Call it nostalgia, call it not letting go, call it "not ready to focus on the diamond sports yet." Whatever you call it, we're not ready to let this past basketball season die. This is the final part of a three-part installment that looks at the magical season that was, as seen through the archives of posts, FanPosts, FanShots and comments on RMN. Today's installment takes a look at the postseason portion of the season.
- March 11: The Boy and ghtd36 record a podcast during the first day of the Big 12 Championship, only to have it be rendered moot when Texas Tech's Mike Singletary goes all "LOL WUT" on Texas A&M.
- March 12: While quickly LOLing at KU for losing to Baylor, we quickly get to know Texas Tech. Missouri secures a workmanlike victory to avoid a full day of upsets. DeMarre flies into computer monitors and J.T. gives me one of my favorite quotes of the season. While rpt is still working/waiting around on the Ford Center floor in OKC, the rest of RMN watches UConn and Syracuse duel in the Big East tourney.
- March 13: Missouri outruns Oklahoma State and a gimpy Byron "Fran Fraschilla loves me... A LOT" Eaton. RMN celebrates accordingly (with Mr. T and Gary Busey).
- March 14: The Missouri Tigers = 2009 Big 12 Champions. This precipitates coherent, beautiful, and poetic responses from RMN readers. Chitowntiger updates the "Coaches with Character" FanPost, and we watch the Tigers come home.
- March 20: Shortly after we better knew our opponent, Mizzou takes care of business against Cornell, and gives The Boy a chance to finally point to his score prediction.
- March 22: Kimmeh! is born and the "English Motherf*er!" Pulp Fiction joke circulates around RMN, as the Marquette game takes years off of our lives.
- March 26: The morning of the Memphis game, The Boy authors what is possibly my favorite RMN post of all-time. The track meet game begins, and tiemmel perfectly sums up Denmon's miracle shot to end the first half. The second half thread has a slight "Marquette game" feel to it, but Mizzou earns its Elite Eight berth. We succumb to the "Mandatory Elite Eight Podcast" rule.
- March 28: The magic runs out, as shots don't fall but Missouri takes UConn to the final minutes in the Tigers' season-ending loss. If you expected a long treatise, all you got was a short "Thank You" to this basketball team.
I know The Boy said it in his postmortem piece, but please let me reiterate how ecstatic we are about the way Rock M Nation has developed over the last few months. The community was kickstarted by the 2007 football team and started developing a serious life of its own during this football season, but this basketball season took things around here to another level.
I can't speak for The Boy or The Beef, but I feel tremendously proud of the community that has developed here. For the most part, it is becoming everything that was our vision for Rock M Nation when we first began discussing its inception in fall 2007. Stick with us through the offseason, keep commenting, and tell your friends. After all, football season is right around the corner...