{"id":9588,"date":"2019-04-10T06:52:13","date_gmt":"2019-04-10T10:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=9588"},"modified":"2019-04-10T06:58:30","modified_gmt":"2019-04-10T10:58:30","slug":"one-more-gift-from-the-hardwood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=9588","title":{"rendered":"one more ‘gift’ from the hardwood"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The madness of March has once again ceded itself to the serenity of spring. While multiple games on the hardwood were highly entertaining (insert major shout out to the Elite 8 here), <\/em>there were (as always) <\/em>greater lessons to be learned\u2026 both on and off the court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Allow me to foreshadow today\u2019s discussion with a reference to the 2018 tournament, repeating a few words written here a little more than one year ago\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“No [upset] was as unlikely or historic as the University of Maryland, Baltimore County\u2019s win over Virginia. Virginia was considered the strongest team in the tournament; UMBC was considered the weakest. With the upset being the first time a #16 seed has ever defeated a #1 seed in the men\u2019s NCAA tournament, history was made; it was an iconic moment in sports.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let that sink in for a mere moment. An iconic moment in sports occurred at the hands of a small group of 18-22 year old, most likely not-totally-emotionally-mature-yet, young men. So as the clock wound down and the upset evolved from the impossible to the unlikely to the seriously-are-you-kidding-me, jubilation was everywhere\u2026 except in the hearts of the players and fans from the University of Virginia. As fun as it was to watch the unprecedented glee from UMBC\u2019s Retrievers\u2026 it was hard to watch the poignant pain of those who cheered on the Cavaliers\u2026\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through each round of this year\u2019s NCAA men\u2019s basketball tournament \u2014 with game after game suggesting Virginia\u2019s ouster could again come earlier than expected \u2014 commentators continued to reference Virginia\u2019s  \u201cpainful\u201d loss a year ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When that pain was posed as a question to Tony Bennett, the articulate Cavaliers\u2019 coach, Bennett corrected the question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It wasn\u2019t solely \u201cpainful.\u201d It was a \u201cpainful gift<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Said Bennett:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m so thankful. I don\u2019t deserve the credit. I don\u2019t care about the critics. I don\u2019t even pay attention to that. I really don\u2019t.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I just know it was really hard to lose in the first round. It stung. It was, as I said, a \u2018painful gift.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was so humbling. It drew me and drew our team closer in a way that we couldn\u2019t have gone. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Again, the quote we use \u2014 and I guess I\u2019m full of quotes \u2014 is from that \u2018Ted Talk\u2019 I showed them at the beginning of the year. And I said, the quote is this, \u2018If you learn to use it right \u2014 the adversity \u2014 it will buy you a ticket to a place you couldn\u2019t have gone any other way.\u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I didn\u2019t know if that meant we\u2019d get to a Final Four or do that. I just knew it would deepen us in ways on the court, off the court, in what we believe, and mark us for the right stuff. And that is what I think took place.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amazing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here in a game \u2014 a game played by those not-totally-emotionally-mature-yet, young men \u2014 the rest of us witnessed a bigger lesson\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not <\/em>about winning and losing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s about reacting to winning and losing in wise ways\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s about reacting to life<\/em> in wise ways…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026 learning to use adversity right.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well done, Coach Bennett and your young, accomplished Cavaliers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks for teaching the rest of us so well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Respectfully\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The madness of March has once again ceded itself to the serenity of spring. While multiple games on the hardwood were highly entertaining (insert major shout out to the Elite 8 here), there were (as always) greater lessons to be learned\u2026 both on and off the court. Allow me to foreshadow today\u2019s discussion with a … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “one more ‘gift’ from the hardwood”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-event"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9588"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9588\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9593,"href":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9588\/revisions\/9593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}