I’ll be the first to admit it: I was part of the "heat and hate" Mark Pope was talking about.
After the Vanderbilt loss, I was out. I looked at the lack of toughness, the lack of rebounding, and the "cool" demeanor. I predicted they would lose to Arkansas. I thought the Razorbacks would come out and dominate the game early.
And listening to Mark Pope after the game, I realized I haven't just been wrong about the result, I’ve been wrong about the entire season.
"The journey that nobody anticipated"
Speaking after the win, Pope delivered a monologue that felt less like a press conference and more like a sermon to a divided fanbase.
"We're on a journey," Pope said. "It might not be the journey that anybody anticipated, whatever. But I love it. I'm telling you, I've never coached a team like this... to take all the heat and hate that these guys have taken and then just keep saying 'you know what, doesn't matter, we're coming back.'"
He’s right. This isn't the journey we anticipated. We anticipated a honeymoon season. Or maybe we anticipated a rebuilding year. We didn't anticipate this: a team that can beat Arkansas on the road but get run out of the gym by Vanderbilt. It’s messy. It’s confusing. But as Pope noted, "In all fairness, some of it's been self-inflicted... but the guys are just like, 'we're coming back.'"
He's right, sometimes these kids don't play hard, or they don't show up. Cal always liked to say they aren't machines. But the fight and desire they played with tonight should be the bedrock of the team. Win, lose, or draw, that is who they should be.
Short-handed and relentless
I sat here talking about their struggles, and I understand the injuries, but that can't be an excuse when you spent that much money on a team. Depth should be there. Pope reminded us. "And with all the stuff, for them to come here and do this... I'm just like, I keep saying this... Don't miss it, man."
That’s the line that stuck with me. Don't miss it.
I was so busy analyzing what this team isn't, they aren't big enough, they aren't consistent enough, that I missed what they are.
They are a group that took the biggest punch Arkansas could throw, got hit with three technical fouls in 39 seconds, and didn't flinch. They took a 25-point loss on the chin and came back swinging haymakers.
I predicted a loss because I analyzed the stats. Mark Pope predicted a win because he knows their heart. "I've said this a lot like, don't miss it, man," Pope implored again.
He is right.
This season is going to have more bumps. They might lose to Oklahoma (I hope not, but they might). They might make a deep run in March, or they might flame out. But if we spend the next six weeks obsessing over the flaws, we are going to miss the magic of a team that simply refuses to stay down.
They aren't perfect, but they are fighters. And I don't want to miss the rest of this journey.