Even When They’re Not

If you watched the Louisville game Saturday, you know there’s a lot I could talk about. I could talk about how the best defense is a good defense, and how when you force turnovers and hold teams to stretches of five minutes without scoring, you give yourself key opportunities to make offensive plays on the other end of the floor. I could talk about how [my boy] Marcus is back, but you can read my previous blog post to learn how I feel about that. I could talk about the sweet taste of victory when it’s on the tip of your tongue—almost eluding you before it’s deliciously captured. Instead—and this might be an unpopular choice—I want to talk about Wednesday’s Notre Dame game. More importantly, I want to talk about Stuart Scott.

But I’ll indulge my unadulterated Louisville joy for a few minutes longer. My favorite games to win are those where we just might not. Where we fight and fight, and scrap for loose balls and attack the rim, and just when you think victory is slipping away, the Heels give you a reason to believe it’s not. And that’s what happened against Louisville. Even when the Cardinals stretched their lead to 13 in the second half, the Heels kept their fight. Marcus hit his late game three, and sealed the deal with his once- (and future?) signature game-winning shot. Dick Vitale ended the game with Stuart Scott’s trademark “booyah.” But this victory was even sweeter than most, because it was preceded by defeat just days ago. Not just defeat, but what I’m calling an evil twin defeat. Maybe it was the eerily similar late-game situation (clock running down, Heels have possession and one last chance,) or the eerily similar final score (72-71 and 71-70,) but Saturday afternoon brought me right back to that devastating Wednesday night game. The loss to Notre Dame, where we could have won if Marcus could’ve just gotten that shot at the buzzer to fall. Or, alternatively, if Brice had gotten the tip-in in time. “What if,” right? But there’s never a chance for “what if,” there’s just a buzzer. Just a ref saying “Notre Dame wins.” It’s heartbreaking.

And it was heartbreaking because Stuart Scott had died the day before. And the team wore patches on their uniforms and the student section had matching signs reading “STU.” The soul of Tar Heel and sports fandom himself. I remember going in to the Notre Dame game thinking, “we have to win for Stu.” At a certain point in the game, I realized we might not. How could that be? Is everything I read into the deeper meaning of sports a lie? But win or lose, his spirit in the Dean Dome was palpable that night. When they aired his tribute video, I started to think about Stuart Scott in terms of my own experience with him. The voice that made me want to color basketball games with my own commentary; the love of sports that excited my own passion. I remembered my sophomore year at UNC, when he was still hosting Carolina basketball’s preseason midnight madness, “Late Night with Roy.” It was the fall of 2011, and the Heels were ranked preseason number 1. Scott came out on to the court to thunderous applause and reached down to touch the North Carolina logo on the floor, as was his custom. He talked about how we were all gathered that night to support our team, who we got to call “the number one team in the country.” More thunderous applause. But then he said, “tonight they’re the number one team in the country, but we still come here, even when they’re not. And that’s what it’s all about.” Applause. I think someone tried to start the “we’re number one” chant back up again. But what Stu said always stuck with me, because being a fan of any team, a real fan, isn’t a temporary or changing condition. It’s a commitment, no matter what. When your team is winning, but even when they’re not. It was almost a truer testament to Scott that we lost so bitterly on Wednesday, because when everyone else was feeling frustrated and angry, Stu would have been the one to remind us that we have to dutifully accept it, and look ahead to the next one. Which, I might venture to say, we won for Stuart Scott.

Thank you, Stu, for reminding me what it means to be a fan. It’s easy, and it’s fun, to watch wins like the Louisville game. It’s a screaming jumping rush like no other when that last second ball finds net, seeming to fall more slowly than any other shot. It makes you want to wear your Jordan jersey proudly. But what about when it clangs off the rim? What about the same game with the opposite outcome, like Wednesday’s loss to the Fighting Irish? Anyone can raise their glass, and write blog posts, and say “that’s my team!” when your boys are the decisive winners of the game. But we have to do it anyway, we have to stick with them anyway, we have to love them anyway. Even when they’re not.

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