basketball – might be baloney

Hey Dookies Welcome To Club 19

April 29, 2026 Bill Pike1 Comment

On March 19, the Virginia Commonwealth University Rams (VCU) upset the North Carolina Tarheels (UNC) in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.

This was in the first round of the tournament. VCU was seeded eleventh and UNC was a six seed.

VCU overcame a 19 point second half lead, and then beat the Tarheels in overtime 82 to 78.

Ten days later on March 29, the Duke University Blue Devils joined their arch rivals, the Tarheels, as Duke also blew a 19 point lead. Duke lost to the University of Connecticut Huskies (UCONN).

Following a Duke turnover, UCONN beat Duke on a last second shot 73 to 72. Duke and UCONN were playing in the Elite Eight for a berth in the Final Four. Duke was a number one seed, and UCONN was a number two seed.

Before going any further, let me tell you that I have always cheered for Duke in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Perhaps some of that grounding came from my parents who thought I might end up going to Duke Divinity School to become a Methodist pastor. The good Lord is thankful that didn’t happen.

I am no expert on college basketball.

I loved the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) that I grew up with as a kid. In my opinion, because of money and illogical geographical expansions the ACC has been destroyed.

Also, because of money, including Name Image and Likeness (NIL), the Transfer Portal, one and done players, I worry that the NCAA could fall further into disarray.

I do not watch Duke basketball games. I follow the season from a safe distance. I’m too chicken to put my life in the hands of 18 and 19 year olds with a round ball that has a mind of its own.

Watching missed foul shots and mindless turnovers at critical times during a game would cause me to lose what little real time sanity I have left.

When Duke plays, I check in on line, read the post game analysis, and look carefully at the boxscores.

I’ve watched enough basketball games to know that big leads in the second half are always a concern. Big leads can be tough to sustain. Look no further than the games that UNC and Duke loss.

If UNC took VCU lightly, they shouldn’t have. In 2007, VCU upset Duke 79 to 77 in the men’s NCAA tournament. True that was nineteen years ago, but Duke didn’t expect to lose to VCU either. I guarantee you the Duke players on that team still remember that loss.

If a team has a big lead in the second half with lots of time left, at some point, the basketball gods switch the momentum. Suddenly, everything starts to work for the team playing catch up, and everything starts going wrong for the team with the big lead.

Living here in Richmond where VCU is located, I’ve heard that the UNC players talked trash to the VCU players. Whether that is true or not, I can’t confirm.

But, I know this— trash talking with a big lead isn’t a good idea. If your going to trash talk a team, your talk best be in a really obscure foreign language that no one, not even a student manager on the opposing team can translate. Trash talking your opponent ensures trouble.

And speaking of talking, a reliable friend of mine, a lifelong UNC fan and graduate, noticed that neither Hubert Davis nor Jon Scheyer congratulated the winning coaches and their players in the post-game press conferences.

Perhaps, Coaches Davis and Scheyer were too shellshocked from losing. I understand these were excruciatingly painful losses. However, these coaches have been around basketball all of their lives. They know better—you congratulate the winning coach and his team.

Another source of frustration for me is the coaching carousel. Again, money is the ruler.

Quite often, I think to myself I went into the wrong profession. I should have been a men’s college basketball coach.

I could coach somewhere, turn a losing program around, lead my team into the NCAA tournament, sign an extension contract for millions of dollars, and then fail to continue to win and make it into the NCAA tournament.

Even with this lousy downturn, and the end of my coaching career at this school, it is likely that I a mediocre coach will walk away a millionaire. I can thank my wise agent and attorney for negotiating this sweet deal.

These ridiculous coaching contracts are all about the desire not just to have a winning season every year, but to win conference championships and potentially the national championship.

Alumni with deep pockets are willing to support these coaching contracts while also providing funds to bring in the best players.

Gone are the days when a player is loyal to his school and he plays there for all four years.

Loyalty is a dying word.

The same lack of loyalty can apply to coaches too.

N.C. State’s Athletic Director, Boo Corrigan learned about the lack of loyalty when he hired former LSU coach Will Wade.

Will Wade coached at N.C. State this year. Coach Wade bolted at the end of this season. He agreed to return to LSU where he had been a mediocre coach. Down in Tigerland, Coach Wade will continue to play second fiddle as football is still king of the campus there.

I imagine Boo Corrigan wishes he had never hired or ever heard of Will Wade.

And in truth, I feel bad for Hubert Davis. He might not be a great coach, but he was loyal to UNC.

Seems that the UNC decision makers forgot that Coach Davis’ teams beat the despised Dookies at two critical times in 2022.

First, at Mike Krzyzewski’s final home game at Cameron Indoor Stadium, and then again in the Final Four that year which turned out to be Coach Krzyzewski’s last game.

And with all of the foolishness involved in the speculation of who gets fired and hired as college basketball coaches, it is too bad that the athletic directors at N.C. State and UNC didn’t put out a perfect April Fool’s press release.

They could have announced that N.C. State had hired Hubert Davis and that UNC had offered a contract to former Duke star, Bobby Hurley. On March 11, Coach Hurley and Arizona State parted ways.

College basketball coaches, preachers, and public school superintendents have something in common—pressure.

These individuals are supposed to succeed. Doesn’t matter that it is impossible for them to make everyone happy in their environments.

They must win every game, hit a grand slam every Sunday with their sermon, and survive every school year without controversy. Impossible.

Go take a good look at Hubert Davis’ face in the post VCU press conference. On May 17, 2026, Coach Davis will turn 56. Weariness, the wear and tear of coaching is all over Coach Davis’ face. He looks much older than 56.

The pain of joining Club 19 will linger for some like losing a member of their family in the worse possible way.

If Club 19 is like that for you, I suggest you ponder life a bit deeper, deeper than UNC and Duke’s basketball seasons. Clearly, there are many things in daily living that have a greater urgency.

The real question for Dookies is what do you, me, we, us, the players and coaches learn from blowing a nineteen point lead?

I have a handful of books about college basketball. I’ve enjoyed reading each book. But, it is no secret that my favorite book about college basketball is Pat Conroy’s My Losing Season. If you are a college basketball lover, you must read this book.

In the Epilogue of the book, Mr. Conroy writes: “There is no downside to winning. It feels forever fabulous.But there is no teacher more discriminating or transforming than loss. The great secret of athletics is that you can learn more from losing than winning.” (Conroy pages 394-395, My Losing Season)

I think Mr. Conroy is correct about learning from losing.

Monday, November 2, 2026 will be here in a blink. That is the date set by the NCAA when men’s college basketball games can officially start.

With that date, all of this madness starts again.

My old feeble mind hopes that some common sense might return to the college game.

I’ll hold out for hope, but I think we’re too deep into the allure of money to turn things around.

Of course that enticement could be slowed if multiple college athletic departments continue to run at a deficit. The optics for running in the red will not be favorable.

Long after I’m gone, someone might stumble upon The Andy Griffith Show. The “Mayberry Goes Hollywood” episode illustrates how the charm of the town of Mayberry is turned upside down by its citizens.

A Hollywood movie producer comes to Mayberry to scout the town for the shooting of a movie. The producer likes what he finds with the town and its people.

When Mayberry is chosen as the site for the filming, its citizens turn Mayberry into an unattractive Hollywood themed town.

It takes a gentle chastising from the producer to get the citizens and Mayberry back to normal.

As Mayberry finds itself again, Mayor Pike looks at Sheriff Taylor and says to him: “We tried to tell them didn’t we Andy?” Andy who never fell into the Hollywood trap replies to the Mayor, “We sure did, Mayor.”

Maybe, someday, someone will look back at the current state of men’s college basketball and say, “we tried to tell them.”

Even March Madness appears in a church display case during Lent (Photo Bill Pike)

March Madness: “I hate basketball”

March 19, 2026 Bill Pike4 Comments

March is mad.

I can prove it.

On the afternoon of Wednesday, March 11, a record high temperature of 89 degrees was set in Richmond, Virginia.

In Richmond, the next day, the afternoon temperature dropped to 39 degrees, and cold rain switched over to snow.

For two hours, heavy wet snow flakes fell turning trees and the grass white.

March is mad.

Beyond its weather madness, March is mad for another reason—college basketball.

March is the time of the year when the regular season comes to an end. Conference tournaments are held.

Then on Selection Sunday, this year, March 15, college teams across America wait to see if their season’s accomplishments merit being selected to participate in the sixty six team tournament.

For teams selected, there is a feeling of exhilaration.

For the teams who were not selected, heart crushing disappointment hits them and their fans.

When the tournament opens on Thursday, March 19, America is captured. A disruption occurs. Lives are consumed. Everything pivots off the games.

My introduction to basketball came in the fourth grade.

On a spring afternoon, two of my classmates, Johnny Huffman and Tommy Hinson, from Hillcrest Elementary School in Burlington, North Carolina walked to my house. They invited me to play basketball at the Huffman’s house.

We walked back to the Huffman’s house. For the remainder of the afternoon, I attempted to play basketball for the first time.

I could not have lived in a better location for basketball.

I lived in the heart of the Atlantic Coast Conference. Four of the conference’s founding teams—Duke, North Carolina, N.C. State, and Wake Forest were in close proximity.

I followed these teams by reading the boxscores in the Burlington Daily Times News. Listened to radio broadcast of games on an AM radio, and watched a weekly televised game on Saturdays broadcast in black and white.

I didn’t possess the skills needed to make teams at school, but I enjoyed playing in the neighborhood and on our church team at the YMCA.

Those days are long gone.

While I still love basketball, I no longer let the game consume me.

I follow the game from a distance.

That way I don’t torture my rapidly aging body with mental and physical stress. It isn’t good for an old man to shout foul, fiery language at an unresponsive television screen.

In 2009, our church started a program centered around Upward basketball and cheerleading. From January through February our fellowship hall is converted into two basketball courts. During the week teams have late afternoon practices. Saturday is game day.

I think the original intent was maybe, just maybe, this basketball and cheerleading offering might help our church to pick up new members. I sense that hasn’t been a win for the church.

On the afternoon of Saturday, February 21, 2026, I found myself sitting in the lobby outside our church office. I was waiting for the last Upward basketball game to end.

Earlier in the day, our lead building caretaker had been admitted to the hospital. I was there to get the building ready for Sunday.

While waiting, I noted a piece of paper on a table top. I went over to checkout the paper.

In the script of a young child, I read these penciled words: “I hate basketball.” Under that statement was a drawing of an unhappy face.

I showed the note and drawing to our Director of Kids and Family Ministries. She had noticed a young girl sitting in the lobby working on that piece of paper.

Immediately, I was curious about the young lady’s reasoning.

Was she unhappy because her parents were requiring her to play basketball, or was she disgruntled because she was required to watch a sibling participate?

By the time I finished getting Trinity Hall its restrooms, hallways, and classrooms back in shape after being used by 400 people—I too could feel a bit of disdain toward basketball.

When I think about the game of college basketball that I grew up admiring compared to today’s game, quite honestly, I’m disgusted and disappointed.

That disgust and disappointment is all grounded in money.

That money has birthed:

Geographically Illogical expansions of college athletic conferences

NIL (name, image, likeness generates money for players)

The transfer portal has destroyed loyalty to a team

Players who play for one year and then bolt to play professionally

In my humble and non-expert opinion, each of these have hurt college basketball.

That hurting of college basketball is linked to the following questions:

At this very moment, how many college athletic departments are running in a financial deficit?

How many college presidents and board of visitors lack the spine and courage to say to alumni with deep pockets—we don’t want your millions to buy college athletes and potential national championships?

How many collegiate athletes who fail to earn their academic degrees, but secure large professional contracts end up filing for bankruptcy?

How many more investigations are lurking out there about coaches who can’t play by the NCAA rules related to recruiting and running their basketball programs?

The same question can be asked about student athletes and gambling. How many more investigations will uncover gambling with professional gamblers to fix a game?

In doing a bit of reading about this college basketball season, I sadly learned about how Anthony Grant, coach for the mens’ team at the University of Dayton has been treated this year.

Coach Grant and his players were the target of unhappy fans and gamblers after losing a game. These hateful messages were addressed by Coach Grant and the school’s Athletic Director.

Later in the season, some Dayton fans wore t-shirts suggesting that Coach Grant be fired.

Without question, college coaches and their players are always under pressure to win. I’m not sure all fans, including alumni, understand how challenging it is to secure a winning season and the potential championships that go with it every year.

This year, March Madness is a bit more mad for another reason—since February 28, the United States has been involved in a war with Iran.

For sixteen days, American service members have been attacking Iranian installations. I wonder what the families of the thirteen service members who have been killed in this war think about this madness?

That madness of losing a loved one will never leave those families—never.

Part of me would like to meet the young lady who left us the “I hate basketball” message.

I appreciate how she shared what was on her heart.

Maybe, she wanted to get the adults who run the program and her family to think deeper about her needs.

Maybe, she wanted our church, the church who sponsors the program, to think deeper about what we were offering.

In Pat Conroy’s book, My Losing Season, he thinks deeply about his senior year of playing college basketball at The Citadel.

Chapter 16 is titled Christmas Break. In this chapter, Mr. Conroy writes about eight days of practice that started on the afternoon of Christmas Day and ended on New Year’s Day.

He regarded those practices as “the worse time of my life as a ballplayer.”

I worry that our young note writer might feel the same way about her Upward basketball experience.

I hope that will not be the case for her.

Despite March and its madness, the month does have some good traits— St. Patrick’s Day, Spring officially arrives, and baseball season is around the corner.

With the March basketball madness, I wish you, your bracket, and your favorite team the best of luck.

Just remember, someone you encounter during this basketball madness might not be as steadfast as you are about keeping tabs on an orange ball.

This person might be having “the worst time” of his/her life.

And chances are that difficulty can’t be attributed to the madness of how a basketball bounces.