Thursday, May 6, 2010
As the year comes to a close, it’s tempting to cast longing eyes on the past, already putting together mental scrapbooks. College, we’re so often told, is about the memories.
But sports are different. Sports are not about the memories, no matter how great some might be. Sports are about the pursuit of “next year.”
A story that illustrates that point beautifully goes like this: In the midst of celebrating the 2008 national championship, coach Bill Self spotted assistant coach Joe Dooley sitting off by himself. Dooley didn’t appear to share in the revelry. Instead, he looked zoned out, focused on anything but the glory the other coaches basked in. Self approached Dooley and asked him, “Isn’t this awesome?”
You would expect Dooley’s answer to confirm that, yes, this was awesome. Perhaps he appeared zoned out only because he could scarcely believe what had happened. Maybe Mario’s Miracle didn’t seem real quite yet.
But that’s not what Dooley said. Instead, he replied, “We’ve got to figure out a way to do it again.” Fifteen minutes after one of the most riveting final acts in NCAA tournament history, and Joe Dooley had moved on. He was already thinking about next year.
Dooley is an extreme example, no doubt. Few people are wired in such a way that turning life’s pages comes so easily. But Dooley’s attitude is helpful in understanding the transient nature of sports.
Kansas football’s hot start? Ancient history. So, too, is the collapse that followed. It’s filed away next to images of a star-crossed basketball season and even more recent events like the Kansas Relays.
It doesn’t matter whether the memory is good, bad or indifferent. The point is that nothing that’s already transpired can be as interesting as events yet to unfold.
Not even Todd Reesing’s most daring escape can compete with Kansas’ current quarterback competition in that regard. Whether Kale Pick locks himself in as the starter or is unseated by someone else, the endless supply of possibilities provides an equally endless supply of speculation and interest.
Pick might be great. He might be terrible. He might not even play. But right now, all that matters is that all of those things could happen.
The fact that Kansas’ would-be all-time great basketball team fell in the second round to Northern Iowa, tragic as it may have seemed at the time, now seems a long-distant speck on the horizon compared to the looming next season.
No amount of examples can show that memories are worthless, however, or that they should be done away with altogether. Like any good scrapbook, they have their place — sequestered in some closet, providing nostalgic trips for lazy afternoons.
But ultimately, Dooley got it right when he looked ahead to next year, even as a great one culminated. There’s just too much yet to happen to focus on the things that already have.
— Edited by Cory Bunting
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