04-06-2021, 11:24 AM
Yeah, I think a lot of us are wondering why we’re not full-out dancing in the streets.
The relatively muted reaction is, to be honest, a reflection of the realization that our opponents’ performance, and luck, arguably played as big a role as our own performance in the last two games. We didn’t dominate, but we did just enough to win, and both South Carolina and AZ did just enough to lose. This season was so very close to ending in the semis, and we all realize that.
It’s like in tennis where you don’t always have to hit a winner but maybe just give your opponent a chance to mess up. Less satisfying but same result.
Someone pointed out that AZ outscored us in every quarter except the first, which once again illustrates that a basket or FT made in the first minute of the game counts just as much as one at the end, however less memorable that early one might be.
If there’s such a thing as escaping with a national title, that’s what we did. IIRC “Stanford escapes again” was an announcer’s call at the moment.
But we are the champs, and of course we’re happy for the team who worked so hard all year, and for our fabulous coach who deserves this so much. It’s just different, and maybe it’s just one of those “only at Stanford” things that we (myself included) try to over-analyze in the moment. If we learn anything from 29 years, it should be to relax and simply enjoy this.
The relatively muted reaction is, to be honest, a reflection of the realization that our opponents’ performance, and luck, arguably played as big a role as our own performance in the last two games. We didn’t dominate, but we did just enough to win, and both South Carolina and AZ did just enough to lose. This season was so very close to ending in the semis, and we all realize that.
It’s like in tennis where you don’t always have to hit a winner but maybe just give your opponent a chance to mess up. Less satisfying but same result.
Someone pointed out that AZ outscored us in every quarter except the first, which once again illustrates that a basket or FT made in the first minute of the game counts just as much as one at the end, however less memorable that early one might be.
If there’s such a thing as escaping with a national title, that’s what we did. IIRC “Stanford escapes again” was an announcer’s call at the moment.
But we are the champs, and of course we’re happy for the team who worked so hard all year, and for our fabulous coach who deserves this so much. It’s just different, and maybe it’s just one of those “only at Stanford” things that we (myself included) try to over-analyze in the moment. If we learn anything from 29 years, it should be to relax and simply enjoy this.