Earlier this year, as the COVID-19 pandemic swept through the world like a stranger in a party, I caught up by phone with UCLA sophomore Jaime Jaquez Jr.
This was barely two months after the pandemic had halted the college basketball season abruptly, with no resolution to the 2019-20 season and no end in sight.
What were the Bruins doing to stay in basketball shape during the unexpected down time? More importantly, what were they doing to stay sane?
And then Jaquez told me this beautiful story about his mother finding an abandoned basketball hoop on the side of the road near their Southern California home and calling Jaime to come drag it back to their house so he’d have a basket on which to shoot.
UCLA guard Jaime Jaquez Jr., left, celebrates with a teammate after the team’s win over Arizona State last February.
The back-alley backboard wasn’t in great condition. Dr. James Naismith’s rickety peach basket may have been an appropriate comparison. But it got the job done. Jaquez put up his shots.
Just picturing one of the Pac-12’s best — Jaquez was named a preseason all-conference honorable mention — hoisting up fadeaways on a faded, trash-bound rim made me remember what’s at stake for these players this season. Their dreams are on pause. Their goals are on hold. They enter this precarious slate knowing they risk their bodies and their lungs and their safety in pursuit of a wish that won’t go away. And they’re willing to drag refuse through the streets of Camarillo, California, just to do it.
So, this season, let us pledge not to worry about wins and losses and rankings and disappointments.
If your team is out of the running by the middle of this month, sip some hot cocoa and get over it. If your bitter rival lambastes your squad with a barrage of 3-pointers, laugh it off and offer them an umbrella.
If the mere sight of your least favorite coach has you retching, just remember they’re probably balding and battling intestinal issues.
Save your ill will for the pandemic that put us in this position — and for Larry Scott.
Instead, focus on the fleeting beauty this season will have to offer.
Focus on Arizona State’s Remy Martin, the Pac-12’s preseason player of the year — weaving his way through traffic like a Mini Cooper with a teenager behind the wheel, and focus on the flick of Oregon shooter Will Richardon’s wrist, as the Pac-12’s leading 3-point shooter returns after hitting 46.9% of his attempts.
Focus on the poetic symmetry that is Arizona freshman Kerr Kriisa (hopefully, eventually) playing at the alma mater of Steve Kerr, or that two of the country’s most coveted prospects — ASU’s Josh Christopher and USC’s Evan Mobley — are joining their older brothers in college.
Focus on the precision that is UCLA’s Tyger Campbell passing in the break, the certainty that is Cal’s Matt Bradley at the free-throw line, the darting hands of Oregon’s Chris Duarte, the returning Pac-12 steals leader.
Focus on perhaps the best incoming freshman crop in years, headlined by Mobley, Christopher and Stanford’s Ziaire Williams.
Focus on Arizona’s Global Exchange program, which sees the Wildcats bringing in the United Nations of all-star squads, and UCLA’s balanced lineup that might make fans forget all about Steve Alford.
Focus on anything other than the inevitable misery bound for 319 NCAA member institutions. Only one team will be left standing at the end of the season.
We hope, at least. Better one left standing than 320 left waiting.
Reframe that negative energy this season. There is so much beauty in the Pac-12. Let’s keep our eyes on the prize this year.
And the prize is this: Forget March Madness, we’re lucky to have college basketball in the midst of this madness.
