It seemed a fascinating, obviously delusional comment to one of the many articles about Kevin Willard’s Week of Waffling. After it became obvious he was Mainline bound, jumping ship in College Park. (To be replaced with peripatetic Buzz Williams, late of Texas Aggies.)
A number of Terrapin fans weighed in. Invective reigned.
The specific comment was something to the effect of “Maryland has the most dedicated basketball fans of any school in the country.”
Unable to help myself, I immediately replied, “Really? You heard of Kentucky? Kansas? Indiana?” To name but a few.
Some fan bases are bigger. More vocal. Travel better. More obnoxious, if only to their opposites at arch rival.
But fans are fans.
Fan is derived from “fanatic.” Or so I’d surmise.
From the Latin fanaticus. “Mad, enthusiastic, inspired by a god.” At least according to one etymology site. Other “theories.” From the 1520s, “zealous person.” From the 1640s, “a furious person.”
“A fanatic is someone who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.” Attributed to Winston Churchill.
You get the point.
I recall the moment when I realized all we diehards are the same.
At the ’82 title game in New Orleans, when I was in my late 30s, I sat next to a couple of early twentysomething North Carolina fans. They had never experienced a Tar Heel title. Watching them stress out during the tense battle, I realized, “They are me.”
I am the eggman. They are the eggmen.
* * * * *
Which leads me to this spring of our distress.
Recruiting.
Transfer Portal.
Will they stay or will they go?
Who’s got next?
One of my regular readers follows such matters with a microscope.
Yesterday he responded to something I sent him which I thought would bring a smile.
“Not feeling very jovial now. Cards lost big recruiting ground with McKneely (TN) and Wooley (AL) today.”
How do these recruiting “gurus” know? Have they talked with the kid? His parents? His agent? His cousin? The woman who sold him a burger and fries at the Jack In The Box drive-thru?
Well, they guessed wrong on Adrian Wooley.
Will Isaac McKneely become the next Dalton Knecht or Reyne Smith?
I don’t know.
What I do know, and believe to the core of my soul, as a member of “the most dedicated fanbase in America”, U of L will be just fine.
We’ll get McNeely. Or we won’t.
We’ll get Nate Ament. Or we won’t.
And we’ll survive. Just as we did when we didn’t get Winford Boynes in ’75.
The Cards now appear, all tumblers falling into place, to stand nine strong. Rooths. Scott. Pryor. Hadley. Brown. Fru. Wooley. Rodgers. Khalifa. Conwell.
Which is a lot further along than last April Fools Day.
Will today’s late commit Ryan Conwell calm our nerves?
Maybe???
Still Omeprazole ‘r’ Us.
— c d kaplan
I lived and died following recruiting in my 20’s. I think it was the early 80’s when we were going to sign John Williams and Cedric Henderson, both big names. Williams went to LSU, Henderson Georgia. I was devastated.
We signed Charles Jones and Lancaster Gordon, both relatively unknown.
Never again would I concern myself with recruiting.
Life as a Card fan got a lot less stressful.
Exactly. Lost Melo Ball, got Gorgui Deng.
Lordy Lordy – Loves this column Seedy – Can we get Ruis ? Irony abounds everywhere – But my favorite thing I learned from your wise words is this : “ “A fanatic is someone who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.” Attributed to Winston Churchill.“
Pretty sure that epic 1982 Final Four was one of the greatest experiences on so many levels – I sat next to Quinn Buckner for the Jordan annoiting as Freddie Brown threw the Hoyas hopes to the wrong team.
It was also the famous “beignet morning” but my personal highlight was calling down to the desk @ The Prince Conti on Tuesday after Finals to have my rental car brought up to go to airport & being told it wasn’t there – and then having the authorities discover it parked illegally by some power apparatus – where I had left it Sunday night in a typical NOLA reverie /