It just set in for me that the season is over

[w00t]

Just got home from Portland around 11:30 last night, and much like "GoZips" I would have to characterize the last two weeks as a very wild ride. The Sunday battle (fistfight?) with Can't was to be the first of five games in seven days. Twice last Tuesday I had put my jacket on and was ready to leave The Q, slightly frustrated at the prospect of going out of the MAC Tournament in the opening round, but still happy with how well a very young team played this year and with every confidence that the '09-'10 season would bring a MAC Championship... a certain freshman point guard on one good leg wouldn't let it happen. Two nights later they stumbled (to put it nicely) out of the gates against Miami, then things went from bad to worse when Humpty re-tweaked his ankle... the defense responded to being in a 12 point hole by allowing 38 points in the final 27 minutes and McNees stepped up in Humpty's absence and displayed his best ballhandling (ZERO turnovers by our backcourt in this game) and shooting performance of the year (his four threes in the last ten minutes of the first half all but erased Miami's 12 point lead). The following night against BG, I saw the 13 point lead that the Zips had built in the first half erased with eight minutes to play and I thought once again that our season was over... they responded to the punch in the mouth BG dealt them by closing the game with a 23-12 run (23-9 if you don't count Miller's overshot three that banked in, oi). Chris and Nate (joined the 1,000 point club that night!) were glasseaters that helped us nearly double up BG on the boards, 39-21. The Zips were good to me on Saturday night (which is good because I couldn't take much more after the last three nights and the last two years) and went out dominated Buffalo wire to wire. After four minutes Humpty made a dramatic entrance and buried a three straight away that put UA up 6-5... we never trailed again and got to spend a good part of the second half savoring the victory that would send us to the Big Dance. I've waited a long time to watch the selection show and make the requisite travel arrangements to witness our first tournament game since 1986, and I finally got to do it.Out west, we played about 30 minutes of extremely competitive basketball against what I would call an underrated (and oversized!) Gonzaga team. I started to believe when Humpty made the three-pointer at the 15:00 mark that put us up by six, but unfortunately we went on one of our patented scoring droughts and it would be the last bucket we would score for 13 minutes. We got away with that a few times during the MAC Tournament, but against a team like Gonzaga it just wouldn't fly. I was shocked at how quiet the Gonzaga crowd was, they didn't come to life in the least until they went on their first run midway through the second half. The bottom line is that UA went 23-13, brought home their first MAC Title, and made a great Gonzaga team worry well into the second half... in a "rebuilding" year. Thanks guys (especially Nate!), I enjoyed every moment of watching this team grow and mature from the first jump ball at the JAR to the final buzzer in Portland. I know there are many great things to come!