FanPost

Feelin' It

It all seems so long ago; a men’s basketball championship and a Sugar Bowl stomp. Games that felt so good, even now when I watch them, I cheer and clap and scream. Oh man, what a feeling that was.

It felt like four 3’s and an emphatic dunk, but that was only the half. It felt like the underdog with a Gator’s bite when no one wanted you to eat at the big boy table anyway.

Even better, it felt like the city. Like a walk-on walking up and jolting our team to a 21-8 run by raining down 3’s. It felt like home.

Now, it feels like your best night on your best bourbon that you can’t quite remember. It feels like the great idea you never wrote down. It feels like adult made scandals where the only penance is the price and sacrifice from the teenaged.

Now, it’s strippers and payments and playbooks and grey shirts and lawsuits and counter suits. It feels like a good buzz that lead to a bad hangover and all we want, is for it stop spinning.

Charlie Strong left. You can’t google image Bobby Petrino without laughing. And Rick Pitino is suing.

But then, like your favorite hero, its arc bends and the light from the fight from a come from behind, road game in Tallahassee swings your arms up in a "Can I believe?" win. And suddenly, that old feeling feels like a new hope. But it’s not a new hope; it’s just relief. Because that feeling should be more than a strong drink watered down to taste smooth, it should just be smooth.

And in front of 12, 614 fans on a Thursday night at the Yum! Center, it felt like it should. It felt like drinking your favorite bourbon for the very first time. It felt like what laughing looks like. It felt like your best memory of your best friend. It felt like winning, and my God, it just felt good.

With no questions, no worries, and no problems, it felt like real hope. Hope as pure as it was meant to be. And it has always been there; 7 Sweet Sixteens, 3 Elite Eights, 2 Final Fours, 2 Finals, and an Olympic gold medal "legacy-legacy-legacy." They are a show stopping, fast breaking, behind the back dribbling, driving, dipsey-dooing, underhand layup and-1 ballin’ ass group of women and this feeling, this pure hope, feels so good, it makes you want to cheer and clap and holla.

This feeling feels like selling a 20 Year Pappy or being bad ass enough to buy one. And after all the heartache and letdowns and run-ins and rundowns this feels like "hailstorms and blizzards in the middle of the spring." In other words, it feels out of this world.

This feeling is for the people. This feeling is for the city. This feeling is for the alums, the administrators, the professors, and adjuncts. This feeling is for all of us. And we should all be watching, before the feeling is gone.