I qualify with "of sorts" because it's one game and there are an assortment of other things that have to be considered regarding whether Ollie returns, and that's even before we get to the investigation that could render everything else that happens this season irrelevant.
But then again that's exactly the point. This could be it for the Kevin Ollie era at UConn. Maybe not officially, but for all intents and purposes. It'll be the last time this season the stands are full for a home game, the last time a big game is played on campus, and the last time we will have a chance to feel good about something until next season at the earliest. This is the pep rally game, the camp out game, the storm the court game, the give me the keys to the campus game...if they win. You have the students back for break with the #8 team in the country coming to town to play on a Saturday at noon. It's really the one place you've played well all season, the one place you feel comfortable, the last time people will pretend to be excited to hear your name called in intros.
Cincinnati is a lot better than us but they aren't Nova. They will be favored by, I don't know, 12 points, which is the equivalent of one point every three or four minutes. Hell, they may end up losing by 12 points. But what I want to know is are they actually going to give themselves a chance to lose the game, or have they already lost it? Because for these players, buried beneath all of these story lines is the harsh reality that this might be the last time people are going to really care about watching you play basketball. I mean sure, they'll always have people willing to pay to watch them play and most of them are probably good enough to play the sport for a living. But this could be the last time that they're the show, and if they have taken that for granted up until this point, now would be a good time to stop.
I try to avoid the super emotional, fan boy side to all of this, but I do think there is a time where you just need to see something. If that something is they have three players good enough to play with Cincy, then fine. I want to see those three players go at it that way. And if you're not good enough I want to see hope that you will be. If it's 6-5 at the first media timeout and then 12-10 and then 20-16 and eventually 60-54, OK. It still won't be good enough, but at least you'll have shown me something. I have more respect for the fighter who gets TKO'd in the 9th round than the one who loses by unanimous decision. The worst part about the last couple years is I haven't even felt pain at the end of these games because they just don't make you invest enough to feel like you've lost something. Give yourself the chance to feel pain. Play like you're guilty. Let yourself cry in the locker-room after the game because you finally realized you're just not good enough. Jalen Adams hasn't had any of those games at UConn. Neither has Terry Larrier.
I'm mostly at peace with the fact that this hasn't worked. I'm at peace with the fact that Ollie hasn't done his job and the players aren't built to do theirs. If 2014 ends up being the last great moment in the history of this program, so be it. I just don't want it to be the last moment. That would feel wrong. Give me something to remember good or bad. Give me a loss where I'm wincing the rest of the week because I wanted it for the guys on the team. UConn basketball is addicting. Right now I feel like I've willingly given up that addiction. If it goes, it goes, but that feeling is something that should be taken from me. Anything else feels wrong.
