I’ve always tried to subscribe to the policy not to write or say anything right after a game because the mouth or fingers often engage before the brain does. Today, this feels like therapy.
Coach Bill Yeoman said “it’s never easy being a Houston Cougar.” That was never more evident than last night in San Antonio.
To those players who have given 1,2,3,4,5 or even 6 years to the basketball program and played this year, thank you. To those redshirts who didn’t play, but were there in practice to make us a better team, thank you as well. Finally, thank you to the coaching staff.
We are all going though our various stages of grief this morning. Some more than others. My wife cried for me last night. My grandson sent me a text with broken heart emojis saying “Sorry Grandpa.”
This is not the most painful loss, it’s still 1983. Going into the tournament that year, we were expected to win the national championship. This year, we had a really good team. We dared to hope, but we knew there were other really good teams out there. I don’t think any school had to face a gauntlet of teams in the tournament as well as playing in “neutral” sites like this one did.
Some of our younger posters who have really only experienced Cougars basketball in the Kelvin Sampson era might say “wait ‘til next year.” Those of us my age or older, I’ve followed the Cougars for almost 50 years, know how difficult it is to get as far as we did and come up short. I hope it doesn’t take another 41 years to get to this level, I don’t think it will, because I won’t be around to see it.
This morning, I feel for Emanuel Sharp. I’m not going to focus on the end of the game. Nobody, and I mean nobody, feels worse than he does this morning. He probably feels he let everybody down. He didn’t. You win as a team; you lose as a team. Time and time again he came through for us in clutch moments. We don’t get to where we are without him.
I guess we can take some solace this morning. I see multiple sites that have us listed as the favorite to win the title next year.
As I mentioned earlier, I’ve been a fan, which is short for fanatic, for almost 50 years. Anyone writing on this board late into the night/early morning or rising up early can’t be anything other than a fanatic. It’s who we are. Even our site describes us.
The last thing I would like to mention for our board is the trolls. We all know who they are. They only show up when things aren’t going well. Dealing with trolls is like rolling in the mud with pigs. You both get muddy and the pig enjoys it. Block them. It makes reading the board more enjoyable.
Looking out my window, I see the sun rising. We’ll survive, we always do.
