Jerry Stackhouse Apologizes to Vanderbilt Fans Not for Losing 25th Straight SEC Game, But for Failing to Make a 3-Pointer
This is one of my favorite tweets of all-time.
You can just feel the pure sadness and frustration from the head coach of a team who had its ass kicked at home by the team it hates more than Satan and who was then lambasted by its fans for allowing a 1,080-game streak to come crashing down. You just really hate to see it.
And then what a glorious self-own by Stackhouse four days after the fact, just when I'm sure Vandy fans had begun to stop thinking about it.
"Hey, remember when we had that historically awful performance and then y'all booed our own players after they just got their ass handed to them? Yeah, me too. I don't have any explanation or solution for it, just wanted to give y'all a quick reminder."
But the fact that, as Stackhouse mentions, Vanderbilt players were driving for open layups and dunks in the final minutes of the game shows how insignificant this streak was. If it was truly that important to everyone at Vandy, the players would have been exclusively launching threes in the final five minutes when the game was already well out of reach. I don't even think any of the players on the court were very aware of the streak at all, which is precisely the point.
I'd be far more embarrassed if my team had lost 25 straight conference games than if it didn't make a 3-pointer in one game, but I guess that and 180 miles are what separate the championship culture cultivated by Deacon Rick Barnes in Knoxville and the loser mentality instilled in the basketball program at Vandy.