Maybe it’s the cold I recently acquired. Maybe it was the sudden, frustrating, kick-in-the-gut realization that what was and will always be a beautiful season of Flyer basketball was over in a heartbeat. Walking out of Champp’s with the elder Swampette sometime around 12:30AM on a school night (for me), I just felt numb. The near-constant half-smile that had been on my face ever since the A-10 tournament melted into a blank stare. As Simon and Garfunkel said so eloquently:

The game is over.
Over.
Over.
No good times; no bad times.
There’s no times at all, just the New York Times.

I have adopted a saying when attempting to explain the unexplainable that serves me well in these situations: “It is what it is.” Five words comprised of twelve letters that pretty much says it all. Yeah, the Flyers woulda had a chance if the ref hadn’t made that awful call on Sean Finn’s put-back jam. Yeah, we coulda played better defense. Yeah, UD shoulda kept pounding the ball inside instead of launching threes. But none of those thing happened.

It is what it is.

End of the world material? Hardly. Does it flush all of the good things that the team accomplished down the toilet? Nope. But it does leave a bad taste in your mouth, doesn’t it? In the big-picture scheme of things, what is happening in Baghdad is light-years ahead of what transpired in Spokane, in terms of importance. Not even close.

It is what it is.

Put it into perspective. Flashback to ten years ago, during the deepest, darkest days of the Jim O’Brien era. If I told you that UD lost an opening round NCAA game when our 6’11” junior center was wrongly called for goaltending on a put-back dunk, would you have believed I was talking about the same program? Hell no!

We have come so far and yet, there is still so much to do. Make no mistake, Brooks, Nate, and DJ will be missed deeply by this team. They have left a legacy of hard work and class that will be difficult to replace. But look to the future: 4 starters back; an impact player itching to suit up and do just that; Sean Finn’s redshirted twin brother ready to help patrol the paint; a talented trio of sophomores-to-be challenging for playing time and an available scholarship to utilize for yet more help. And a first-class coach to guide them.

It is what it is.

We have always looked to the south with a slightly jealous eye. Xavier has become a top-notch basketball program and we have had to watch them revel in their success. But you know what? Those days are probably over. National POY David West will be gonzo. They didn’t win the Atlantic 10 tournament, we did. UD finished in the Top 25 in both polls this year. So did they. But, you know what? That means we will most likely start in the Top 25 next year. The same thing cannot necessarily be said for Xavier. You don’t graduate a player of the caliber of DW and not feel the repercussions. The absence of an impact player on a star-driven team far outweighs the loss of three key components in a team-oriented program. UD will be changing spark plugs; X will be replacing the engine.

It is what it is.

Only one team will go home happy from the NCAA Tournament; the other 64 will experience, to varying degrees, exactly what OP and the boys are feeling right now. The path was there to the Sweet 16 (and maybe beyond) and the Flyers didn’t take it. This time. And now all of our basketball pool entries are pretty much shot to hell.

It is what it is.

It’s only basketball.

That’s it “From the Swamp.”