Mr. Guilty

 

 "Call me Mr. Guilty,
Mr. Guilty, that's my name.
Without a doubt it is all my fault,
I'm the one to blame" ~ Loudon Wainwright III

 

Apologies are in order.

I watched the last minute of the Kennesaw State versus Xavier University game.  I thought Kennesaw (pronounced "Kenny-saw") State had more than a puncher's chance to defeat the Mighty Musketeers of Xavier University in a basketball game between two comical college nicknames.

Kennesaw State's cheer is "Hooty Hoo".  That strikes fear in the hearts for their opponents. 

I'm not sure of the correct pronunciation of Xavier. Is it "X-avier" or is it "Zavier"?

I will say both The Owls and Musketeers are better nicknames than what Whitter University, the Alma Mater of Richard Nixon has:  The Poets. So how do you cheer for The Poets? "Way to rhyme" is about it.

Kennesaw State won the ASUN Conference Championship by defeating Liberty University.  Because of this, Kennesaw State won a spot in the NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament, better known as "March Madness".

Poor little old Kennesaw State, the college up I-75, down the street from The Cracker Barrel, was the only Georgia college invited to "March Madness".  It wasn't the Bulldogs, and it wasn't The Yellow Jackets. It was The Owls.

To say I and the other Kennesaw State alums were happy is an understatement.  We were thrilled. We were ecstatic. 

Kennesaw State started as Kennesaw Junior College. From there, it became Kennesaw College. It had "rolling admissions, " meaning anybody could enroll in Kennesaw College.  That's how I got in. 

Back then, it was a charmless place to go to school.  Kennesaw was trying to make a name for itself, so the classes were challenging, and the grading was often arbitrary and capricious. At least it seemed that way. Actually, I learned the phrase "arbitrary and capricious" in a Business Law class, so maybe I did learn something.

The professors seemed like they'd rather be somewhere else, like at a real school, without all of these dumb-dumb students.

The students hated it because they had heard about the great time their friends had at UGA, Auburn, Alabama, et al., with students their own age. At that time, the average student at Kennesaw was "non-traditional" (old as dirt).

After I graduated ("Praise Lawd" instead of Cum Laude), things began to change at Kennesaw.  It became Kennesaw State College and offered MBA degrees, allowing all those working Bulldog graduates to become Kennesaw State Owls.

In 1996, Kennesaw State College became Kennesaw State University. However, Kennesaw State lacked one thing:  Big Time sports.

Kennesaw State had sports teams.  I used to take my son to Kennesaw State baseball games. There were some games we were the only ones in the stands not related to a player.

The same way for basketball. Sparsely populated stands watching a fairly competitive NCAA II team. They even won the NCAA II championship one year.  I don't think there was a parade.

Kennesaw State finally began a football program and had some success in the FCS.  The Kennesaw State-Jacksonville State game I attended was one of the most enjoyable football games I've ever seen.

Somewhere down the line, basketball fell down the wayside.  Georgia and Tech were not doing any better, but the Owls hit hard times. Three years ago, Kennesaw State was 1-28.

Then last week, out of nowhere, Kennesaw State "punched their ticket," as they say on TV, to "The Big Dance."

I figured Kennesaw State would be a 16th seed. But, nope, they were the 14th seed and played the 3rd seed, Xavier.

Here's where I come in.

Ever since the Falcons' Super Bowl loss to The New England Patriots after leading 28-3, I have become convinced that I transmit "loser rays" to my teams, causing them to mess up. 

When the Braves won The World Series, I didn't watch any of the games because the Houston Astros would hit a home run or something as soon as I did.

In fact, in the 9th inning, with Braves up 7-1 in the sixth game, I turned on the TV to see an Astro stroke the ball to right field.  It was only a single, but I turned off the set and watched the game via Tweets on Twitter.

My wife had the game on in her office. She instructed me:  "Don't you dare come in here and watch this game".

My wife would holler out the score to me.

Finally, with a minute left, Kennesaw State was within striking distance of Xavier, and I made the fateful decision to watch the last minute of the game.

That's when Xavier started to pull away and ultimately won the game.  They even showed a "sad" Kennesaw State fan, which I never thought I would see in my life.

So, it was all my fault. Next time, I will listen to my wife and not watch to prevent anything like this to happen again

But, hey, y'all were there, and sometimes that's a victory too.