Active Seniors

Mostly mental. That’s how you could describe a trend through this week in college basketball. Home underdogs, often clad in orange, slaying visiting giants on Senior Day. The emotions of defending your turf one last time, taking pictures with Mom, shouting senior students getting louder than ever out of nostalgia. All the makings of classic upsets, and nothing but further confusion for serious bracketologists.

On Monday, the Orange entities, formerly known as orange men, coasted on a 14-0 second half run to a rousing defeat of the mighty Hoyas, ending Georgetown’s 11 game winning streak. Syracuse came out inspired to play smashmouth defense, placing distracting orange imps in front of Jeff Green every time he attempted to shoot. (He went 3-of-13). Senior Demetris Nichols burned the Hoyas with his inspired 3-point shooting and later would join fellow senior Darryl Watkins atop the scorers table in an arm-waving farewell to the raucous people of orange descent. The extra motivation for Cuse was evident in their aggressive desire to end the season partying down (as opposed to partying down slightly less if they had lost).

Tuesday saw a similar result down in Knoxville. Tennessee women’s coaching legend Pat Summit regaled the crowd, while in a cheerleader outfit, with her version of “Rocky Top”, a sharing of spirit with men’s coach Bruce Pearl who covered his bare chest in orange paint to salute the women’s team earlier this season. “Rocky Top” refers to the rocky soil of the Volunteer state preventing the growth of corn, and yet those plucky Tennesseans managing to get their corn out of jars. Against Florida, Tennessee was able to open up another kind of jar, this one containing some whuppass. A 17-0 first half run and 50-31 halftime lead paved the way for another feel-good orange senior celebration.

Then Wednesday the victorious orange was of the burnt variety, as Texas outlasted their in-state rival A+M in a double overtime thriller. Aggie point guard Acie Law IV had incredible answers to the Horns with laser-guided non-rotating three balls to tie things up at the end of regulation and overtime one. Unfortunately for the agricultural and mining interests in the state, Law couldn’t get down a bunt after the two home runs, as overtime two and the game ended on his intentionally missed free throw, which was unintentionally not rebounded by the Aggies. Texas freshman sensation Kevin Durant is essentially more of a senior himself, as his 30 point 16 rebound performance was surely his farewell to the Austin faithful, as sneaker companies have lured him to the NBA to become the new Kevin Garnett.

Presumably, when the whistle blows both teams want the victory the same amount (a lot). Yet on Senior Day that home team wants it more than a lot. Will this extra gear be available for these orange underdogs in the neutral emotion of the neutral site NCAAs? And are top seeds G’town, FL and A+M vulnerable? All signs point to “who the hell knows.”