When it comes to gambling, my Dad is better than anyone I’ve
ever met—not at slots or roulette or poker or blackjack but at getting up and
leaving the table at the peak of his winnings.
The rest of us who are fortunate enough to collect a tall
stack of chips will not even consider leaving. Instead, our minds are racing
with the thoughts of continuing to ride the hot streak and what we’ll do with
all that money once we return home.
Of course, casinos are built on red-hot streaks that turn
ice-cold, and most of us are familiar with the feeling of impending dread that
comes with playing well beyond our peak and digging into the wallet to try and
regain the magic as well as our profits.
But not Dad. He hasn’t been to a casino since well before my
Mom died, but when he did gamble, the former stockbroker and perpetually cautious
investor always knew exactly how much he had spent and how much he had
profited, and once he’d decided he’d made a nice return on his initial ante,
he’d cash out, go home and put his winnings into a section of his bedroom
drawer reserved solely for gambling money.
I thought of my Dad and his gambling skills last night, when
the eighth-seeded Flying Dutchmen advanced in the CAA Tournament by scoring the
final nine points of the game to beat ninth-seeded UNCW Wilmington, 78-70, in
front of what sure appeared to be a sparse crowd at Baltimore Arena.
If sports fandom is gambling—and really, aren’t we all
sitting here hoping to someday hold the royal flush in our hands?—then we
should by all means follow my Dad’s lead and step away from the table right
now, before the Dutchmen take on top-seeded Delaware this afternoon.
The Dutchmen’s first CAA Tournament win in 1,097 days (but
who’s counting?) provided profits, both obvious and symbolic, that should be stashed
in a drawer and saved for next year. In providing us the anticipation of
knowing another game awaited on the other side of slumber, the Dutchmen also
reached double figures in wins for the first time in three seasons. There will
be no banners or certificates printed up to commemorate a 10-win season, but a
“10” under the win column looks and feels a whole lot better than a “9.”
In addition, the tournament win provides the tangible happy
ending for the players whose career ends with the Dutchmen’s next loss as well
as the beginning of a base for those who will return with hopefully higher
expectations next season.
For the 22nd time in 32 games, graduate senior Zeke Upshaw
(23 points) led the Dutchmen in scoring. Senior Stephen Nwaukoni, the only
member of the Dutchmen who was on the court the last time Hofstra won a CAA
Tournament game, produced the 10th double-double of his career with 10
points—including a slam dunk for the game’s final points with 13 seconds
left—and 14 rebounds.
As for the underclassmen, junior Moussa Kone had 11 points
and nine rebounds, graduate senior Dion Nesmith had 15 points and three assists
(speaking of quitting while we’re ahead—Nesmith got a favorable ruling from the
NCAA and will play a second graduate season next year, what were the odds of
the NCAA ever tossing Hofstra a bone?) and freshman Jamall Robinson began the
game-winning rally and gave the Dutchmen the lead for good by wading into a sea
of aqua and putting back his own miss to begin a nostalgic 3-point play with
1:58 left.
By any reasonable standard, the Dutchmen have exceeded
expectations and profited on this trip to the conference tournament. That’s far
more than we got the previous two seasons, both of which began with similarly
long odds—Ken Pomeroy gave Hofstra a 0.6 percent chance of winning this year’s tournament, the same percentage he offered last year, while in 2012 our friend
John Templon had Hofstra winning the automatic bid a whopping 16 times in
10,001 simulations—yet ended with disappointment in the form of yet another
narrow loss to Delaware last year and the most lopsided defeat in CAA
Tournament history to Georgia State in 2012.
So we should push ourselves away from the table, cash out
and invest nothing in today, right? It’s too much to ask us to not watch the
game, but regardless of result—and let’s face it, CAA top seeds are 26-1
all-time against the no. 8 or no. 9 seed, so the result will probably be a loss—we
should be content with our winnings from last night.
Except…except sports fandom is far more seductive than any
winning streak at the poker table. We certainly know the likelihood of Delaware
winning today, but I’m sure I speak for the other 17 Hofstra fans when I say we
spent all of last night and this morning finding optimism in the two close
losses to the Blue Hens during the regular season, concocting upset scenarios
in our heads and envisioning the Dutchmen doubling their stack of chips and
playing Sunday for a berth in the CAA title game Monday.
Such daydreaming only increases the possibility of
heartbreak, of course, and all but ensures that if the Dutchmen lose today, our
first thoughts will be of regret and what could have been instead of appreciating
what we had.
But still. How can we not hope to parlay last night’s
winnings into even more? It’s that time of year when you the outcome—exiting
the table empty-handed—is all but inevitable. But we’ll keep on daydreaming and
doubling down and playing for that royal flush, right until the last of our
chips ends up atop someone else’s stack.
“There’s going to be some conference [winner] we’re going to
be reading about in a week or two weeks,” Mihalich said earlier this week.
“Somebody’s going to do it. And if you’re Hofstra, you hope it’s you.”
For one more game, at least, we’ve still got that. What more
could we ask for?
(A win today.)
Email Jerry at defiantlydutch@yahoo.com
or follow Defiantly Dutch at http://twitter.com/defiantlydutch.
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