Dave Edwards-Beyond the Thrill!
The thrill of victory….the agony of defeat. In recent memory, I cannot think of a better example than what we saw at the end of the Duke-UConn regional final in the NCAA Tournament.
Duke is dominating, up by 19 points at one time. TBS analyst Charles Barkley is writing UConn off, saying he doesn’t see a way back for the Huskies. It was hard to disagree with him….at the time. Then, UConn roars back, showing the grit we saw in recent years when they won back-to-back titles. Before you could say “onions”, the Huskies were right there. Down 2 with 10 seconds left.
Duke inbounds the ball, handles it well for a few seconds, then, makes a completely unnecessary pass that’s stolen, followed by a 30-foot heave by Braylen Mullins for the game winner! You are seconds away from the Final Four, and for Duke, it’s ripped away.
I’m not shedding any tears for the Duke boys, since many of them already make millions with NIL, and many will likely make millions more in the NBA.
Does make you wonder: do today’s athletes care as much about their college career as they did before? I can’t imagine that guy who transferred 4 times does….Maybe it’s just the thrill of the paycheck.
