If you live long enough you’ll see every victory turns into a defeat.
~Simone de Beauvoir
It wasn’t that long ago that I believed some of the more credible platitudes concerning the value of athletics. I never really believed the more blatant lies, building character and promoting sportsmanship. I went to high school.
But, there was always an underlying hope that at the bottom of all the unquenchable lust for victory and glory there was something noble, a pearl among the swine. But, I was wrong. When Nebraska fired Tim Miles it proved athletics is nothing more than an arms race.
It was a tough season. At times. But, it was a great season other times. Before anybody forgets, it was Nebraska basketball. For whatever reason, those terms are difficult to mix. Football and Nebraska have a history, though now it seems ancient, but it is there. Dig under the ashes of Callahan and Pelini and you can find some jewels. Expecting something from the gridiron is acceptable. But, basketball is a different animal.
When they hired Tim Miles there was a tension, an excitement. A pure energy that both defied and welcomed history. He bubbled happiness. And guys started coming. High flying basketball guys. It started to change. It was common to see a Cornhusker on ESPN Top Ten countdown. A show that plays a brief recap of the top plays for the week.
The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.
~Leo Tolstoy
In the past two years, Miles lost a couple of players who were not happy about coming off the bench. It didn’t help a team trying to build a culture on the shallow foundations of Husker history. But, they fought all season. Battling weekly in the Big Ten against teams with a basketball pedigree, there were flashes of brilliance. In a conference that had more tournament teams than any other, they worked to the end.
Issac Copeland went down with a season-ending knee injury. Nana Akenton was suspended for violating team rules. Amir Harris injured his knee. Left with 6 scholarship players they beat Iowa in the season finale. Then won two Big Ten Tournament Games. Then won the opener in the NIT tournament. It was as amazing as any basketball wizardry I’ve ever seen. I’ve been watching since the late 70s.
Through it all Miles held his head high. Facing withering criticism. Looking down the barrel of the same questions day after day. Time after time he pledged his loyalty to the school, the state, the fans. He really wanted to finish his career in Lincoln.
Miles was as gracious after a loss as a win. He was an ambassador. He would spend time with the students, the fans, the people. He was accessible and he was great. They were his people, and he made no bones about it.
One time we went to Lincoln for a basketball game during winter break. Right on television was Tim Miles. He was saying how he would buy, with his own money, 100 basketball tickets, and leave them at will call for the first 100 students who would come to the game. It was a wonderful gesture, but the place was packed anyway. Nebraska fans are loyal, and love their teams. In many ways Miles was the ultimate fan, he loved the state, he loved the fans, he was a son of the proletariat, in a Cornhusker way.
Bill Moos, the athletic director, had other plans though. He is going to find somebody else. He talked at length about the money available, and how it would allow the university to compete at the top of the conference in basketball. Maybe.
I am reminded of one of the first things I learned in college. “In business, there is no problem so big it can’t be made a whole lot better by throwing enough money at it.” Possibly.
And I guess that is what it is all about. Money, winning, microwave success. I remember a story about Dean Smith at North Carolina. Coming home from a road trip, early in his career, he found an effigy burning in a tree outside the arena. Now the new arena is the Dean Smith Activity Center, or more affectionately, the Dean Dome. I wonder if he would have lasted today.
Goin’ where the wind don’t blow so strange
Maybe off on some high cold mountain chain
Lost one round but the price wasn’t anything
A knife in the back and more of the same
~The Grateful Dead
I worry about the world. In a small way, this is part of the problem. We can’t wait to see the next episode.
Patience is not a virtue, it is a fatality, a corpse. We trample over the present to try to reach the future. And we never get there.
We are always here, now, and it’s never good enough.
—
Image Wikimedia Commons