Thank you, Tigers…

I have this void in my chest that I feel at all times where a national championship trophy should be. I love my Tigers so much and had the best time going to all the games this year with my friends and family. It has been a year of “moments” with you guys, and I will never forget it. Brad: the “hater”…. loves his team so much that he was afraid to hope else he get hurt. Didn’t matter if we were up by twenty, he was finding all of our flaws and no doubt coaching everyone in his head. I loved seeing him lose all inhibition and begin to hope and have the twinkle in his eye with the rest of us. Annie and Mike: I will miss that the two of you are still the only two to actually know the words to the U of M fight song. I loved that y’all were just as crazy as we were about needing to keep every tradition else we lose. We finished those M & M’s 2.1 seconds early I think. Mal and Kat: I wish you could have been at more games this year, but Mal, I sure loved sending you off to Vandy so that your team could kick the Vols’ ass. Mom and Kurt: Not many people can say that they were able to take their kids to the National Championship game in a chartered bus, staying at the Memphis hotel, not to mention being able to sit right behind the team all year long watching the magic happen. Thank you for the VIP treatment and the experience of a lifetime. I will miss the hour long conversations we have about the players, the game, the plays and the fouls. Every game when we couldn’t be there we texted like a hundred times. Dad: I loved talking basketball this year. I have fallen in love with your sport and I think it’s so dang cool that you play it. Zicky: I loved that Mr. No Interest in Sports had a party to watch the National Championship game. I had so much fun watching the Georgetown game with you. That was Mad’s first game. How cool is that? There are so many memories that were made this year because of this team. I will miss the fact that no matter what, if a play inside the paint doesn’t go our way, I always scream ” HOW WAS THAT NOT A FOUL?” Even, if clearly, it wasn’t. LA and Jason, Carrie and Chris, all the gazillion people that we see at the games and share this love with: this year was so much fun and we can’t wait to do it again. Boscos, Pearl’s, Spaghetti Warehouse, doesn’t matter where we eat, as long as it isn’t Spindini, those were some of the best times ever. I don’t even know how to shop for clothes that aren’t Tiger blue. I’m pretty sure that Tiger blue has eaten up my entire wardrobe. I will miss getting the kids to sleep on Wednesday nights and “refreshing” the score on ESPN.com every thirty seconds just so I could know the box score of the game at every given moment. Brad and I took it back a few twenty years during the UAB game in Birmingham when our cable was out and listened to the entire game on my clock radio with baited breath. I will never forget the look we gave each other when we heard that CDR had made the shot and was fouled. Midnight madness, watching Derrick Rose during the dunk contest…. that’s when I started to believe. I will miss watching forty minutes of basketball and then feeling like I need about forty more. Most people outside Memphis wouldn’t and couldn’t understand why this year this team has mattered so much to us. All I can say is, that it has… and thank you to the athletes and Calipari for that. As Damp would say “you kids played your hearts out.” Thank you for this feeling. You’ve made me fall in love with the game. Underdog sports movies have always been my favorites, and it’s been like living the scene in Jerry Maguire when Rod Tidwell gets offered 13 million dollars for playing his heart out. . My pocketful of Kanye will always sing out for you… “It’s a Good Life.”