A comparison, if you will…

100 Yrs of UNC BB

After last night’s game I turned off the television, left web boards and got off twitter for a while. Was pretty much sick and tired of hearing this, that and the other thing about the Tar Heels. As I got ready to head to sleep my wife was watching a show called “Kitchen Nightmares” on BBC America about this English chef named Gordon Ramsay who goes into failing restaurants and helps them out (or tries to anyways). This episode was different than most, my wife told me, as he went back to see three restaurants who he had helped a year prior. It was unbelievable the transformation that had happened in just 12 months, not of the restaurant, to the people. From what my wife told me the transformation began the day these restaurateur began to believe in the chef.

When chef Ramsay showed up at these restaurants, who all were months, maybe less, away from going under, a lot of time he would encounter major attrition by the proprietors that called him there. There wasn’t one place where the owners didn’t argue with him or with one another, and when I say arguing I mean back alley/sailor style cursing type. If you think about that for a second (leaving out the cursing etc etc), change losing money to losing games, you might start seeing where I am going with this post of mine. Or so I hope. In this show the chef comes into places where they are pretty much panicking because they don’t see a way out, yet have a hard time believing that their way isn’t the best. It’s called buying into someone else’s system, letting go of what you think is right and giving control over. I do not care how many believe that is easy, it’s not.

K. Reeves as Shane Falco

This team is scared to make mistakes. To quote a line from a movie (something I usually do not do): “You’re playing and you think everything is going fine. Then one thing goes wrong. And then another. And another. You try to fight back, but the harder you fight, the deeper you sink. Until you can’t move… you can’t breathe… because you’re in over your head. Like quicksand.” Keanu Reeves playing Shane Falco, a QB on a team of replacement players, who had a tough time adjusting to the system at the beginning, and where he lost the first game because he did’nt buy into what the coach wanted him to do. (movie: The Replacements). A turnover on a break, and now you are hesitant to drive to the basket so not to make another, a missed three, and now you are not even thinking about taking the shot, just looking who to dump it off to, a missed shot down low, and now you do not want the ball as much. Should I go on with the examples, or am I making some sort of picture here?

I have read it all after the last three games, most of it about this team having no heart, or passion, or whatever else “the so called fans” have decided these young men do not have. Could it be that this team is just plain scared? That these five freshmen, so talented, are having a hard time adjusting to not being the best player on the court on a nightly basis? Just like the tv show I was talking about before, when these young players find their confort zone, find their role on the team, watch out! There is raw talent on this team, what there isn’t right now is “the go to guy”, the confort zone that there was like last year, like four NBA players on a college roster. And if you do not think that ways heavy on this team then for as much as I can write I am not sure I will ever change your mind.

And to those that think that this team has no heart all I can say it this: walk a mile in their shoes. I haven’t done that, but I know what it means to have a commitment and to have to stick it out in good or bad. I also know what it means to try your hardest and yet know that you are not at the level of others. You might ask how that is and the answer is right before your eyes: this blog. I been doing it for quite sometimes, and while I think I do a good job I know that there are others that get a lot more traffic and are a lot more popular. I go on and persist, but it’s hard to know how much you put into something and also know that you are just not at the level of others.

To finish up, the three restaurants that the chef visited were all doing great. Yes, with bumps in the road, but all succeding at what they loved. None of the owners were yelling at one another, or yelling at their staff, but yet, they were the same people of a year before. Why? Because now they were “winning” (aka making money) with their team (or better said, restaurant). It took time, willingness and, yes, even some luck. Anyone that thinks that a bit of luck isn’t needed in order to win is fooling themselves. So, I am not asking anyone to change their mind on this team, I am not asking anyone to change the way they root for this squad, what I am trying to say/ask is do not become the fans that “eat their own” before giving this team enough time to learn from our version of a great chef, head coach Roy Williams.

Later on today I will give you my recap of the game, but I wanted to get this off my chest first.

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