Tuesday night, the Jays travel to Evansville for an ESPNU telecast that, when the Worldwide Leader chose it in October, seemed odd. Evansville? Really? I was esctatic, don't get me wrong, because every road game televised is one fewer game I have to sit and stare at a tiny pixellated streaming Windows Media Player window playing a horribly produced webcast, or worse yet, one fewer game I have to rely on the radio broadcast to follow the game.
In October, it was an odd choice. By the first of the year, it seemed downright clairvoyent: Evansville was suddenly the sleeper pick to win the league, and Creighton was coming off a win in the Las Vegas Classic.
Now, on the eve of the game, it is again an odd choice to showcase the Valley, but not for the reasons you'd expect. The Jays are playing some bad basketball at the moment, struggling to put two good efforts in a row together.
On the radio today, Dana Altman and several of the players dropped the same party line on listeners that we've heard all season. Frankly, its getting absurd: players talking about being disappointed, about feeling embarrassed by their effort, and coaches saying the team is struggling to find their identity. We've heard it all year, and no one backs up the talk with action.
I'm a graphic designer by trade, I write a basketball blog as a hobby, and I last played basketball competitively in high school. Meanwhile, the coaches and players live and breathe basketball, specifically Jays basketball. It isn't shocking that one of these groups would know the identity of the team, and one wouldn't.
What is surprising is that its the coaches and players claiming they're struggling to find an identity, and not me. Since they're telling the world they don't know that their identity is, I'll give them some unsolicited advice to help them figure it out: You're soft, weak and small. Your players, for the most part, play to avoid contact. For all of the talk of strength training, my eyes make me skeptical that anyone even knows where the weight room is, much less that they lived there all summer. And the bulk of the minutes at the "4" position have been played by guards 6'4" or smaller.
Its preposterous to claim this team is "struggling to find its identity." Seems pretty clear cut to me. Stop making excuses and do something about it already, before I do something really crazy like order three bags of mini donuts in one game, ask for a half-PBR half-Schlitz hybrid at the Cheap Beer stand, or order a soft pretzel with a cup of nacho cheese and ask them to hold the pretzel. Doubt it? Just try me.
Here's my advice to all us fans: Pretend you are a Detroit Lions fan. Stop looking at the season as a whole. Take each game for what it is: two hours of diversionary entertainment. Don't go in with any expectations, just watch and try to enjoy yourself. Turn on ESPNU, grab a snack, cheer like mad, throw your shoes at the TV if necessary. Win or lose, don't get caught up in the season. You'll be much happier that way.
Who knows, someday the most famous Lions fan might cease to be Axel Foley, and the Jays might actually outrebound someone. A man can dream, can't he? You bet.
