This is my last reasonable chance to talk about college basketball before it officially goes into the cooler of the American sporting offseason. Unlike the NFL or even college football, NCAA basketball is not a year-round sport, except to the obsessed or those working in the profession. For everyone else, now’s the time when we move on to the NBA playoffs or the NFL draft or baseball’s opening.
So, with my favorite team Florida having just won the men’s college basketball title, I will take this moment for a closing stanza, a victory lap of sorts. I come by my Florida fandom honestly, spending far too many years there as a graduate student. So this is no bandwagon situation. I even wrote for the school newspaper and covered track and tennis for the University’s public radio. Yes, I am a real Gator. Now, to be fair, I also grew up in Houston and considered the Cougars my first college team. I cried as a kid after Phi Slamma Jamma lost to NC State. But Monday night, our house was full orange and blue. And fortunately for me, both of my kids have adopted Florida sports as well, regardless of where they end up in school. So I’ve done one thing right as a parent.
There’s a lot that can and has been said about the basketball finals, including how senior and transfer talent dominated and how the pressure of the moment determined final outcomes. I also won’t revisit the reality that while people may say they enjoy tournament upsets, they actually seem to enjoy star teams more, with the four one seeds pulling in much higher TV ratings than last year’s less competitive final four. This tournament and final four reinformed both where college sports is heading and parts of its very essence.
What I would like to talk about instead if what it’s like when your team wins. This comes from something my 17-year-old said in the minutes after Florida closed out Houston and the yelling had subsided. He said, this is the first time my team actually won a championship. That’s true, because beyond Florida sports, he’s a fan of the NY Giants and the Houston Rockets. It’s entirely possible neither will anytime soon. He’s decided the Rockets is the title he wants the most, which makes sense because that’s the team and sport he watches the most. Perhaps after he goes to college, he’ll have another team he’s equally frustrated by year after year.
I share his intentions, because I also grew up a Houston Rockets fan. And to this day, I still consider when they won their first NBA Championship in 1994 the greatest day of my life, something I wasn’t embarrassed to say to my wife even after the birth of our second child. I vividly remember the high and relief that seemed to release an inner joy I didn’t know existed. It’s probably like the first time a small child eats ice cream. I’ll leave the analogies at that.
I’m well aware of the theoretical explanation for my excitement, just as I am of the dark or depressive side of being on the losing side. Cleveland Browns fans are a living case study. It also explains why people flock to winning teams and often run from less successful ones – basically a Darwinian form of self-preservation. I also know how irrational it is to give in to what’s largely psychological manipulation. Because the Gators probably won’t win the title next year – although you never know. And there’s something not particularly sane nor healthy on placing your own happiness on the backs of a bunch of 20 something college kids playing basketball, although at least now for compensation. It gets worse when we’re talking about parents and their kids’ sports – but that’s a whole other issue. I get all of that, and I get there are definitely lines I try not to cross, much easier as I get older and allegedly wiser.
That said, I was still really happy for both of my kids Monday night for being able to have that kind of joy. And I know that a Florida loss would have been both a lesson and a scar, just like the one I got when ironically the Houston Cougars lost the basketball title when I was a kid. It’s part of the life cycle of a sports fan. Celebrate, cry, repeat. And part of why I can’t wait for college basketball season to start again.
Keith Strudler is the Dean of the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University. You can follow him at @KeithStrudler.
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