Saturday, February 6, 2010

IT'S TIME TO DRAW A LINE IN THE SAND

Today's the day. Today's the day. Today's the day.

It is somewhat fitting that the team that started it all will also be the team that ends it. The conference schedule, and subsequent 10-game losing streak, began with a five-point loss to Minnesota. It's only slightly comforting to think about what might have been had the Lions not shriveled in the waning minutes of that game. Perhaps it would have been a spring board to another successful season rather than a sliding board to the basement of the Big Ten.

There's no real reason to think that today's game will really be any different the last ten, and it's rather sad when you're best chance of winning a game comes down to the laws of probability (We have to win one, right?), but just maybe the old unis and the blizzard outside will provide the recipe for some home cooking at the Bryce Jordan Center and help end the drought.

More than a victory, I am looking for something else today. The most frustrating thing to me this season has been how the team has reacted, or not reacted, to the losses. Sure, there was the clearly audible expletive from Talor Battle at the end of the Ohio State game and the cameras have caught a few other frowns from the guys on the bench, but where's the real emotion felt from losing ten straight? There hasn't been one technical foul, one hard foul or any pushing and shoving. I know, discipline is important, but at what point does a 20-year-old kid get sick of getting pushed around, or does his coach decide to show some real emotion instead of just holding his head in his hand?

So here's a memo to the team: It's okay to be angry and to play that way too. It's okay to get sick of guys hitting uncontested layups on you or getting your shots blocked back in your face. It's okay to send a message with a hard, clean foul on a player. We're not talking about Jon Chaney's goon squad from a few years ago, just something to let the other team know you're not exactly okay with being the league's doormat.

It's going to take a Herculean effort to get that first win, with the suffocating weight of ten straight losses working to hold the team down, but today's a perfect day to break through and start the slow climb back to respectability.

2 comments:

Karen Jesaitis said...

best picture ever posted on this website.

Karen Jesaitis said...

BTW...is that a cut-off tee he's wearing or an Ott cape (probably a mock up the marketing department made for giveaways that never got approved)?