1) While I agree it’s a bad look to barely squeak by the Atlantis Resort Workers intramural team (especially letting them crawl back into it after dominating the first half), I think there is severe overreaction going on here, on many sides…on many sides. The “Christian has committed war atrocities against my family” crowd (has to be the reason behind Matty T’s hate for this guy), this is the end of the world, more embarrassing than 2-34 in the ACC, and we should’ve marooned Coach C in the Bahamas for good (little pirate humor, on account of the whole Caribbean thing). For the optimists, the fact that we were 2-0, Ky looked healthy and Chatman got hot, is all the proof they need that we’re going .500 in the ACC and will be playing a first four game in Dayton next March. The reality is this doesn’t tell us much at all. Yes, these games are important, the players are busting their ass, and Christian isn’t experimenting line-ups and pausing for fundamentals lessons like an 8-year old CYO game. And yes, it is concerning that we let this competition hang with us. But this is also the first time the freshmen have really played with this group competitively, we’re still missing Hawkins, and these games were spliced in between catamaran excursions and trips to the swim up bar. My point is that not only will this team look very different come the season (personnel, fitness, gameplan, etc.), but the focus and mindset will be slightly different preparing for Duke on a February night than the Little Sisters of the Poor on an 80 degree Nassau afternoon.
2) More importantly, this trip gave us the beauty that is Head Coach Fedora Christian. Since we lost Skinner, I’ve always said our biggest issue was not having a coach wearing a full suit and tie on the sidelines (seriously, in our lifetime every single NCAA champion has been coached by a suit and tie). Christian will bust out the suit/no-tie client-lunch look for big games, but for the most part it’s been business casual on the Heights for 7 years. Well that might have all changed last week. Maybe formal is not what we should be going for. While my records indicate that no one has ever won a championship whilst wearing a fedora on the sidelines, someone has to be the first. Christian absolutely needs to be bring this back to the mainland – I’m giddy at the thought of “Fedora Giveaway Night” at Conte after rattling off 19 straight wins to start the year. Make it happen coach. And of course if all else fails, this would at least guarantee us a strong recruiting pipeline into Miami-Dade county. Dalé.
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