It probably doesn’t mean much to a lot of people, other than a few sports fans, but for me watching one of my favorite teams come close to completing a 20 point comeback in basketball, was very inspiring this past Saturday.
I am referring to the Syracuse Orange, (20-6) ranked 13th this past week, who were playing Big East rivals Louisville, (19-6) 15th in the country, in Kentucky, which is a place that they almost never win. The Cardinals are coached by former Orange assistant coach (1976-1978) Rick Pitino, who was Hall Of Fame coach Jim Boeheim’s first hiring, when he became the Syracuse head coach. Pitino won a national championship with Kentucky in 1996, defeating Boeheim’s Orangemen ( as they were known then ) in the final game at the Meadowlands. Boeheim and Pitino also met in the 1987 Final Four, when the Syracuse coach led his team past Pitino’s Providence Friars, in the semi-final game, before losing on a buzzer beating three point shot by Keith Smart, which secured an Indiana Hoosier national championship for legendary Hall Of Fame coach Bob Knight. As detailed by Wikipedia, Pitino is the only men’s coach to take three different schools ( Providence, Kentucky, and Louisville) to the Final Four.
In the game that was played on Saturday, the Orange had a first half 26-19 lead at 5:49, but it quickly vanished in the last five minutes of the half, and became a Louisville ten point lead ( 40-30) by the end of the first twenty minutes. By the time the second half was down to 15:19 remaining, the Cardinals, a prolific three point shooting team, had shot their way in front by a 57-37 margin.
The ‘Cuse was having a miserable time defending the Louisville three point shot, which has always been a key part of all the college teams that Pitino has coached. Just when you thought the Orange were finished, they refused to quit, and with the help of a couple of three point shots by Syracuse guard Brandon Triche ( his father Howard, played on Boeheim’s 1987 Final Four team ), the Orange slowly climbed back into the game, and a layup by him with 1:39 remaining in the game, had narrowed the lead to 69-66.
Syracuse had a few more opportunities to perhaps pull out a win, but a few miscues and some questionable calls by the game officials, left Louisville as the 73-69 victors in this Big East showdown. The Orange have now lost six of their past eight games. Opposing teams have been able to break down their zone defense, which worked quite well when they started the season 18-0. The Orange host West Virginia (16-8) on Monday night.
If you ever go through any kind of adversity in your life, and you are a sports fan, then you already know that seeing one of your favorite teams comeback in a game, and win it, or at least put the outcome in doubt, can be inspiring in terms of your own feelings of despair, or whatever degree of anxiety you may go through. There is probably no medicine or drink, that will make you feel as good when times are tough, than watching your favorite teams doing what you hope to accomplish in your own life, in terms of surprising everyone, or winning a battle of some kind, that most thought you were incapable of. It reminds us all, that even though we are only watching a game, it is a model of how we need to respond in the “real world”, to our own scenarios of facing seemingly overwhelming odds.
We all recognize that quitting, is what we despise in our favorite teams and players, so when it is our turn to face difficult circumstances, how can we be hypocritical, and do anything less than fight back against our circumstances, and never give in until we’ve exhausted every possibility, to overcome the obstacles that are in front of us.
You can’t win every battle, but we really are all measured and remembered, by how we respond to our own adversity’s, and the character we reveal under these conditions, more so than whether or not we win or lose.