quote:
I've been stewing all day from a LONG litany of "what ifs". It ain't helping much but I sure as hell ain't going to take that bastage off my "what if" list just because he wasn't wearing a maroon jersey.
What hurts is not THAT we lost but HOW. ALL of the "hows". After 44 years of life, most of those as an Aggie fan, student or former student, I'm WAY done being left feeling like we needed JUST ONE break to go our way to end a sports season in celebration.
A little in jest, but not entirely, there's a part of me that wants PROOF that God loves Aggies too! After all, he burns a bonfire in the sky every morning! 
Yo, Decade... peace man.
Seriously. Not trying to pick a fight here. I'm in my late 30s and been an Aggie fan since the day I accepted admission. So, I'm with you in terms of wanting proof... Believe me, I'd do just about anything to claim a national title in one of the big three (Basketball, football, Baseball.)
As for breaks... we actually got a pretty good break against Louisville when that guy missed both free throws at the end after going 15-15 from the line and lighting us up.
I know it's easy to blame the refs and be frustrated as all hell. Sometimes it just doesn't seem fair. Man, I got that... I feel it... I really do. But the nature of basketball (which is why some good friends of mine can't take it seriously) is that there are WAY more subjective calls required than just about any other sport. Fouls are often anticipated by even the best of refs. I think refing basketball is probably the hardest sport to ref.
Look at the G'town game last night. There were some guys on TV that thought it was outrageous for them NOT to call traveling on Green. Others thought he didn't even travel.
Basketball has evolved in the last 20 years to where things like "carrying" and traveling are called WAY differently now than what the letter of the law says. Jump steps? I think those are traveling myself, but they don't call them that way.
I don't much like the NBA anymore partially because of the way it's called now. The unwritten "rules" for refereeing in the NBA are just plan stupid in my opinion: calls for superstars, no traveling ever, no carrying ever.... refereeing, as a whole, is FAR WORSE in the NBA than in college. But mainly because the league has told the refs to officiate a certain way because of scoring, marketing, and letting their superstars get away with stuff that rookies can't. Talk about an unfair playing field.
No one (including me) is going to tell you how to "get over" this game... this loss... it's hell to lose by one point in a game were so many factors contributed to the outcome. All I'm saying is that the subjective refereeing is part of the game now... win or lose... and with basketball, you need to learn to roll with it a little more so than the other sports.
Officiating in basketball is an easy scapegoat. But my guess is, most good coaches like BCG are going to find ways next year to improve the team such that calls at the end of the game won't matter as much... do the little things you have to do to have a 4-5 point margin at the end instead of 1.
For my money it's much better to say "Hey, we got beat today. Our best player duffed a bunny that he makes 98% of the time. Wow, I'm surprised as hell, but good game."
Give Memphis *some* credit for wearing us out a little... JJ's cramps... AK's flat footedness at the end... all attributable to being tired in my opinion. Call or no call they out-hustled us just a little more at the end when it mattered.
Peace...
