First post since the loss. Not so much because I was so devastated, but because I immediately left Indy after the game and drove about halfway home by about 2 am, slept at a Ramada in Washington PA (just south of Pittsburgh) for about 6 hours and drove the rest of the way home today. Made great time last night with no traffic and ok time today with more traffic. Total driving time, including stops for gas/food, was 9.25 hours, about 15 minutes faster than on the way out. Big bonus: discovered Vassi's Takeout near Bethlehem, literally at the end of the exit ramp from 78E - fantastic cheesesteak and fries.
So, about that game. We lost. Yes, we kind of choked at the end, making too many mistakes, which I don't need to rehash as I can see from the thread titles that they've likely been beaten to death. Shouldn't lose when up 9 points with under 5 minutes left. The one thing I wish we had done was not slowed it down a bit at the end, as I think by slowing it down, it lowers our energy level on both offense and defense and our defensive intensity to that point was off the charts. Yeah it almost worked (and likely would've if two or even one of those mistakes don't happen) but maybe we win more easily if kept attacking; who knows.
But we just had our two best back-to-back seasons since our 5-year run in the mid/late 70s (3 NCAAs that would've been 4 or 5 if we had a 64 team field) and won our first NCAA game since 1983 (and who knows what we would've done in the tourney last year as an 8/9 seed). Let that all sink in. It sucks that we've been so bad for so long, but this team has brought me so much joy the past two seasons that I can forgive a little heartache at the end of the season, losing to a 2-seed, with some really good players.
Anyone who watches the Pike and Geo post-game press conference knows how much this loss hurt this team and our coaches. They looked devastated by the loss and, of course, the news about Joe Boylan. They knew we played really well, but just came up short, which happens, but none of that negates the incredible effort and sacrifice this team put in the past two years, especially this past year under COVID, as we were one of the few teams with zero pauses. You can tell how much Pike cares about his players and how much the players, like Geo, care about each other - such high character guys are so easy to root for, for me. Huge thanks to all of them for what they've done for Rutgers Nation.
As for me, I had an incredibly fun 3 days, centered around a Rutgers basketball team that has given me great pleasure to watch and cheer for. I got to enjoy a bit of Indy, a nice slice of Chicago and hanging out with fellow Rutgers fans at two fantastic basketball games (was great seeing
@rutgersfandan and his brother and hanging out with them yesterday afternoon and seeing great fans like
@AreYouNUTS and
@BKIn118 and more at the games) - yes we lost yesterday, but if you weren't 1000% enthralled and entertained depite the loss, we might need to check your pulse. Can't wait for next year.
