
A preview of tomorrow's championship game between Florida St. and Duke...
PS Lawson's absence in the ACC Tournament can only help Carolina. It forced us to play in the half court, it gave Bobby Frasor some time running the point, and I think it gave Larry Drew a boost of confidence. I'm excited to watch Drew develop over the next four years. I don't think he'll always have a jumpy trigger finger. Congratulations, Tyler on pulling with 3 points of Redick's scoring record and on setting the school rebounding record.
