Ryan's Currently Unnamed Blog

Ok, the pain is subsiding and I'm finally able to collect my thoughts over the past weekend.

Haven't written about sports much here, mainly because I know I'll get ripped on from certain people who see sports as the biggest waste of time, energy and money. I have many interests and many of you only know one side of me. So, first.. I'm going to defend myself:

To the intellectiuals who read this: To me, athletic contests are very symbolic of the epic stuggles evident in every level of our lives. Sure, many seemingly pointless events add up to mean big things in the scope of a game, a season, or even larger scale. Its a release of aggression, and an escape from the mundane everyday events. No, it doesn't consume my life, but I definately follow my teams, even more so when they are doing very well.

To the artistic and creative: There's a tremendous amount of imagery and style. There's pagentry all through College Sports. Sure College Band music is geeky, but it also unites a mass of people and draws them together and sets mood and adds to the drama. Yes. Drama. There's is suspense in a close game, which definately rivals some of the best written scripts in existance.

>To the technical: There are TONS of things to get excited about from a technical perspective. From the architecture of the huge stadiums to the booming sound systems. From fireworks and huge Hi Definition Scoreboards to On screen enhancements like the "First-and-10" marker. And the physics of hitting a Baseball or throwing a ball through a hoop from 20 feet away.

To the political: hmmm.. well.. There's the underdog factor! (And yes, all my political friends by definition are underdogs!) Being lucky enough to not live in one of the 'Big' sports markets that have domitiated recently like Boston and New York, or going to a Big Ten School that hasn't done much of anything for the 10 or 15 years before I went. The Underdog is definately how I would describe 'my' teams.

Underdogs... until this year, that is. You see, I went to the University of Illinois and was lucky enough to see the basketball team win unexpectedly. Every year since then, Illinois put out a 'decent' team and was competitive, but this year... this year they stuck gold!

Going into this weekend, Illinois has been the unanimous number one team in the nation. That may not sound like it means much, but when there's 120 or so teams all trying get there and some REAL perenial powerhouses out there that's impressive for us. Add in that we have held that for about 2 months now and that we won every single one of our first 29 games, and you have an unbelieveable season in the making.

Trust me when I say this stuff doesn't happen often, and it was happening to my school! I even saw some of those guys when they were freshmen. As Seniors now, its my last connection to the team and how far they came.

But regardless... the point of all this is... we were playing our last game of the season this past weekend. One game away from perfection. All Illinois had to do was go into Columbus, OH and beat Ohio State. Lowly Ohio State that isn't even allowed to play in the postseason due to recruiting violations.

And yes, you guessed it (or heard alreadY)... Illinois lost. By one point. On a shot with 5 seconds left after leading the entire game. The pain and disappointment was unbelieveable. It took a while for the shock to wear off, but now that the dust has cleared, I realize its OK. I mean, sure to win every game would have been a dream, but every now and then, each and everyone of us needs a wake up call in some form or another. Some reminder that we aren't perfect and we can't be complacent.

And, I'd much rather have the let down come during the regular season, then during the Big Ten Tournament or the NCAA Tournament.

I'm used to this feeling of disappointment when it comes to all of my sports teams, but never have they been so close to something only to lose it. Now I guess I can truly empathize with all those silly Cub fans that had their heart ripped out in those 2003 Playoffs.

At least they had Mr. Bartman as a scapegoat.