It’s 2:17 a.m. Monday, and we just got back from Orlando. I lugged most of the stuff in, but I am not going to unpack it tonight. After four weeks in a row on job-related trips, over 3,200 miles and almost 50 hours in my car of getting there and back, I will not have to repack this weekend. But, I gladly would have.
Wilson took the helm from Prattville to Starkville, allowing me to catch a nap. Partly rested, but mostly groggy from fatigue, I will do what I can.
It is nice to have finally gone from Tuscaloosa to Starkville in 10 minutes-at least that’s all I remember of the world’s longest short trip.
Before the nap, images of this basketball season that I now write about kept cycling through my mind but one word uttered by a sports writer after Sunday’s loss to Xavier stuck with me the most. “Underachievers,” he said with a small shake of his head.
While everyone is entitled to an opinion and we who cover sports try to put the right words on something a team or individual does well or poorly, that moniker just doesn’t fit State’s collars.
Hearing that word caused an irritation in my mind, a disturbance that wouldn’t leave no matter how far or fast we fled Orlando.
Underachievers don’t win the school’s first Southeastern Conference title in 41 years by going 14-2.
Underachievers don’t make double-digit, come-from-behind victories on the road against NCAA tournament teams South Carolina and Alabama.
Underachievers don’t finish a season undefeated in road contests.
Underachievers don’t spring from third in the SEC West preseason voting to winning the division by six games.
Underachievers don’t inspire fans to stand and wait for their return on rainy 40-degree February nights.
Underachievers don’t accomplish any of the above and win 26 of 30 games with only one starter from last season.
If anything, this year’s Bulldogs overachieved.
Head coach Rick Stansbury and his staff did a tremendous job of reloading players for another year and making a third straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament-a feat that had not been accomplished in school history.
The coaches, players and fans should be proud of what the Bulldogs accomplished. I am proud that I got to write about and photograph a team like this, and won’t forget moments I’ve captured.
The Dawgs didn’t underachieve Sunday, but did lose to an overachieving Xavier team that just couldn’t miss.
Xavier’s ‘Three’ Musketeers made 13 of 19 treys. Wing, baseline, top-of-the-key, contested, highly contested and one from past half court-it just didn’t matter where they shot it from.
In Saturday’s press conference Xavier head coach Thad Matta jokingly said they would look to get the ball inside because, “We usually shoot a higher percentage the closer we get.”
That would have been impossible Sunday because the equivalent of shooting 68 percent from behind the three-point line is 138 percent from inside the arc.
Xavier entered Sunday’s contest shooting xx percent on three’s. Matta must have taken his team to Disney World because they delivered a magical performance to oust the Bulldogs after falling to MSU in December.
A good team overachieved to beat another good team when Xavier’s ‘Three’ Musketeers turned a remarkable season into a bittersweet memory.