How To Deal.

NCAA March Madness is wrapping up the Sweet Sixteen stage, and there have been plenty of upsets to go around. When a person doesn't have a 'home team' to cheer for, they're pretty exciting to watch. Buzzer-beaters, turnovers and airballs with less than a second left have defined whether a team moves on or not. Fast-paced action, packed arenas cheering and yelling on every play. It makes you wish you were there.

Kansas and Syracuse, two number-one ranked teams, have already been upset.

Many people are upset because of brackets being busted. Some are over-the-moon excited to see their teams pull off the upsets.

For me? I'm rattled watching it. Not because of my bracket (don't have one.. maybe next year), or my team losing (Kentucky, FTW). Simply because it all hits too close to home.

Last weekend was the CIS Men's Basketball Championships (I know, you had no idea). It marked the single weekend that I have been hearing about almost on a daily basis for just about a year now.

The Carleton Ravens were defending champions, and ranked number one heading into the weekend after a somewhat up-and-down season. Everyone was saying that Carleton couldn't repeat after losing their three star players, simply saying that the talent was no longer there. The loss to York really didn't help their case.

However, they battled back. They worked hard. Looking at them, you knew that they had every ounce of determination to get back to that final game and try to repeat as champions.

But they lost in the semi-finals to Saskatchewan, a team that they had easily handled at the beginning of the season.

Watching the clock count down and seeing the Saskatchewan side of the scoreboard continue to climb, trying to do the math in your head to figure out how many possessions they have left and how many 3-pointers they're inevitably going to need.

Just waiting for "the big play".

Seeing the team come back within one point of Saskatchewan and then simply not being able to capitalize on chances to gain the lead.

It's agonizing.

And then when the buzzer goes, you think: what now? Did that actually just happen?

You want to be happy for the other team. They played a good game. They deserved it.

But seeing the other scores from the games that followed makes you a tad bitter.

That was supposed to be your team. That's not how it's supposed to go.

And then you think, what now?

Everyone has their own way of dealing with disappointment. For many, it involves copious amounts of alcohol. But I think the main thing about team sports is just knowing that there are your teammates, who are all equally as disappointed as you are. Your families and friends who were right there with you every step of the way know how much losing a big game like that sucks. They understand. They essentially went through the whole thing with you.

Personally? I think it's only going to serve as motivation for next year. For the fifth-years, it's a bitter way to go out. But the rest of the team has another crack at it, and this time with some of the pressure off. Maybe with a young team, that's just what they need.

I suppose it's all a part of the game. I mean, if we always knew who was going to win, it wouldn't be very enjoyable, would it?

... and there's always next year.