It’s been a while since I posted here. Since the end of last season’s tournament run I have been busy with two things, gogoraleigh.com and a Windows Media Center installation in my house. Both are a joy, but have precluded my comments here.

The 2008 tournament ended abruptly in the national semifinals at the hands of Roy Williams’ old team, Kansas. It was weeks before I could write about the game, then I went on vacation. The deeply irritating aspect of the game is how poorly the team was emotionally prepared. All week long the focus by the media had been on Roy facing his old school. That came as no surprise, however Roy’s response was exactly wrong. He should have said a stock line lauding Kansas’ achievement and that he is proud of the time he spent there. Instead he gushed, not just for minutes, but for days. Even on game day he was gushing about how wonderful Kansas University and Lawrence are.

It came as no surprise that his team was completely unprepared to fight for a national title. Kansas was so dominant in the first half, that the UNC bench was caught my cameras with the deer-in-the-headlights look. Kansas rolled up points with seemingly no resistance, and the stunned, emotionally drained coach sat and watched happen, waiting until the deficit grew to 26 points before calling a timeout. Twenty six points? Well, the Heels did an admirable job of closing the gap but fatigue coupled with a very odd player substitution in the second half did the Heels in. Kansas deserved everything they got. So did Roy Williams’ team.

That leads us to Stickergate. I fully expected, and approved of, Roy Williams’ support for Kansas in the final game. I, too, was pulling for Kansas. Much controversy evolved, however, when CBS showed Roy Williams wearing am absurdly large Kansas logo pinned to his sweater. Now, it is one thing to pull for Kansas in the game, but to pin an oversized logo to your sweater just shows that you are still doing backflips to make sure that the Kansas faithful still approve of you. Kansas has moved on by winning the national championship with Bill Self, something they never got from Roy Williams. Has Roy moved on? The only way to know is to play Kansas again. Frankly I am not confident enough in the coach’s emotional balance to risk a potentially magical season.