March Madness is here. (I know you know that.)
A couple of years back, I made a quick sweep of NCAA stories from The Associated Press and found a basket-load of cliches. Each year, I like to take it out to see whether I hear the same things. These sentences could be applied to almost any game, any sport, on any day.
(The quotes are from players and coaches, but I won't name any names.)
The humble:
"I just wanted to make a big play. I guess luck was just on my side when I shot it."
The wistful:
"If you dance with the devil so long, eventually it's going to get you."
"It was a battle. It was like a heavyweight boxing match out there."
"We weren't being aware. You can't have that when your life is on the line like that. They played tough and made some big shots. We didn't."
The admiring:
"The kid made a heck of a play."
"What they've done, what they've accomplished, words can't describe. They left their heart on the floor." (They shared just the one heart, I guess.)
"They pounced on us from the beginning. It kind of took us by surprise."
The hopeful:
"Turnovers have hurt us. I have confidence in our guys. I think that they have confidence in themselves."
"Nothing was going to bother me. There would be no complaining, whatever happens, happens. We'll control the things we can control and not worry about the things we can't."
"I'm proud of their maturity. I don't think an immature team has a chance to win this game."
The determined:
"You've got to survive and advance this time of year."
"The best thing is, we were still in the game. Those mistakes, fortunately, didn't come back to haunt us."
"We're going to be in full attack mode the whole entire game."
The winners:
"We knew we were the better team. And I knew in my head, especially as the game was going on, if I could just make a shot we could blow this open."
"The message Coach gave us, and me personally, is you have to go out and compete. We responded to the situation and took it and ran with it."
"The only reason we won is because we made shots at the end, and that's what counted. We just got a team full of fighters, man."
The nonwinners:
"We wanted to get a win. It's terrible right now to play our last game."
"We've got to let it go. We've got bright futures ahead of us. We've got to let the past be the past."
The honest:
"It really didn't have anything to do with the moment or the confidence to shoot it. I just caught it and shot it. I didn't think about it."
A LITTLE BACKGROUND
That sports section sent me in search of a few word origins.
• Wistful
What exactly is a wist and why would one be full of them? This word is a combination of "wishful" and the obsolete word "wistly," which means intently. Today the definition is "full of yearning or desire tinged with melancholy."
• Braggadocio
This is one of my favorite words. Not surprisingly, it means a braggart. But the word came from a boastful knight, Braggadochio, in Edmund Spenser's 16th-century allegory "The Faerie Queene." I won't spoil things by revealing what happens to him. Whatever happens, happens.
• Hoopla
This means much ado and clatter. It comes from a French exclamation, "houp-la."
Sources: Merriam-Webster, The Associated Press, Spark Notes, Buck Ryan
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ActiveStyle on 03/13/2017