Perspective

If you're not a Carolina fan, you probably shouldn't read this post.

Then again, if you're not a Carolina fan, it's amazing that you found this blog. Thanks for coming by.

"How can you go any lower? Be honest: how can it get any worse than it is right now?"

- Roy Williams, following the Heels' 75-60 loss to UVa on Sunday night

I am an absolute Roy Williams apologist. Anyone who knows me knows this about me. I think that his record speaks for itself, and that he has earned the right not to have to hear criticism from his own fan base. But, in saying this in obvious frustration after Sunday night's loss, Roy demonstrated that he is at least alike all other Carolina fans in one respect.

I think we could all use just a little perspective.

I know it seems bad right now, and by the lofty standards that Williams has set over the past 5 years, it is bad. But come on. It could get A LOT worse than it is right now. For one, we could have not won the national championship last year. We could have not won another one in 2005, or reached the Final Four in 2008. We could have not dominated the ACC and our biggest rival over that same 5-year stretch. I know that no one likes to live in the past, but let's get serious- it's straight impossible to sustain the kind of dominance we have had as a basketball program over this stretch. A down year is to be expected every once in a while. Apparently, this is that year. The most unfortunate thing is that somehow we managed to convince people that we were a top-10 team in the preseason, which is by far the worst thing that could have happened to this group.

I was talking to one of my friends in medical school here at Wake the other day, complaining about how bad our season was going. He laughed at me. As a fan from a respectable program (Wake), he pointed out that in his entire 7 years at Wake Forest (4 in undergrad, 3 in med school), he had seen exactly one NCAA tournament win. He told me quite frankly, "you should probably get over having one bad year."

He's right. We all need to take a step back and realize that we have had a lot of good as fans in recent history, and that we're probably going to take one on the chin for a year now. We're not going to win the national championship or even the ACC every year- I think it's a pretty good showing that we've won it for 3 years in a row. If we miss the NCAA Tournament, maybe I'll be okay with some complaining. But until that actually happens, try to be positive and keep a little bit of perspective.

And hey- at least we beat State.