After the game was over, I grabbed a bite to eat with my Carolina friend on the way back to his hotel. Normally we're all laughs, but I wasn't fully up to it, the game playing over in my mind the way your tongue plays over a bad tooth. But as a good friend, he tried to restore my spirits.
"Citay," he said. "Montana is a GOOD team. Very well coached. I am impressed! Your defense is terrific, maybe the best I've seen. Your guards are ACC guards. You could have won that game. You SHOULD have won that game."
Then he paused. Then he smiled. Then the smile became a grin. Then outright laughter.
"Air ball layup!"
Even I had to laugh at that.
Then he delivered the final verdict. "Ya gotta be able to shoot the ball. You have to put the damned ball in the basket. That's what basketball is all about."
Of course, we'd seen this horror show before. Against Penn State, when we collapsed down the stretch. Most especially against Stanford, when we were up midway through the second half and went stone cold to end the game.
I love this team. I love what DeCuire has accomplished at Montana. I love that we stood right up to Michigan, without fear, and played them so tough right out of the gate, in a game that was ours to win. And I most especially love that in basketball, we're playing the best the country has to offer, not some second-rate Pony League division schools like in football.
And yet, if we're ever going to get past the "moral' victories, past the "coulda, woulda, shoulda's, if we're ever going to make the Sweet 16 or start on the Gonzaga path towards mid-major legitimacy, we're gonna have to find a way to score the god-damned basketball. And don't tell me Michigan's vaunted defense was all that great. We simply missed wide-open shots, and around the basket were, well, almost comically inept, the way little kids play basketball during halftime.
Air-ball layups, indeed.
Is it that our kids spend so much energy on defense it affects their shooting on the offensive end? Is that we need, as in football, to hire an offensive coordinator?
As proud as I am of this team, we've got to figure this out. You simply cannot go ten minutes without a score on the national stage in an NCAA tournament, and claim anything but gross ineptitude. Sadly, we've seen this before, so it's not happenstance. And sadly, it's a cloud that completely blots out all the considerable good this team did last night.
"Citay," he said. "Montana is a GOOD team. Very well coached. I am impressed! Your defense is terrific, maybe the best I've seen. Your guards are ACC guards. You could have won that game. You SHOULD have won that game."
Then he paused. Then he smiled. Then the smile became a grin. Then outright laughter.
"Air ball layup!"
Even I had to laugh at that.
Then he delivered the final verdict. "Ya gotta be able to shoot the ball. You have to put the damned ball in the basket. That's what basketball is all about."
Of course, we'd seen this horror show before. Against Penn State, when we collapsed down the stretch. Most especially against Stanford, when we were up midway through the second half and went stone cold to end the game.
I love this team. I love what DeCuire has accomplished at Montana. I love that we stood right up to Michigan, without fear, and played them so tough right out of the gate, in a game that was ours to win. And I most especially love that in basketball, we're playing the best the country has to offer, not some second-rate Pony League division schools like in football.
And yet, if we're ever going to get past the "moral' victories, past the "coulda, woulda, shoulda's, if we're ever going to make the Sweet 16 or start on the Gonzaga path towards mid-major legitimacy, we're gonna have to find a way to score the god-damned basketball. And don't tell me Michigan's vaunted defense was all that great. We simply missed wide-open shots, and around the basket were, well, almost comically inept, the way little kids play basketball during halftime.
Air-ball layups, indeed.
Is it that our kids spend so much energy on defense it affects their shooting on the offensive end? Is that we need, as in football, to hire an offensive coordinator?
As proud as I am of this team, we've got to figure this out. You simply cannot go ten minutes without a score on the national stage in an NCAA tournament, and claim anything but gross ineptitude. Sadly, we've seen this before, so it's not happenstance. And sadly, it's a cloud that completely blots out all the considerable good this team did last night.