The South Is Gonna Change Comment Count

Brian

We're still internet-bereft in our house so I've spent the last few days hanging out in coffee shops and being part of the weird couple who shows up at the bar on a Monday and sits in a corner with their laptops, not talking to each other. This is of course extremely unfortunate in the scheme of things, but being nearly off the grid did accidentally provide me with yet another reason to write about Trey Burke's shot—shots—against Kansas, and I'm sure we all agree this is a good thing.

We're down to our DVD collection if we want to pipe entertainment into our faces. I come home to the MGoWife stabbily grading papers and watching O Brother Where Art Thou. At the end, the three travelers are about to be strung up when the Tennessee Valley Authority floods the valley, sparing them. They pop up, taking in great gulps of air.

The yokels talk about providence; Ulysses Everett McGill glibly talks rationality and progress. He has the gift of gab.

He is then struck dumb by a cow on the roof of a barn. While this stands pretty much on his own as a reason to shut up and stare, it was also insanely prophesied to him at the beginning of the movie. In context of a movie so defiantly old-timey it created a minor American roots music revival, the cow is a thesis statement.

Part of why I find sports so compelling is the cow on the roof. See this here blog's previous post for a Ulysses Everett McGill take on the Syracuse game: numbers and averages and techniques for a better life. Progress towards a better preview than rebound margin and "they just wanted it more."

This is my day to day. Which lane seems faster, what is my model of this driver in front of me, which of the three egress points from my new house is fastest given the fact that one has a couple of speed bumps and turns but the other dumps you out farther away from most things. It's fine, the algorithmic life. I like it. It's served me well.

There is something to be said, though, for pointing up at the new star in the sky and deciding this means locusts. I like sports because I can be prattling on about the electrified South and be struck dumb by something I had heard about and not believed. In those moments the day to day evaporates and I'm presented with something that has no reason, that just is.

A great roaring silence fills spaces usually occupied with chatter, modeling, moment to moment estimates, and it occurs to me that there are things other than efficiency. Clutch may not exist, but it happens.

Comments

wile_e8

April 3rd, 2013 at 2:19 PM ^

  1. Watch a replay of that shot
  2. Watch a replay of that shot
  3. Watch a replay of that shot
  4. Watch a replay of that shot
  5. Watch a replay of that shot
  6. Watch a replay of that shot
  7. Watch a replay of that shot
  8. Watch a replay of that shot
  9. Watch a replay of that shot
  10. Watch a replay of that shot
  11. Watch a replay of that shot
  12. Go to 1

Michigan Arrogance

April 3rd, 2013 at 2:27 PM ^

This is my day to day. Which lane seems faster, what is my model of this driver in front of me, which of the three egress points from my new house is fastest given the fact that one has a couple of speed bumps and turns but the other dumps you out farther away from most things. It's fine, the algorithmic life. I like it. It's served me well.

 

Get out of my head. I've never read so much from one person that seems to express the EXACT patterns of my thought processes and feelings. From day one back in 2006 (05?) til now.

steve sharik

April 3rd, 2013 at 3:30 PM ^

Beilein, referring to team doing "Harlem Shake" on the bus:

"We had dancing on the bus.  It was wonderful."

Doesn't fit the pattern, but might be funnier: "It’s tough to do the Harlem Shake sitting down."  

He might as well have said, "Pimpin' ain't easy."

jballen4eva

April 3rd, 2013 at 4:04 PM ^

Per Michael Rothstein:

Cutting down the nets, getting a sports-drink bath, participating in the Harlem Shake on the plane on the way back from Texas. The stoicism, for a night, disappeared. The lifelong realization eluded him through his radio show all the way until Tuesday morning waking up next to his wife, Kathleen.

"I woke up this morning and I got up, said, 'I feel great,'" Beilein said. "Then I said, 'Are we still going to the Final Four? Is this true?' She said, 'Yes, we are.' There was a moment there, I realized it happened."

BigOrangeWolverine

April 3rd, 2013 at 11:18 PM ^

Great write-up. Watching The Trey again a couple times here got me thinking about something, and I'm sorry if this has already been discussed. Regarding McGary's pick on that play, and the fact that Johnson bowled him over. In the normal run of play (i.e., not in the final minute or so), that would be a foul, correct? I think it's semi-interesting to ponder what the reaction from us fans would've been had Trey's shot not gone in and that "foul" gone uncalled as it did. Obviously, I'm glad it wasn't called and this is just a bunch of "what-ifs", but I just wanted to hear the thoughts of the crowd.