"Deron Washington should buy some orange tights."

I seem to be the only person in the blogosphere who read the news about Billy Donovan's bad back affecting his ability to coach [FanHouse] and immediately thought of Duke and the 1995 season. Granted, Duke probably wouldn't have been as big a disaster if they had had Coach K on the sidelines, but it strikes me as an oddly convenient excuse for a Florida team that's defending two national titles but isn't expected to be particularly good.

I'm not blaming Coach K for what happened to Duke that year -- though I think he deserves some of the blame, and it shouldn't all fall on Pete Gaudet, in terms of record or otherwise -- and I wouldn't necessarily blame Donovan for anything and everything that happens to Florida while he's not on the sidelines, if that comes down. I just couldn't help but see the similarities, ten years apart, is all.

I might be the only one in the blogosphere, but I'm not the only one in the world -- I talked to my Dad last night, and I said, "Hey, Dad, I read today that Billy Donovan's having back problems that might keep him from coaching some this season," and before I could even ask him what it reminded him of, he said, "Ah, shades of Durham, 1995 in Gainesville this year, huh?"

My dad is pretty awesome, it's true.


Unrelatedly: it's pretty well-known fact amongst my real life sports-watching compatriots that I hate the new ACC; I resent the loss of the double round robin in basketball season viciously and I can't quite summon up the energy to give a shit about the football championship game, but even more than I hate the new ACC, I hate Boston College. That's an old hate. That's a hate that goes back to 1994, when they upset Carolina in the tournament, because the basketball team was thugs then and are mostly thugs now, though Al Skinner's tamed them a little bit. The point is: I hate BC, BC sucks, and last night I rooted desperately for Virginia Tech, despite my loathing for the new ACC, because I hate BC even more, and VT shit the bed in the last four minutes and I'm done with that, with them, with the new fucking ACC, throw 'em out, return them to the Big East for a full refund, and get rid of Florida State, too, while you're at it, and give me back my beautiful double round robin and three day conference tournament.

And BC still sucks, even if they escaped the bullet [Every Day Should Be Saturday] last night.