He’ll Be the One Rooting, Writing

Never actually cheered for anybody like this before. Never actually sat down at a word processor and wrote: “Good luck, guys. Have a great game. We’re with you.” Never homered so shamelessly. Never deliberately breached the canon of ethics, never lost sight of occupational objectivity, never put personal sentiment ahead of proper professional conduct. Not over one lousy game.

Not until now.

This is a special occasion. A half-sad, half-happy occasion. Tonight is the night Loyola Marymount’s basketball players pick up the pieces of their young lives, put back on their freshly laundered uniforms, play a game wherein Hank Gathers is with them only in spirit, attempt to find meaning in something as comparatively insignificant as numbers on a neon scoreboard.

Come on, Loyola. Win one for the Gatherses--for Hank and his whole family. It is trite, it is corny, it is sentimental claptrap--and it couldn’t be more real. Win one. Win as many as you can. Hank would have wanted it that way. We don’t care how silly it sounds. Hank would have wanted it that way.

Nothing against New Mexico State. It seems to have a pretty fine team. They seem to be a pleasant enough bunch of young men. New Mexico State is not the bad guy here. No reason for anybody at Long Beach Arena to side against New Mexico State tonight, to take any success it might have personally. This is the NCAA tournament, the first round of the West Regional, and New Mexico State’s players should do whatever’s necessary to win, with clear consciences.

We simply feel that the students and coaches and alumni of New Mexico State will sympathize what we are feeling toward Loyola Marymount. We all have seen what Coach Paul Westhead and his players have had to endure. We all have seen the uncommon maturity with which Bo Kimble, Jeff Fryer and other players have handled this life-changing experience, at a time when innermost emotions were indecently exposed for the public to see.

Think this hasn’t been bubbling and gurgling like lava in the players’ insides? It has, you know. Two Loyola players, Terrell Lowery and John O’Connell, got into a fight Wednesday at practice. Chris Knight, the man appointed to take Gathers’ place in the Loyola lineup, said he hurt so badly when his friend died, he thought he was responsible, thought maybe he “wished” this gruesome fate on Hank, somehow. He nearly quit the team over it.

As for Kimble, this All-American candidate truly became a man these last two weeks, digging deep into his character to find an inbred wealth of class and courage that perhaps even he never realized he possessed. Even Bo, though, has often hidden what he was really feeling, really thinking. He expressed that on the eve of the NCAAs, with stark reality closing in on him again.

“I’ve never felt such pressure before,” Kimble said.

We would like to comfort this kid--no, this adult--with words of wisdom and encouragement. But what would we know about what he is going through? Where do we get off telling him anything other than we are pulling for him to do well? You don’t have to win, we want to tell Bo Kimble. Just play. Hank would definitely want it that way.

After Lowery and McConnell clashed at practice, Kimble absorbed it the same way he has absorbed everything else, with practicality beyond his years.

“Tempers flared, but it was a fight of love,” Kimble said. “There has been a lot of tension on this team the last week and a half, and it just had to be released. We’ve been beating up each other in practice. Now we’re ready to beat up someone else.”

Enter New Mexico State, which will not be beaten without an argument. Westhead knows a good team when he sees one. His opponents have but four defeats in 30 games. His opponents might not have motive, but they have means. And yet, Westhead also knows a good team when he coaches one.

“Everyone places a high value on this game,” he said. “They feel a sense of commitment. They see it as a dedication to Hank. They know that a close friend of theirs has died, and the players want to show they care. I just hope they do not relate winning and losing to their feelings. In a sense, this game doesn’t really count at all.”

We know that. Maybe that’s what makes it more urgent than most, the simple fact that, in the larger scope of things, this game doesn’t really count for a thing. Loyola Marymount already has lost far more than a shot at the national championship. A loss tonight would not be a loss of anything of real value. A game is a game is a game.

That is why we cannot fight the irresistible impulse to pull for Loyola tonight. This one isn’t about money, isn’t about glory, isn’t about winning and losing. This one is one from the heart. Good luck, guys. Have a great game. We’re with you.