One of the realities of college basketball is that the difference between winning and losing is oftentimes the slimmest of margins. The 25-0 streak could have easily have been 18-7 as we weren't exactly crushing teams by disparate scores. We all recall the 2/3 court desperation heave by Ennis for the win. Tyler takes that same shot 10 times... lucky if it goes in once.
Also, our record this year could be much better and if you look back you'll note that we were right in pretty much every game we lost until the closing couple minutes. To paraphrase what I've heard JB say, "when it comes down to the end of the game you have to make plays, you have to be able to get a stop". When it came down to crunch time we were not making the good plays or getting the stop defensively.
The law of averages, given enough time for an adequate sample size, always seems to prevail. During that 25-0 streak which was cobbled together by mixing favorable bounces with good luck and some streaky shooting, we were sidestepping the inevitable not so lucky bounces and shots that showed up in spades after that first loss.
The good news in all of this is that this team, unlike the 25-0 team, has paid up front with the bad ju ju moments/ games manifesting right after the season's start and perhaps this year's edition might have a surprising flourish at seasons end much to the delight of Orange fans everywhere!
LGO!!!
Thanks, Zelda!
