The Unimaginable

Here are the facts:

-My Greek class was cancelled, which allowed me to sleep in until 12:30, missing my 8am shootaround.

-I had to do a ton of laundry, especially regarding my Inn Crowd jersey.  I'm all for keeping the jersey a little stanky to repel whoever's guarding me, but in this case I actually felt like I would have been endangering a man's life it smelled so bad.

-As a result of my laundry-doing, I was not able to get a haircut.  What can I say, it was a full day.

-Because of sleeping so late, I didn't feel like sleeping during the day, which left me no choice but to watch Michigan play Minnesota.  The Wolverines played great -- some of the most inspired defense and rebounding I've seen all year.  When the game was over, I went to the IM building.

I thought I was ready.  I was wrong.

The above was not to provide excuses for me laying an egg in our extremely embarrassing loss and second-round exit.  I don't really know what it was for, actually.  I was really just upset with myself that I missed the shootaround, to be honest.

The real reasons for our loss:

-Me.  I played timid, uncertain, ridiculous basketball.  As I said above, I laid an egg in our biggest game of the season to date.  James Nati made me look like a fool on more than one occasion, including two rebounds off missed free throws in a row.  The way I played was inexcusable and I feel like shit.  I really do.  I didn't go hard.  Cottage Inn, I sincerely apologize.

-The other team.  Nati’s squad outplayed the Inn Crowd, plain and simple.  Look, this is a group of guys who have been playing together for a long while.  I think three of their starters all played at Dexter High School.  These guys knew where the other wanted the ball, they new each other’s tendencies and they showed it by playing like a team.  I honestly can't overstate the importance of playing with your teammates on a regular basis.  These guys have played together for a long time, and it showed.

The Inn Crowd, on the other hand, has not.  James and I have been playing since 5th grade, and Pat and I played a little bit at the YMCA in high school, but I almost never play with Ryan, Ashton, Matt or Will.  And I had never played with Big Will before.  We played like a collection of individuals, which we were.  We were never a real team because we played together once a week for four weeks and that's it.  Until tonight, we had gotten by on a combination of size and talent and the other team's closest contact to organized basketball being brushing against Manny Harris in the Union one day.  This was our first real test, and we failed.

If this is the most depressing post ever, sorry.  I take these things comically hard.  I still haven't quite figured out how to deal with losing.  All I know is it feels about 8, 628,000 times worse than bombing a midterm (I know that feeling intimately), which should tell you something about my priorities.

I want to thank everyone who played with us.  Sorry we couldn't make it happen.

I would also thank everyone who read this blog, but I think we're going to keep it going.  It's been fun for me, and regardless it's a requirement in a sports management class Pat and Link are taking, so why not?  There will continue to be frequent updates, so keep dropping in.  There’s always next year (except after next year, there won't be, so we really need to get our shit together).

Sorry Coach Michos and sorry Cottage Inn.

        

Inn Crowd Stay Strong