like MJ’s UNC squad in 82′…

The biggest win of our season. Hands down.

Bigger than any of the others, Georgetown means the most. They are in our conference, they are in the next big city over, they play a similar style to us, they recruit the same players as us, they are a catholic school like us, they have never won the “big one” like us, I mean hell…, they even have a dog as their mascot like us (of course who has ever heard a bulldog actually called a ”Hoya”?)

Let me be very clear… they are very good in pretty much every aspect of the game. They have strong players at pretty much every position, they hustle, they are talented and athletic, and they are well coached. They can fast-break, they can play 6-on-6 offense, they can dodge to score, or they can pass to score. They play an aggressive style of defense where they push you out to receive the ball, they let their poles hunt their match-ups behind the goal and throw checks, their poles can handle the ball in the clear, and they have a pretty good goalie. They are a good team who pretty much stays in the top 10 year in year out…

And we smoked that ass last year when they were number 2 in the country thinking their shit don’t stink (excuse the profanity)

And that’s all I am going to say about them or about the game last year, because it means about as much as Nifong and Imus’s apologies at this point. It’s done and over and I don’t want to hear about it or worry about it at all at this point because the  game this year is the only one that matters now.

This will be the most competitive game I have played in since being in college. I have no doubt about that. I burn thinking about playing in it. Sleep is going to have to walk in my room and knock me out with an under-hand right tonight to get me to go to sleep.

They want revenge. We have to prove that we are a play-off team. Whoever wins this is the leader in the conference and takes sole position for the automatic qualifier for the NCAA tournament. The game really cannot get any bigger as far as the regular season goes.

They have two losses this year….

Syracuse and Duke

We have watched more film on them than pretty much any other team all year. We know their tendencies like we know the Pledge of Allegiance. We know the checks they are going to throw, we know the moves they like best, we know the goalies weaknesses, we know their face-off guys style, we know their offensive plays, and we know we can win this game if we play as well as we can.

I sat in their head coaches office with my mother at the tail end of an east coast road trip my mother and I made during the first semester of my senior year to look at 5 or so schools. They were my number 1. I wanted to go to Georgetown as much as I wanted to go anywhere else. It was the perfect fit for me as far as I was concerned then. Their coach didn’t even look me in the eyes when he blew me off. The only time he even looked at me was when I told him the other schools I was looking at. I walked around the school just thinking how great it would be to go there, and then basically realised that for me it wasn’t going to be an option. It was a disappointment. It was a slap in the face. It was a heart-break. The coaches from Virginia, the team that won the national championship that year, called me at least once, but Georgetown didn’t have 5 minutes to make me feel welcomed. I have never forgotten that.

I honestly have not felt this way about a game in a while. It is a good feeling. The morning may be different, when the nerves really set in, but for right now I got that hope. That hope is a profound thing. I think that hope is one of the things I will remember most about sports. It is the idea that you are ready even when the task will require as much as you can give. You know the preparation you have put in, and the intincts you have honed, have made you capable to stand up to a true challenge. That hope is the midnight shooting sessions when it is raining and you got school the next morning and you don’t care because all you are seeing is the corners of the goal. That hope is a gift.

 My team feels ready. Now all we have to do is show up and play for each other.

Thats right I said it. Hear it again. We are going to show up and play for each other.

My job tomorrow is simple. You could call me the stylist of our team. My job is to go out and make every other player on my team look good. Then they feel good. Then they play good. Then I feel good because the double V’s, or the double U’s if you will, are situated in their appropriate column underneath (God willing) ”Loyola” in the stat book. Alleluia, holla back!

I wont apologize about not doing the write up on my recruiting camps experience because it is still in the works. I want it to be pristine as possible.

Side Note: Cardinal Gibbons from NC came up to play a couple of games here this week and I saw them walking about campus. I think one of my coaches showed them around and in the locker room and even let them in our film room to watch the last few minutes of our Duke victory from earlier this season. My coaches gave me some guff about how they were asking about me, and honestly, that makes me f****** day. It is so good to hear that kids from Carolina are following the sport at this level. I feel that brotherhood with all NC players because we are all in this struggle together, and if anyone from the home front ever needs anything from me as far as connections or advice goes, I will do whatever I can to help. I love seeing those guys up here, spreading the sport and competing, and seeing them walking around Loyola with those big eyes in all their “Lax” attire takes me back and reminds me how fortunate I am to have come from the same place as them and be at this great school with this great opportunity in this game.

Now, for a little retribution against the school that kept the Tar Heels out of the Final Four this year.