Much has been covered in Snow Flakes, I know, but the sting of that loss has not worn off one bit overnight.. That one is up there with some of the worst of them. It may not be on par with The Game 06, but it up there with with M v. Staee (football) in Ann Arbor in 2010, it surpasses Death to Backboards.
Holy shit was that rough.
In the immediate aftermath I turned off my phone to not even have to read the texts that were to come in. Moments earlier Tim Hardaway glided to the right to side step the defender and kissed the backboard to put us up four, and victory was all but assured. Indiana had given there best shot like 3 times and the team responded every time. The win seemed like destiny. It appeared meant to be.
And then our nasty little secret, sporatic, inconsistent free throw shooting came out in full force. I had been amazed up until this point in the season that our profound inability to make crucial free throws at crucial times had not decided a game before this. For whatever reason, Michigan is rushed at the line, nobody looks comfortable, even the best and most reliable of shooters. I did not have much confidence that any of those free throws were going in. Perhaps this can be a wake up call in that regard going forward.
The dejection on face of key players on our team did not look like the dejection of a team that was determined to rise again, the prove the doubters wrong, to come back and shock the world. It looked like a team that felt it had given all it had and it was not to be. Granted it was immediately after a heart-wrenching defeat, but the body language of the team after that loss was not promising. It is a game that you almost wish they would have lost by fifteen than to have lost in the fashion that they did. In the grand scope, it may not mean much, but I can't help but worry that this teams chance to make a deep run in the tourney ended when Morgan's shot rolled off the rim. This team has picked themselves up a lot, I am not sure if they have it in them to do it again.
We will know soon enough, and I don't have any problem at all with the Penn State-Wisconsin draw. I actually like it, as there is built in motivation with the losses earlier this season.
But that one was as hard and devastating as they come, for both fan and player alike. The only thing left to do now is shock the world. I just don't know if this team can get off the mat in time. Fandom is a bitch sometimes, and this is one very rough Monday morning.
