Charlotte Rage

In college basketball on Tuesday night #7 Duke beat Gardner-Webb 113-68. That same night #2 Texas beat Texas-Pan American 104-42. Now pretend you’re the coach of Texas-Pan American or Gardner-Webb. What are you saying to your team before the game to get them motivated? Or are you just apologizing to them for the upcoming unstoppable onslaught of emasculating embarrassment?

We can all hear the coach in the locker room: “We can win this thing! Now let’s go out and do it!” Standing like Knuke Rockne on the Irish Stone rallying his team to pull off the most profound upset in the history of sports, he is soon to be standing in front of his bench looking at a scoreboard that reads 47-8 with ten minutes left in the first half thinking, “Yeah, I saw this coming.” Why not keep it real?

How about the players? Do they keep it real? After a fiery and impassioned battle cry from the foolishly optimistic coach, does a player stand up and say, “Yeah, that’s all inspiring and whatnot, but we’re Texas-Pan American. I go to school here and I’ve never heard of us.” Sadly, I doubt it. They eat it all up – until the first three minutes of the game. I like to think that every once in a while there’s the coach who has a sense of humor about the whole thing.

“Okay, here’s the deal: I want to tell you guys that we have a shot to stay close and win this game, but every time I look at the court there’s that damned big, blue ‘D’ right in the middle. So here’s the game plan – don’t curl up into a fetal position and start crying until AFTER the game. Capiche?”

A true leader will make his team feel like they have a chance against anybody, even if it’s number one in the nation versus sixth place in the West Saratoga Swamp Woods division. I’m just curious as to what that sounds like and if straight faces prevail. When Savannah Valley Community College takes the football field against Alabama, I don’t see what else there is to say except, “Umm… try not to lose by more than 60?” -or- “Our goal today – at least one first down! Come on!”

Duke is now 8-1 – one loss less than UNC, but who’s counting? Texas is still undefeated – two losses less than UNC, but who’s counting? There’s no other point to be made here. Just wanted to get that bit in.

I’m not sure why this thought just popped into my head, but I wonder what John Fox is going to say to the Panthers before they play the Vikings Sunday night. Hmm…