(Who would like to
speak this session…someone new perhaps? Todd, how about you?)
Well, okay, I suppose. Hello everyone, my name is Todd
Salem.
(Hi Todd)
I am 25 years old and have been a fan of a bubble team for
the last eight years now. When I first got hooked, it didn’t seem like being a
fan of a bubble team was going to be anything worth worrying about. It would
either happen or it wouldn’t. What could I control being on the outside looking
in? But then, as the seasons wore on, the months turned to years, I could feel
the despair building.
The one year we made it, we actually made the NCAA
Tournament, 2007 it was…that just made things worse. Every subsequent failure
was more severe, more to the core. It has gotten to the point where a lack of
worry and doubt is just as good as success. Looking back, it was almost better
to be worse than those bubble teams, not having to sweat through the grief and
unknown, living in blissful ignorance.
That’s why I am feeling good this year. Even though it is
only mid-December, I already know my team’s chances are slim to none. I won’t
have to suffer through the release of the brackets as in past years. The resume
just doesn’t hold up this season. We will not even make the bubble talk, and
just saying that out loud is exhilarating. It feels good to tell others that my
March of 2012 will not be like the others; it will not be stressful.
Everyone always told me, back when I was younger and naïve,
that the bubble teams’ failures stemmed from poor showings in your conference.
You needed to finish near the top of your conference to get in. That would
prove to the panelists that your team was deserving. Now I know better though.
Conference success is just a bunch of bologna.
The real killer is out-of-conference strength of schedule
and wins and don’t listen to anyone who tells you otherwise.
My team, let’s just call them VT, has fallen prey to the
lack of out-of-conference wins year after year. Finishing in the top three in
their own conference has never been good enough. Beating top teams in the
nation from their own conference has done little more than place them squarely
on the bubble each and every March. The push over the top, into the Big Dance
must come from victories over solid teams from other conferences.
And this is why I have my freedom this season. Our chances
at impressive out-of-conference wins to bolster an otherwise weak resume have
already come and gone. A win over a top ranked Syracuse
team in New York
would have been amazing. That alone might have been enough with a strong ACC
showing this year, but it was not meant to be. Topping a slightly depleted Minnesota squad would
have been tremendous but that also did not come to fruition. The following
game, against Kansas
State , was a necessity.
It would be one of the last out-of-conference matchups that VT would face this
season. But again, we fell short.
So here I am, not even at the first of the new year and I am
already feeling good…no, good is not the right word.
I am feeling relieved.
I won’t have to sit on the edge of my seat, biting my
fingernails this spring. Sure, my team won’t be in contention but don’t you all
kind of wish you were in the same boat. Wouldn’t it be nice to be unencumbered
by it, just once?
I appreciate everyone listening but I don’t think I will
need to come to any more of these meetings. I have gotten what I needed from
them. Thanks doc, thank you everyone.
(Okay, Todd, thank you
for speaking. Would anyone else like to say a few words tonight?)