It was a beautiful thing to watch Virginia play the greatest game in the world the way it was meant to be played. It would have taken a very good basketball team to have kept up with Virginia today. They were sound and disciplined, patient and calm, and nothing came easy against them at either end of the court.
Many Pitt teams would have kept up with this Virginia team. They might have won, maybe not, but they would have kept up. This Pitt team could not. Whatever it is that knits a basketball team together, this Pitt team does not have enough of it to keep up with a team as good as Virginia.
Some of it is physical. Not enough at center. Not quite enough at guard. But it is more than that. That was not a physical mismatch today, which was the hardest part.
This Pitt team has had its moments. It can run a track meet with just about anyone. There is only one college basketball team in the United States that has won at Notre Dame this year. That team is not North Carolina, which certainly can run a track meet with anyone, and which lost there today. It is the University of Pittsburgh, and it was a beautiful performance. It happened. I know. I was there. It’s part of the story, the body of work if you prefer that hoary phrase. It counts, as does a gritty win at Florida State and a few others.
But it’s not the whole story. The whole story, so far, includes five double figure losses, three of them at home. To teams that played stronger, more physical, more focused, more disciplined, more organized basketball than they did. Exactly the kind of basketball that Pitt used to play. Exactly the kind of basketball that Pitt’s coach takes pride in playing. Exactly the kind of basketball that Pitt’s coach has been trying desperately to get his team to play for two seasons now.
Although he clearly is suffering, and I feel for him, I am not worried about the Pitt basketball coach. Someday, hopefully many, many years from now, he will finish his time at Pitt. When he does, he will look back on all of it. There already is a lot of water under the bridge, his body of work if you will. Given his nature, he will think more about the seasons that did not go well than the seasons that did. The teams he just could not reach. But, if he has any perspective, he also will know that he did his job passionately and very well, that he built a basketball program at a school that had never really had one, that he gave his teams, his program and his school his full effort, that his teams honored the game of basketball and, in sharp contrast to so many of his prominent peers, that he was a credit to his sport and his university.
Plus, he gets paid a lot of money and that kind of suffering comes with the territory.
My worry is elsewhere. For a different kind of suffering.
About a year ago, I had lunch with a friend who lives in another city, with whom I had some professional dealings. A lawyer in his mid-60’s nearing the end of a distinguished career. Although I did not know him well, he told me something that was very interesting to me and, it seemed clear, very important to him. As it happened he was an All-American in track in college, more than 40 years ago. As he put it, he was a good lawyer, but he was a gifted runner, more gifted as a runner than he ever was in anything else.
As much as he put into his running, 40 years later, he had regrets. Hard regrets. That he could have done more, that there was another gear that he could have found. Hard enough regrets to tell a casual friend.
For us, this is only this year’s team. We will look back, sure, but we will look back all of the teams. This will just be one more. Next year there will be another team and we will move on. Some of us will move on to a new set of hopes and dreams, others to a new set of grievances.
But for the players on the team, especially the veteran players, this is their team. This is the team they will look back on for the rest of their lives. I think they are better than they have played. I think there is more there. I think there is another gear and I hope they find it.
Many Pitt teams would have kept up with this Virginia team. They might have won, maybe not, but they would have kept up. This Pitt team could not. Whatever it is that knits a basketball team together, this Pitt team does not have enough of it to keep up with a team as good as Virginia.
Some of it is physical. Not enough at center. Not quite enough at guard. But it is more than that. That was not a physical mismatch today, which was the hardest part.
This Pitt team has had its moments. It can run a track meet with just about anyone. There is only one college basketball team in the United States that has won at Notre Dame this year. That team is not North Carolina, which certainly can run a track meet with anyone, and which lost there today. It is the University of Pittsburgh, and it was a beautiful performance. It happened. I know. I was there. It’s part of the story, the body of work if you prefer that hoary phrase. It counts, as does a gritty win at Florida State and a few others.
But it’s not the whole story. The whole story, so far, includes five double figure losses, three of them at home. To teams that played stronger, more physical, more focused, more disciplined, more organized basketball than they did. Exactly the kind of basketball that Pitt used to play. Exactly the kind of basketball that Pitt’s coach takes pride in playing. Exactly the kind of basketball that Pitt’s coach has been trying desperately to get his team to play for two seasons now.
Although he clearly is suffering, and I feel for him, I am not worried about the Pitt basketball coach. Someday, hopefully many, many years from now, he will finish his time at Pitt. When he does, he will look back on all of it. There already is a lot of water under the bridge, his body of work if you will. Given his nature, he will think more about the seasons that did not go well than the seasons that did. The teams he just could not reach. But, if he has any perspective, he also will know that he did his job passionately and very well, that he built a basketball program at a school that had never really had one, that he gave his teams, his program and his school his full effort, that his teams honored the game of basketball and, in sharp contrast to so many of his prominent peers, that he was a credit to his sport and his university.
Plus, he gets paid a lot of money and that kind of suffering comes with the territory.
My worry is elsewhere. For a different kind of suffering.
About a year ago, I had lunch with a friend who lives in another city, with whom I had some professional dealings. A lawyer in his mid-60’s nearing the end of a distinguished career. Although I did not know him well, he told me something that was very interesting to me and, it seemed clear, very important to him. As it happened he was an All-American in track in college, more than 40 years ago. As he put it, he was a good lawyer, but he was a gifted runner, more gifted as a runner than he ever was in anything else.
As much as he put into his running, 40 years later, he had regrets. Hard regrets. That he could have done more, that there was another gear that he could have found. Hard enough regrets to tell a casual friend.
For us, this is only this year’s team. We will look back, sure, but we will look back all of the teams. This will just be one more. Next year there will be another team and we will move on. Some of us will move on to a new set of hopes and dreams, others to a new set of grievances.
But for the players on the team, especially the veteran players, this is their team. This is the team they will look back on for the rest of their lives. I think they are better than they have played. I think there is more there. I think there is another gear and I hope they find it.
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