Regardless what sport or team you?re passionate about, I don?t think it?s an overstatement to compare a season-ending loss to the death of a loved one. Hear me out.

After both tragic events you?re often left continually having to deal with more ?What happened?? and ?How are you doing?? questions than you are people just simply saying ?Sorry about your loss?, sending a sympathy card and dropping off a meat tray and flowers. Each supposedly concerned query forces you to relive the tragic events over and over, leaving you no room for closure and moving on. You can never fully put the events behind you, because you never know when the next person is going to offer their condolences in exchange for your thoughts on the subject. It?s a dreaded feeling you can expect to carry with you at least until the start of the college and pro football seasons. Which equates to a good four months of pensive misery.

What?s worse is when people come out of the woodwork to make you relive your worst fears over and over, from places you?d least expect. I was fully prepared to take C-Mac?s halftime and game-ending phone calls. Had D-Brown not been watching the debacle at my house, I?d have prepared myself for his calls as well. Even if they weren?t both J-Hawk fans, and even if the Duke Blue Devils had lost to a non-feathered team, they would have dialed me up looking for my reaction. But, what I don?t need in my life is this little email from one of my matronly (that means old) female co-workers that went all college basketball season without any mention of her team?s affiliation or thoughts:

Jake:
If you need a Jayhawk mouse pad, just let me know. I’ll get you one.
It was a great game that I could barely watch. I kept flipping to the war news which I found to be more soothing! Now, will you root for KU or Arizona?

Go hawks!

First off, what kind of college basketball fan switches from their team?s Sweet 16 game to freaking war coverage! Hasn?t Dan Rather made it abundantly clear that he?ll take any excuse to interrupt game action even if he has to make one up!!! And this person obviously doesn?t know me well enough to throwing salt in my wounds less than 14 hours after my favorite player in college hoops, J.J. Redick, literally shoots his team out of a game, while my favorite coach in college hoops, K, encourages him to keep on launching them! And do you really want to know what and who I?ll be rooting for?

I?ll be rooting for more rumors that Dean is going to ask Roy to come back home and replace Matt Doherty at Carolina. Not because I?d be excited to add a future Hall of Fame coach to the ACC, but because J-Hawk fans must be stopped. All week they were so sure that Duke would have no answer for Kirk Hinrich and Nick Collison (so they were half-right). They dismissed any notion that Collison would have troubles guarding Dahntay Jones, because everyone knows that Dahntay is a suspect outside shooter. Nevermind that they escaped a first round victory over Utah State by 3 measly points—this team was headed directly to the Elite 8 without a second thought.

Now had you told me that Duke would hold Kansas to 69 points, and more specifically Kirk Hinrich to one bucket, and that Jeff Graves would pick up 3 first half fouls, I would have predicted a double digit victory for the good guys. What I never, ever would have predicted was Redick to go 1 for 11 from three point land. I also wouldn?t have predicted frosh big man Shelden Williams to only play 13 minutes. It?s truly a wonder Collison didn?t drop 40 points in the Pond.

I also wouldn?t have predicted K to get out-coached by Roy, and that?s precisely what happened. I understand a shooter?s mentality that the next one?s going in. I understand dancing with who brung ya. But there are other outside threats on this Blue Devil team other than J.J. Dahntay, Chris Duhon, Daniel Ewing, and Sean Dockery were a combined 9 of 15 from three. Needing just two more long range deliveries to emerge victorious, why Coach K continued to run the ball through an ice-cold Redick is simply beyond me. Why he settled so early for the only-threes offense with the game still in doubt, is also beyond me.

All I can say is that K did not want to shake the confidence of his freshman sharpshooter with a bigger picture in mind. Had you told any Duke fan, coach, or player prior to the season that they were in line for a Sweet 16 berth a season after losing Carlos, Jay and Mike, they would have taken it. But, we?ve seen this kind of foresight before out of Krzyzewski, which is maybe one of the reasons why he?ll go down alongside Wooden as one of the greatest coaches in the history of the sport.

In the Championship Game of 1990, freshman Bobby Hurley goes 0 for 3 and finishes with two points. He follows that performance with two straight national titles…

In 2000?s Sweet 16, freshman Jason Williams launches 3 after 3 for a combined 6 of 20 and the team shots 3 for 19 in a losing effort against Florida. He immediately follows this with a national championship of his own… And if you need any more spooky proof that vindication is near, remember that before losing to Florida, they had beaten a Kansas team 69-64, with a couple of decent freshmen of their own—Collison and Hinrich. (Thursday?s score: 69-65. Cue Twilight Zone music).

One can only guess what to expect after the worst game of J.J.?s basketball career (also a freshman). Nevermind that they?ll replace departing seniors Dahntay Jones and Casey Sanders with two more Mickey D?s All-Americans (Luol Deng and Kris Humphries) and increased roles for Sean Dockery and Shavlik Randolph. Had this young team earned a Final Four right out of the gates, they might have been too content too early, and maybe even had a few early departures related to their early success and accolades.

If nothing else now I can fully enjoy the out of town baptism of my new nephew EZ-E, which was inexplicably set during the Elite 8 weekend. I can also fully prepare and concentrate for my NL-Only fantasy auction held in Columbia, Missouri, next weekend. Think there?ll be many J-Hawk sympathists there? And pre-season softball conditioning, that?s always a good distraction.

Anything to get my mind off Duke going home, Kansas living to play another day and Roy distancing himself from his can?t-win-the-big-one critics. And anything to get my mind off my own mother coming in to my house, and never even attempting to hide her glee as she audibly rooted her beloved J-Hawks onward. Oh yea, she?s also a Missouri fan. Yep, that makes her the worst kind of fan. The one that roots for conference, border-state rivals during the same sports season.

I?ve got a lot to ponder during this off-season. Allowing her back in my house on a game day is just one of them?

Which is all to say, thanks for asking, I think I?ll manage?somehow?they?d want it that way?