Sunday, March 8, 2009

Outlook: sunnier

I think I have found the cure for feeling discouraged: hanging out with 16,300 of my closest friends. Watching one of the youngest teams in college basketball win a conference championship. That was pretty sweet. The Kansas Jayhawks have now won 5 straight conference championships. No one currently on the team knows what it is like not to win the conference. We weren't supposed to be any good this year. The coaches and sports writers picked us to do no better than 3rd in the conference. But my 16,300 friends and I weren't about to let the Jayhawks share the title, let alone come in third. There is no better place to watch college basketball than Allen Fieldhouse. Keep your Dean Dome (named after a Jayhawk) and your Rupp Arena (named after a Jayhawk) and don't even bring out that silly Cameron Indoor. The Jayhawks are currently on a 40 game home win streak, which is only our 3rd longest home win streak in the last 25 years. AFH is the cathedral of college basketball. A CBS analyst yesterday said that AFH is to college basketball what St. Andrews is to golf.

So the point of all of this is that going to AFH is my version of going to church. My spirit is refreshed by being part of a crowd that helps my team storm back from a 14-point deficit to ultimately win by 10. Maybe it seems shallow that something as simple as a college basketball game can get me out of a depression brought on by being surrounded by death all day every day. But if you're a Jayhawk fan, you get it.

Post-game home-made lasagne, wine, and really good bread with just 3 of my closest friends was quite helpful, too.

5 comments:

BellsforStacy said...

I feel the same way about Tech. And sports are a great rejuvenator. That's why you'll start to see viewership of most sporting events start to go up (TV in general, I'd guess) because not only are people staying in more, but they also want an escape and something to root for.

I'm glad you are feeling better!

Unknown said...

I missed you guys at Hoopers Saturday and then I remembered you were at the game. Lucky Duck!

S said...

That darn Tech might have contributed to my down mood, you know. ;)

While we would have enjoyed watching the game with y'all at Hoopers, I'm quite glad we were at AFH. That one definitely ranks in the top few fun games. I think I can only remember one other game where the non-students were as involved. We had that crazy 16 point comeback against Oklahoma a few years ago where we were down 15 with 6:30 to go. The crowd was pretty crazy for that one.

BellsforStacy said...

Yeah but that was a fluke. I woke up the next day pretty sure we'd lost. In fact, I believe I told people that we lost. I know I told my husband, who believed me.

I don't know what happened that day. It was a fluke. Because honestly, our basketball team is terrible this year!

S said...

Voskul was just out of his mind that day. Dude couldn't miss. Nice way for him to go out on senior day, but I hate that it came at the expense of my Hawks.

 
Blog Designed by : NW Designs