404 miles.  That’s how far I’ll be driving today from Washington, DC to Davidson to attend my 5th year reunion weekend, the traditional first official moment of looking back in a young alumnus’s life.  Sure, I’m excited to return to campus and relive the nostalgia of those four years that have now already been eclipsed by the more than five years since graduation.  But I can’t shake the feeling that I’m traveling in the wrong direction.  A part of me would rather be taking the north exit for I-95, en route to the Palestra in Philadelphia to see the opening tip of the 2010-2011 season.

At the risk of becoming too Whellistonian, I will open this season of Lefty’s Legacy (incredulously realizing this to be our fourth edition) with zero reference to the actual sport of basketball. 

The first thought that came to mind when I started brainstorming for this post was how odd it was that my faith in Davidson Basketball this season has almost no basis in fact.  I’ll be the first to admit, I feel more uninformed than ever.  In my defense, of course, it’s hard to ever know what to expect out of a team with only one Senior.  But I’ll leave the basketball nitty-gritty to my revived friend Base Rich, who thinks himself the expert on such matters (I won’t disagree).

In five years’ time, I’ve graduated from Davidson, completed law school, passed two bar exams, and weathered the unfortunate legal market (don’t get me started) as a nascent attorney.  Lofty dreams and budding inspiration have given way to a realistic hardiness and developing ability to cope with what life might throw at me, even if it’s not always the way I might have envisioned it back during Senior year. 

People sometimes ask me, “why don’t you play jazz anymore,” or “why did you stop blogging” (the latter clearly indicates a failure on our part to consistently capture even our friends’ attention).  My usual answer: “law school,” as though this is a universally-accepted euphemism for an extinguishing of “hobbies.” 

What I’m getting at here is this: over the past five years, I’ve learned that (unless you’re lucky), things don’t come to you just because you think they should.  You’ve got to earn success.  As a result, too often it seems that there’s less time for thinking or, to be cheesy, “dreaming,” as so much effort must be allocated to “doing.”

Which is why I think (one reason at least) that I am such a fan of Davidson Basketball.  2008 gave us fans something that, theretofore, had only existed in dreams or wild thought — and very “unrealistic” dreams at that.  That team taught us, at least in the context of sports, that no matter what’s going on out there, no matter what people say or think, fundamentally good things can and do happen to good people — and good programs.  Even when no one in the world might expect it.

In my opinion, Davidson Basketball is the best sports program in the entire country.  I mean that seriously.  Even when this team isn’t winning (and that’s been happening a fair bit recently), there’s still so much to be proud of.  This brings me back to my first thought.  Why am I so blindly sure that this season will be a success?  Because we’ll either win, or we’ll lose.  But somehow, it doesn’t really matter.  Of course, I’d like to return to the Elite Eight.  In fact, I expect it, and realize that part of my obsession for this team is surely derived from recent success.  But now, five years since graduation, and taking a moment to look back, I know that I’ll feel no differently about this program, and this school, even if we don’t win it all.

4th Watts