"We all played poorly. It wasn’t just one guy’s fault. It was a real team effort." - Arnette Hallman
The season is over for the men’s basketball team at Francis Marion University. February was a rough month for the Patriots, and March was no better.
At 18-10, we finished with our second best overall record in 17 years. But we lost seven of our last nine games and were bounced from the Peach Belt Conference Tournament in the first round.
My returning players and I are left with a vile taste in our mouths. Our seniors are left with tears and a sense of what might have been. For they have no more practices, no more games, no more hoop dreams to help cleanse the pallet.
Players don’t realize how quickly their time passes. They take the practices and games for granted until one night they find themselves crying into their hands.
Old heads like me try to tell them. You need to work on that jump shot instead of going to that party tonight. I know everyone is going to the mall but don’t you have a paper due tomorrow? If you have to hit a free throw down the stretch, do you have “True Confidence?"
If young people could fast forward to their last game, they would perhaps make the necessary sacrifices along the way to insure they would have no regrets. Look at your career and look in the mirror and be able to say, “I did my best.” Only then will your tears have meaning.
Unfortunately, our society tends to bail out folks who don’t do their best and our young people pick up on these mixed messages. For example, the NCAA is looking at expanding the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament from 65 teams to over 120.
If that happens, a team won’t need a great season, just a mediocre one, to get rewarded with a trip to the “Big Dance.” It will be just like the college football bowl system. Just go 6-6 and you, too, can go bowling.
Fortunately, the NCAA will not expand the Division II Basketball Tournament because it will not make any more money for them. Make no mistake; the NCAA is all about money.
I am glad our tournament will stay at 64 teams. As much as I would have loved for the Patriots to be in the tournament this year, we did not deserve it. It remains a challenge for us and a goal that we will continue to work toward.
We will work with a renewed sense of purpose and with the end in mind. We will work with a better understanding that nothing lasts forever.
Not even this column. I’ll hit the recruiting trail now and look forward to continuing our little chats next season. It has been a pleasure.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement