thependulumswings

Two years of investigation have come and gone.  Countless subpoenas, several indictments, a few guilty pleas, a trial or two, and still many questions remain as a result.  Millions of dollars on legal fees and ten of thousands of FBI hours got us here.  No, we aren’t talking about the Mueller Investigation of possible Russian Collusion by President Trump and team in the 2016 election.

We were referring to the ongoing broad net that the FBI investigation cast at amateur basketball.  There is still unfinished business on that front as well.  Handlers, assistant coaches, and at least one head coach are still squarely in the crosshairs of the mess.

But, but, but.  But, yesterday, the UCF v Duke round of 32 NCAA basketball game gave us all a chance to get from college sports what college sports is supposed to offer to us.  No, no we aren’t thinking about a brown paper bag of cash.  We were thinking about great stories about great young players on good to great teams that fought each other like Democrats and Republicans.  The proverbial “they left it all on the court” statement comes to mind.

Duke, a three decade and counting Goliath, had all it could handle with the University of Central Florida playing the role of David.  David(UCF) has a Goliath of its own.  If you missed the game you missed a 7 foot 6 inch center named Tacko Fall.  Born in Senegal, he came to the United States as a teenager who was more interested in biochemistry than basketball.  At senior night a couple of weeks back Tacko saw his mother who flew over for the first time in seven years.  He can dunk a basketball without jumping.

Tacko fouled out attempting to stop a Zion Williamson last-ditch effort to will his no. 1 seeded team to victory over the ninth seeded Knights.  Zion will very likely be the first player selected in this summer’s 2019 NBA draft.  He’ll make many brown paper bags of cash soon.  Tacko, in today’s NBA world, has little chance at making a pro roster even though he is three inches taller than any current NBA player.

The plot of the game thickens when you realize that Johnny Dawkins, the now head coach at UCF, played for and starred for Duke in the 80’s.  After a very nice NBA career he went back to Duke and learned the finer points of coaching under, you guessed  it, Mike Krzyzewski.  Johnny’s son, Aubrey Dawkins transferred from Michigan to play for his dad.  And, yesterday, play for his dad he did.  And, he did it very well.  He scored 32 of UCF’s 76 total points.  He was the best player on the court at least for this one game.

In the end UCF lost after a passionate, thrilling, twist and turns ending by a slim one point 77-76.  How a last second tip in attempt stayed out was crazy.

Mike Krzyzewski felt like his team lost even though they won.  He felt like UCF won even though they lost.  He fought back tears and said as much in his post game interview that was filled with platitudes for his players, the opponent players, and his one time understudy, Johnny Dawkins.

Knight fans and Blue Devil fans stayed standing where they rarely sat after the game was long over.  There was disbelief if you wore black and gold, and relief if you wore blue and white.

UCF is done.  Duke advances.  NCAA basketball won and is not done.  It was a great forty March Madness minutes.