Sorry guys, but literature is my natural touch stone:
In Greek mythology, Narcissus was known for his beauty. The gods promised him a long life unless he recognized himself. He was ultimately condemned because he fell in love with his own reflection in the water.
What I see on the court is a team that is condemned to under-achievement because it fell in love with its own image.
· Once hailed for our individual and group NYC toughness, we no longer play hard. Instead, we produce only the “image” of toughness – trash talking, posturing, provoking minor skirmishes when physical dominance has failed. Recalling the pre-season NIT field, what we display on the court is a pathetic comparison to the true mental and physical toughness we see in Virginia and Rhode Island. Those are tough teams. West Virginia is a tough team. We are pretenders.
· Once seen as an over-achieving dragon-slayer (2016 BET), we now display a vain, haughty sense of entitlement. Little actual production, at least not consistently, just constant complaining, facial expressions of disdain and disbelief at the way we are being treated, theatrical “flopping” at incidental contact. It’s an embarrassment which even Bill Raftery couldn’t ignore against Marquette. He sounded ashamed of Seton Hall and he should have been.
· Once producing individual heroic efforts that saved the day in games past (Khadeen, Desi, Angel, Myles), we now operate under the misguided belief that individual heroism rather than team-play is the key to victory. (Watching the hero-ball in the final stages of the Xavier, Villanova, Marquette games is painful.)
Can we reverse this curse? I suppose it’s possible. I want desperately to be wrong. But my deeper sense is we’ve pissed off the basketball gods and these players and we fans are condemned to spend our days pretending that this was a historically good team.
In Greek mythology, Narcissus was known for his beauty. The gods promised him a long life unless he recognized himself. He was ultimately condemned because he fell in love with his own reflection in the water.
What I see on the court is a team that is condemned to under-achievement because it fell in love with its own image.
· Once hailed for our individual and group NYC toughness, we no longer play hard. Instead, we produce only the “image” of toughness – trash talking, posturing, provoking minor skirmishes when physical dominance has failed. Recalling the pre-season NIT field, what we display on the court is a pathetic comparison to the true mental and physical toughness we see in Virginia and Rhode Island. Those are tough teams. West Virginia is a tough team. We are pretenders.
· Once seen as an over-achieving dragon-slayer (2016 BET), we now display a vain, haughty sense of entitlement. Little actual production, at least not consistently, just constant complaining, facial expressions of disdain and disbelief at the way we are being treated, theatrical “flopping” at incidental contact. It’s an embarrassment which even Bill Raftery couldn’t ignore against Marquette. He sounded ashamed of Seton Hall and he should have been.
· Once producing individual heroic efforts that saved the day in games past (Khadeen, Desi, Angel, Myles), we now operate under the misguided belief that individual heroism rather than team-play is the key to victory. (Watching the hero-ball in the final stages of the Xavier, Villanova, Marquette games is painful.)
Can we reverse this curse? I suppose it’s possible. I want desperately to be wrong. But my deeper sense is we’ve pissed off the basketball gods and these players and we fans are condemned to spend our days pretending that this was a historically good team.
