Baby you’ll be fine

Bear with me for a minute because I like to put these things in perspective, because it helps. Basically my entire adult existence has coincided with some NCAA tournament pain. Man, do I envy those of you for whom the early 2000s are just there in theory.

I loved every single one of those early-2k teams, and they each somehow found a way to be a heartbreaking mess. Those were legitimately good teams, teams that honestly deserved better, teams that definitely earned more than the results they got. But that’s life.

I wasn’t any good at processing these things then, but it’s a lot easier now, having gone through, you know, getting older. Time doesn’t have a lot of benefits, but it does at least provide perspective.

And none of what happened to those State teams in my college years will ever change how much Julius Hodge means to me, or Marcus Melvin, or Scooter Sherrill, for that matter. Those teams were great. I remember them not for some horse shit against Cal but everything that led up to it. That’s the important part.

Eventually we’ll be able to say the same about this NC State team, too. We had a lot of fun this year. Pretty much all of it was unexpected. Don’t forget about that.