Happy Holidays amidst the yearly rumspringa for normals.
Every year, the days between December 25 and January 1 turn a plurality of the populace into wild-eyed goblins unable or unwilling to behave like normal people during the clock-burning portion of the year. This is when societal norms are abandoned and we return to primacy; if you want to eat sausage cheese balls at 11:30 p.m. or crack a beverage before the sun’s to the other side of the tattler, this is your week. Like a phoenix from the ashes, we awake on January 1, take stock of our sins and resolve to do better, to be better, in the wake of a week-long run of questionable choices and poor reasoning.
Not unlike some of our favorite college basketball programs, incidentally.
A turning of the calendar to 2024 isn’t exactly a fresh start for the college basketball season, since much has already transpired for the season. But with conference play still in its infancy, it’s not too late for players, programs, coaches, leagues, fans or admins to get right and rededicate themselves to the #grind.
Not everyone in need of a resolution is irrevocably broken; likewise, every program I leave out doesn’t have the whole thing together. It’s the spirit of a fresh start these folks are after.
Vanderbilt fans: Resolve to show up.
I know. I know it’s been bad. And for Vanderbilt athletics as a whole, that statement can run the gamut.
But Y’ALL.
You are an SEC school, dammit. One of the few whose basketball history is far superior to its football offerings. Memorial used to be one of the toughest places in the country to enter as an opponent, both because of its configuration with benches on the end of the court and the fans who entered the place twice a week to hurl invective at whoever showed up to oppose the ‘Dores. Do better.
Vanderbilt itself: Resolve Stackhouse. This can’t go on much longer, either way. This time last season, they were 6-6 with a recent crud loss to Grambling and I thought Jerry Stackhouse’s goose was cooked. Then February hit, Vanderbilt turned on the jets and might’ve had a legitimate gripe for getting left out of the NCAA Tournament if they’d made the SEC Championship game; instead, they fell to Texas A&M in the semifinals and had to settle for an extended NIT run.
And yet!