I went back this week and reread my season preview.
At the time, it felt like a hopeful exordium. I called this the Macs seniors’ “one last ride.” A core that miraculously won the Skyline last year. A group dancing into their final season together. A team that had already etched its name into the program’s ledger with an indelible inscription.
Guess what? They did it again — and this time it wasn’t magic. It was mastery. They went 19–0 in Skyline play. Undefeated. Back-to-back champions. The vista now is expansive, not just of what they’ve done, but of what’s possible. And yet, if you only glanced at the early standings, the prognosis looked dismal. They started 0–5. The blogosphere was a veritable gaggle of conjecture. The barbs were immediate. The musings were myopic. The questions were vexing. Was last year lightning in a bottle? Had the magic vaporized?
Some reduced everything to a platitude: “Just let Zevi cook.”
As if basketball were that simple. As if greatness rules the roost in isolation. As if you could hand over the keys to the castle and call it an offense.
That’s not how this works.
