"Put it into perspective" "There are more important things in life"

[warriormom]

As I have been in a mild depression for the last two days, there have been many people who are amazed at my sadness.  I am chastized that there are many more important things to worry about and be sad about.
I thought about that and I realized while it is rather cliche. for me it  really is God, Family/good friends and Marquette Basketball.  That is what is really important to me.
Last year I was going through chemotherapy and I thought perhaps that would force me to "put it into perspective" but I was just as devastated when MU lost to Stanford as the years I wasn't facing a life threatening illness.  There weren't many days I got down during that whole ordeal but one of the few days I cried was when I was unable to go to the end of the season banquet due to physical problems from chemo. Now I missed alot last year, but I didn't miss one MU home game, it was my lifeline, what kept me going.
It is truly I think it is part of who I am, my very being.  But I don't think you can ever explain it to someone else.  "Its just a game" is one of the most frustating comments.  No, this was the end of four wonderful years of watching three tremendous athletes compete for my beloved Marquette University.  It was tragic for them and for us.
But I would never change, I would never give up the lowest of the lows that comes from being such a fan, because you would never get the highest of the highs that comes with the good times.
Would you?

[NavinRJohnson]

No doubt there are many more important things. However, that doesn't mean it still isn't important to those of us who care about it.

[tower912]

Well put.   Family, health, job, faith are all more important.   MU is and was a very important time in my life.   MU basketball is like my golf game.   I obsess over it, I think about it during my quiet times, little things mean so much, and it is a huge part of my life.   I survive without both during the offseason and dream about the time when the season is right and I can swing a club or see a game again.   But in the end, they aren't essential to life.    They are just a wonderful accessory that makes my life more fun.

[AlumKCof93]

In some ways this passion for MU basketball is a curse.  Since I don't bet, I don't stand to benefit from it in any material way if they win, but if they lose, it ruins my day.  As with Warrior Mom, I'm still not over the loss on Sunday, in large part b/c it was the end of an era for guys I grew to admire over the past 4 years.

[MauraDay]

Thank you, warriormom. You put my feelings into words.

[Robyrd5]

I agree completely, WarriorMom. Your post reminded me of a Facebook note written on Sunday by a student named Marco Radenkovich. I came across it on Dominic's Facebook profile. Just as your post, I thought it was beautifully written and said everything I was thinking.

It's not just a game (Again)

As I walked down 15th street towards Raynor, it hit me.

It's not just a game.

A campus that had been buzzing all week from St. Patrick's day, great weather, and a thrilling 58-57 win over Utah State two days before was dead. Lifeless laid the streets of Milwaukee and campus of Marquette.

Facebook statuses changed to "stunned" and "heartbroken." That briefly sums up my thoughts on the whole ordeal, but is nowhere close to completely recapping the community reaction.

Sports can alter your mood quicker than anything else in this world. True fans find themselves so engrossed in their team that losses aren't easy to take and wins put you at the top of the world. Anyone can say they like a team, but it takes much more than that.

At Marquette, you cannot just walk up to the Bradley Center a few minutes before the game and grab a good seat. Super fans here sleep on concrete outside for 18 hours with a 30-below wind chill. It’s much more than a game for them. Especially when Marquette doesn’t have a football team, every game means that much more. It’s all we have at this school as students.

After all of our best friends at Marquette gathered for the first round game on Friday, we didn’t even think about what we were doing. The same people watch the game together, all the time. The same group of people goes to the games together, have pregame rituals, and leave together. We’re all from different parts of the country, and have different tastes in music, sports, politics, etc. But there’s one thing that unites us, and that’s Marquette Basketball.

We have a group of guys on this year's basketball team that would give anything to win a national championship. Dominic James came back from a surgery in three weeks... doctors told him that it would take him three months to return. That's the kind of players you cheer for. 'Nic could have packed it in and went to the NBA or Europe, but he felt he needed to play for his team and community. Jerel McNeal was knocked to the floor countless times. He plays every minute of every game, guards the best players, brings the ball up, looks to score every posession. Wesley Matthews took over the game today, played his heart out after taking countless beatings going for rebounds and diving on the floor for every loose ball. Those are the guys you cheer for. It's real easy to cheer for a team that wins all the time, recruits players that don't graduate and recruit players with felonies attached to their names. But it's more than that with this group of players. So when they lose, we feel like they lose. I guarantee some people will never get a chance to feel that.

But you can continue to say that it’s just a game.

“It’s just a game” is not what you say to someone who is deeply involved with a particular event. If you don’t have something that deeply moves you, then I really feel sorry for you. If you do have something that really moves you, or that you can cheer about, you can understand why people are upset after a game.

The people that are worse in this world are the ones that feel joy because of someone else’s pain. After the game, I’ve seen some of the most unintelligent comments. Listen, if you picked Mizzou in your bracket, congrats. If that’s why you’re happy, that’s fine. But if you find joy in other people’s loss, then I don’t know what to tell you.

[MUfan12]

After all of our best friends at Marquette gathered for the first round game on Friday, we didn’t even think about what we were doing. The same people watch the game together, all the time. The same group of people goes to the games together, have pregame rituals, and leave together. We’re all from different parts of the country, and have different tastes in music, sports, politics, etc. But there’s one thing that unites us, and that’s Marquette Basketball.

That is the paragraph that really hits home. MU basketball is in my family, I was raised on it. I went to my first game with my Dad at the age of 3 and was hooked. I've been to probably 90% of our home games since, including every game for the last 6 years.

MU basketball is a common thread that runs through both my family, and my Marquette family. The people who I went to games with as a student, are the people who I go to games with now. We've gone from facepaint to sweatervests, hours in line to pints at the bar. It keeps us together in a way, those from out of town come in, and game becomes the centerpiece of great weekends. Every year we have an away game we all go to as a group. If we're not watching the game together there's a ton of texts and calls both during and after the game. A bond that helps keep us together.

My co-workers thought I was crazy when I was so upset following Dominic's injury, that a team could affect me that much. But we all have so much pride in this program, and our University that it's hard not to. That's why I still get chills when I hear a "We Are Marquette" chant rise up at games home and away. It drives me nuts when I hear "It's just a game." On the surface, yeah it is a game. But there's so much that goes along with it- so much pride, so much emotion, that saying it's just a game does not do it justice.