The loser-talk limit has been exceeded
by Pete Cunningham
*As printed March 19, 2008 in The Homer Index

There is no greater time of year for college basketball than the events which are to unfold in the weeks to come. Many would take that statement a step further and argue that nothing in the realm of sports compares to the spectacle that is the annual 64-team NCAA national championship tournament.

I am very much one of those people, but the amount of loser-talk which preceded the selection of this year’s field has made me question whether I can respect the individuals who cover the event. Coaches and analysts preceded “Selection Sunday” with “Whining since Wednesday,” pleading the cases of fringe teams, and devaluing winning along the way.

In case you’re wondering what loser-talk is, allow me to provide a few shining examples:

• I could have done better, I wasn’t really trying.

• We knew they were better, why play hard?

• We would have won if the refs were better.

Everyone has heard these excuses before, whether it was someone explaining why they lost a game of one-on-one or justifying a poor test grade. In every venue the rhetoric is simply unacceptable.

There are certain people and teams that I expect such behavior from. A friend and I once overheard a player from our six years (and counting) winless college football team explain that he’d rather be as bad as they were as opposed to mediocre. He claimed “it would suck to be in the locker room after a loss if the games were close. Now after games everyone’s still laughing and we still go out afterward.”

We immediately removed ourselves from the premises for fear that he might be contagious.

Although disgusted that he went to the same school as we did, we expected such loser talk from a punter on the 0-and infinite University of Toronto football team. The same cannot be said of respected coaches of Division I basketball programs.

Take for example Seth Greenberg, the coach of Virginia Tech. His team lost by two to number one ranked North Carolina in the semifinals of the ACC tournament, and after the game he argued that the loss solidified his team as NCAA worthy. One of his final statements at a press conference was “the only thing we didn’t do was win the game.”

Last I checked, that was all that mattered. Greenberg later gave a radio interview in which he went down the list of his team’s losses. He said his team played close games in the losses despite poor officiating, injured players, a tough schedule and flight delays, and should be given props for doing so. Witnessing such a display left no doubt in my mind that Greenberg used to duck in dodgeball, then protest that he wasn’t out because the ball hit his head.

Unfortunately, his was not an isolated case as ESPN doubled as the worldwide leader in excuses, riddled with coaches and analysts discussing “quality losses” in sickening detail. If someone were filling out a bracket for the first time, they might have been confused not to find a consolation pool for teams that lost close games.

The games are set to begin Thursday. Let’s hope the madness is isolated to the games themselves rather than the logic coaches use for their teams bowing out early. I’ve reached my loser-talk limit; I can’t take three more weeks of it.