In my youth, when the sunshine came, and the asphalt courts would cook up in the summer, I would gather several players and we'd get off the hot asphalt in search of a game on cooler concrete. One of our stops was at a private swim club that had a really killer full court concrete setup. It was great to play on summer concrete, especially with a basketball that was a virgin to concrete, because it was a clean ball, no blackened tar melted on it. We managed to always finesse our way into this facility, but we had to win the court from the guys at the club.
We were toughened players. We had spent most of our lives playing constant basketball on either concrete or asphalt. The "boys of summer" (as we used to call them) were not that seasoned. And they were usually a few years younger.
We always came in there and thrashed the boys of summer. And we did it without playing dirty. We simply overpowered them in all facets of the game. When you have that much physical superiority over someone, the last thing you have to do is play dirty to gain an advantage.
I look at that game last night and I experienced Kansas as the "boys of summer." We were treated like the submissive youth. We were the submissive youth.
One thing about being young.... elders are always treated with respect. And if you don't respect them, they quickly teach you a lesson, usually with ease. We were taught a lesson last night. Not sure if we will take the lesson to heart and get something out of it.
This was the same lesson instructed to us by Kentucky, Temple, ISU and OSU. We lose when we play the role of submissive youth. The lesson can come as a 32-pt blowout or a 1-pt heartbreak loss. The key is not the point margin, but the loss. Last night, we were beat by a completely inferior team.
The moral of this story takes us back to the summer country club basketball courts. The "boys of summer." Remember? Well, after several years of us coming over and beating down these guys, several actually grew out of their youthful submissiveness and the chore for us became much tougher every year. Before long, these guys with their upscale summer attire would match us step for step, point for point. The advantage was gone. They were still the same guys... a few years younger. The difference was that we experienced them in the window of their manhood breakout.
Men no longer give in to the role of submissive youth. Men come to fight.
We have a very talented team. And we have enough of the pieces to contend with anyone. But we can only be successful if we drop the submissive youth role. We will continue to win games based strictly on our talent. However... we have no shot at the big prize in March if we don't pass through the tunnel of manhood between now and then. The big prize won't be won by a team of boys who can overwhelm the field with their talent.
