This (Non) Sporting Life : The Script Be Damned

Last week, I wrote this:     

There are certain times in life we expect life to follow some kind of dramatic narrative.  

We expect that the good guy will win, will find fortune, will find love. 

But life is not drama and does not always follow the script we want it to follow.

And nowhere is that more painfully real than in the world of sports. 

This past weekend, this truism continued to be true. 

Welcome to another edition of This (Non) Sporting Life, a blog post about sport from a guy who knows little about sports. 

Last week was the ACC Men's Basketball Tournament.  

Here was the expected narrative going into the tournament:

The nationally ranked Duke Blue Devils headed into the ACC tournament ranked #1 in the conference and seeded #1 for the tournament.  The expectations were that Duke would deliver one last ACC Tournament championship title for outgoing coach Mike Krzyzewski.   

The Virginia Tech Hokies had a different plan.

Which begs the question: what the hell is a "Hokie".

Apparently a "hokie" is a type of bird, possibly related to the turkey or also maybe totally made up?

Here's the thing: if I didn't have a dog in this fight because 30 years ago I decided I was a Duke fan for the most specious of reasons (dark blue is my favorite color), I would've likely been rooting for Virginia Tech. 

It's a classic underdog story. The Hokies were a #7 seed and no #7 seed has ever won the ACC Tournament and Virginia Tech has never won the tournament since joining the conference. And to win the conference tournament from such a low seed, Virginia Tech had to win 4 games over 4 days, a remarkable feat of endurance both physical and mental. 

But damn it! Mike Krzyzewski, the winningest coach in men's college basketball needs to go out with a win. He was denied a win for his last home court game at Cameron the weekend before. Now he was denied a win in his last ACC championship game. 

The dramatic narrative ace expects... no, demands he wins.

But sports as in life, the script be damned. 

The hokie bird has spoken!