All Can Be Forgiven With One Shining Comment

by 54b on Mar 14, 2009 2:34 PM CDT in Basketball Comment 23 comments

No doubt the loss to Baylor hurt us all deep down in places we don't like to talk about...unless, of course, we're posting anonymously online. And much to the chagrin of our fearless editor, many of you worked through your frustrations by posting mean-spirited and sometimes ignorant rants on the BON during and after the Baylor game. But please don't retreat to those forums where you can rant unencumbered by common decency or facts. PB didn't really mean it when he said you should migrate over to TexAgs. In fact he confided in me that he's not really mad at you, he's just trying to come to grips with his forbidden love for Sexy Dex and his chocoliciously smooth moves. (But don't tell him I told you that, it's his secret and his alone to bare.)

Anyway, at auspicious times like these, the BON community reluctantly (and unknowingly) reaches out to me to pinpoint the problem and assuage our collective anger. I'm usually too drunk to respond with anything cogent or coherent, so I just prescribe pestalling your little brother's Ritalin and snorting it up your nose.

But I'm not going to do that today. No, I'm going to go all Dr. Phil up on your asses with a little Monday morning armchair quarterback psychoanalysis...

It's no secret that unabashed Longhorn Football fans have had a love-hate-what's-your-name-again relationship with Texas Basketball. If we can expect and demand that the Longhorns win every football game, what makes basketball so immune to unrealistic expectations and obsessive vitriol when they lose? And that's hard to reconcile. When you think about it, in many ways our relatively brief but turbulent affair with UT Basketball has been eerily reminiscent of our first foray into dating.

Hearken back to Jr. High (unless you're still there), when your hormones were raging, when you were "combing your hair" two or three times a day behind a heavily fortified bathroom door, and when girls were just as much of a mystery to you as was the Shepherd's Pie in the cafeteria. Like UT basketball now, you had an unfamiliar and sometimes unhealthy fascination with the opposite sex then. You knew you liked girls and strategically plotted ways to accidentally bump into them in the halls at school, but you were completely at a loss when it came to expressing your feelings about them. And during one of those dreaded occasions when you were forced to put your love on the line, probably at a school dance or letting the smart but lazy hot girl cheat off you in algebra, it felt like your world was going to end if that affection went unrequited. Maybe you even took the yearbook picture of the object of your unattainable desire, ripped it up, and rearranged the pieces ironically in Picaso-style on her locker earning yourself a 3-day vacation from school and a visit to the school psychiatrist. Hey, it wasn't completely your fault. Like A-Rod, you were young, dumb, and hopped up on hormones.

So where was I...ah yes, UT Basketball. Just because you don't know what a moving pick is or understand why Barnes gives Matt Hill quality minutes, don't take your frustrations out on the BON or other community members and then retreat to the unconditional love of your action figure collection. Did that kind of defeatist attitude get you to second base with Becky Culpepper? No, and it won't help you become an effective communicator on BON basketball threads either.

Fortunately for you my spiteful friends, the Longhorns' b-ball season isn't over. It's true. We've got the NCAA Tourney coming up. That's right, The BIG DANCE. And just like the Back-to-School New Faces Jam back in middle school, you're going to have to face your fear, overcome ignorance, and put your heart on the line if you want to stay online. Just think positively and if you can't type something nice about another commenter or intelligent about the latest Longhorn f*ck up, maybe sit that song out. But promise me you'll give faith (and Zoloft) a fighting chance. And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance. I hope you dance during The Big Dance.

You got chills, right...and that last line sounds really familiar for some reason but you don't want to admit that you recognize it even sitting all by yourself at your computer. That's okay, 54b understands. Sometimes love is inappropriate, just like back in Junior High.

Just in case, here's a little more inspiration for the upcoming week...

ONE SHINING COMMENT

The ball is tipped
and there you are
you're posting on the BON
you're rooting from afar
And you have no fear
because no one knows
just who the hell you are
but you can post...
ONE SHINING COMMENT, TYPE "NT" IF IT'S ONLY ONE LINE
ONE SHINING COMMENT, THERE FROZEN IN TIME

But time is short
and the thread is long
in the blinking of an eye
that comment's gone
And when you click Post
win or lose
you always spelled your best
cuz inside you knew...
(that) ONE SHINING COMMENT, YOU REACHED DEEP INSIDE
ONE SHINING COMMENT, YOU KNEW YOU WERE ONLINE

Feel the beat of your heart
feel the smile on your face
it's not really a contest
but it seems like a race...

And when you hit Post
win or lose
you always spelled your best
cuz inside you knew...
(that) ONE SHINING COMMENT, IT DIDN'T HURT YOU TO TRY
ONE SHINING COMMENT, YOU POSTED
ONE SHINING COMMENT, THEN YOU WAITED FOR A REPLY
ONE SHINING COMMENT....

5 recs | Comment 23 comments

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Comments

Oh Lord,

Please let someone invent a spell checker for bloggers. Amen.

Loved the last refrain, right after “you always spelled your best”. ONE SHINING COMMNENT…

Classic

by Longhorn in Canada on Mar 14, 2009 3:05 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Whoops, fixed it. Thanks.

Be nobody but yourself in a world that desperately wants you to be like everybody else.

by 54b on Mar 14, 2009 5:48 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

No, no

You’re supposed to claim that it was deliberate.

by Longhorn in Canada on Mar 14, 2009 6:18 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

If you post on Firefox and have Word

your misspellings are underlined in red.

So you have options unless you’re in a big hurry.

I agree, however, that could have been on purpose and would have been a great option.

by whills on Mar 14, 2009 6:59 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

I rec'd you for the word "pestalling." Very well done.

by hornbone on Mar 14, 2009 3:23 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

I love it, that's good stuff right there.

by SneezyBeltran on Mar 14, 2009 3:55 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

do you have any home made videos from your school dances in the 80s

Gotta see ’em at this point.

Rec’d

by Blitzburgh on Mar 14, 2009 4:18 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

I wonder how many UT fans..

would just rather this team get this season over with and lose in the opening round……….don’t put me in that group.

Curious to see that Lunardi has bumped Texas to a 7 seed opening up against a 10 seed Michigan………….I’d take that matchup!

by silky51 on Mar 14, 2009 4:30 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Ahhh Becky Culpepper.....

"A lot of people look for the easy way to do anything, in swimming there is no easy way." - Eddie Reese

P.S. 45-35

by SwimTexas on Mar 14, 2009 4:36 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Too bad our one shining moment

will probably be Abrams bricking threes, leading to Texas losing another close game they shouldn’t have lost.

I’m rooting for Baylor to win tonight, but the idea of Baylor having more Big 12 tournament championships than us (1-0) is depressing.

by goingforthecorner on Mar 14, 2009 4:38 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

This team

Kind of reminds me of the football team. I think this was a down year, personnel-wise. No floor general, Pittman still realizing potential, etc. I don’t think Abrams can be your best player if you expect to win a lot of tough games. Frankly I didn’t expect Much out of this team. So I have enjoyed watching them battle and have some success…… (although admittedly not quite as over-achieving as we were on the gridiron)

However, I am Stoked about the future with the recruits that Barnes has coming in to Austin for the next few years already committed…

http://www.burntorangenation.com/2008/11/12/659974/rick-barnes-inks-2-ranked

http://www.burntorangenation.com/2008/3/4/152734/0514

We have had 3 5-Star B-Ball players come to Austin in the last 6 years (Aldrige, Gibson, and Durant – all solid NBA players now BTW)….. we have 4 coming in the next 2-3 years!?!? I am as Fottball crazy as the next person, but how you don’t get excited about this is beyond me.

"A lot of people look for the easy way to do anything, in swimming there is no easy way." - Eddie Reese

P.S. 45-35

by SwimTexas on Mar 14, 2009 5:00 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

"I'm as...crazy as the next person..."

may be somewhat true here. But because you specified Fottball, I’m certain you are. The rest of us are crazy about football, and we virtually never misspell it.

Which football year did you mean? Even when we know what you’re talking about, we really don’t know until you say the numbers. 2006. We’re very specific about this sort of thing.

We are psyched about the future; there’s been reams written about Barnes’ next two seasons. But when we’re bummed about the present, we don’t jump mood just to go glassy-eyed about the future. We leave that to aggies and other itinerant mid-sentence capitalizers.

BTW I sometimes get sadistic after loses to Baylor. And I didn’t even get to see or listen to the game.

by whills on Mar 14, 2009 7:33 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

lucky?,,nt

by vy til i die on Mar 14, 2009 7:48 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Possibly. nt

by whills on Mar 14, 2009 7:57 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Wow, You jumped all over that type-o huh?

That was kind of a jerk reply ……Mid-Sentence capitalization and everything…..And who is the “we” you keep talking about?

As for content, I wasn’t getting glassy-eyed Whills, I was just saying, that I had lowered expectations from this group, and that, along with the hope for the future helps to soften the blow of a loss like this. That is all I was trying to say.

And if there are any more mistakes in capitalization or grammar…. have at them. I am a Math teacher, not a writer.

"A lot of people look for the easy way to do anything, in swimming there is no easy way." - Eddie Reese

P.S. 45-35

by SwimTexas on Mar 14, 2009 10:16 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Looks like a little too much fun at your expense

and probably most jerky in retrospect, esp. the aggie reference. Sorry about that.

Football is rarely misspelled, which is merely my observation over time…not that there aren’t plenty of misspellings, my own included.

The “we” is the collective we – both thread and site – and, yes, I generalized in that regard. The smart ass part of me will use most any tool for humor; I wasn’t trying to beat you down with community consensus where none had been agreed upon. Hell, you’ve been here longer than I have.

Many here backed off the team when it became apparent that there was little offensive leadership; it was the wise thing to do. The pre-season hype was over the top, but it continued with the early high ranking. Hope lingered a long time. There was this background meme that Barnes and the team could pull it out, even as late as the aTm and OU games.

This was a fair team; I’ve seen a lot worse but the last few years have pushed upward our whole set of expectations where 22 wins isn’t that good. 2006 was a good reference. Next year will have even higher expectations despite the fact those highly ranked stars are just freshmen. With a good mix of veteran leadership, they could start out strong, but it’s 50-50, really, for the first 10 games or so.

As a math teacher you have logic on your side – a valuable asset – and, as a teacher, you probably take your fair share of abuse. I respect that. I’d probably be a mean-ass math teacher – I was greatly at abused by tyrannical stat TAs and have been twisted ever since. heh

by whills on Mar 14, 2009 11:25 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

No worries....

And I can’t believe I misspelled football!! But, If it helped ease the pain of our first loss to Baylor in 50,000 years, I am happy to be your punching bag. Lord knows we all need it. I use Crown Royal.

I may have been a member here longer, but you are an institution here “nt” and all….. and I have traditionally enjoyed what you and the guys have to say. I will try not to encite the sadistic side of you very often.

Completely agree about the raised expectations overall. And there is still hope to make at least a little noise in the tourney.

Hook’em

"A lot of people look for the easy way to do anything, in swimming there is no easy way." - Eddie Reese

P.S. 45-35

by SwimTexas on Mar 15, 2009 6:26 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

You're very gracious.

Thanks, SwimTexas.

For some reason, losing to Baylor is always a bitter pill. Maybe because it doesn’t happen so often…dunno. Now I’m sorta glad we got that out of the way…it’s like the QB that has thrown 153 passes without an INT. You know it’s coming…

If the Horns can get by Minnesota, playing Duke might be good for them, win or lose. They will graphically understand what they need for next year. Then we get to wonder if DaMo stays or goes.

Hook ’em

by whills on Mar 15, 2009 8:55 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs