Monday, April 7, 2025

This (Non) Sporting Life: The Not So Good Goodbye

Welcome to This (Non) Sporting Life, a sports themed blog post written by a guy who does not know a lot about sports.

I am sad to report there is no joy in Mudville.

The mighty Cooper has struck out.

It is a not so good goodbye to the Duke Blue Devils for another college basketball season.  


As I wrote here in Dave-El Vs. The Dramatic Narrative and again here  back in 2022, sports are frustrating not obligated to follow any sort of dramatic narrative. The whims of the orange ball to go through the hoop or bounce off of it are not necessarily in alignment with my hopes and expectations.


This year was sadly no different. 

The Duke Blue Devils were a team of destiny. Headed up by the indominable Cooper Flagg and backed up by a phenomenonally talented team with Tyrese Proctor, Kon Knoeppel and more, the Duke Men's basketball team was a vertitable stacked deck. 

Destiny demanded that Duke would win the Men's NCAA Basketball Tournament.  

The Houston Cougars had different ideas about what destiny may or may not want.  

Now I may not understand much about sports but it does seem odd a school would choose divorced middle aged super horny women as their mascot.

OK, my bad. Their mascot is named for the wild cat native to North America. That makes more sense.

Explains that person in the cat suit dancing near the Houston cheerleaders. 

Where was I?

So Saturday night Duke and Houston met for battle in San Antonio and for a long time, the game seemed like a typical Duke game with the Blue Devils in control and their opponent struggling to keep up.

But then, nearing the final minutes of the 2nd half, something changed. 

Duke went cold, running long stretches without scoring.

Just as Houston got hot, scoring with impunity. 

I may not be a big sports guy but I've watched enough of these things to sense when the momentum shifts. 

Houston had momentum.

Duke did not not.

With half a minute to go, Houston takes a 1 point lead.  

Two more points and no time left, Duke's team of destiny were defeated by a meltdown for the ages. 

Houston 70  Duke 67 

The movie in my head was not supposed to end this way. 

Sports is not a movie and does not care for my dramatic narrative.   


No comments:

Post a Comment

Side Effects May Include No Blogging

  Well, you know what that image means. It's blog break time. My endeavors to be a pin cushion for big pharma to lose weight continue.  ...