Change is rarely easy. For my part, I avoid it whenever possible — unplanned changes cause an uncomfortable static in the brain that makes it hard to focus. Unfortunately for me, college sports as a whole has been in a protracted period of change, and the shifting faces of the sports I grew up loving no longer feel as familiar. Rosters, seemingly all new each year, are harder to get excited for, and any player I look forward to watching in the years to come always carries an implied caveat of “…wherever
they end up next season.”
Tonight, for only the second time, the Tar Heels will take the floor under the command of Coach Michael Malone, a jarringly new face on the sidelines. An interloper, maybe, in the eyes of some; a stranger to the Carolina Family hired from far-off Denver. Even after a nearly-full offseason to adapt, the static in my brain still flares occasionally when I am reminded of the changes since last year. Unfamiliar figures wearing very familiar colors.
Sometimes, though, change is good. Sometimes systemic change is necessary, static be damned; sometimes the current status quo is insufficient. The latent potential in Carolina basketball can be overwhelming — a program accustomed to being at the pinnacle of the sport, whose fans are accustomed to the same. If the old system no longer serves that purpose, in this brave new (incredibly staticky) world, we have to be ready to embrace the change. That’s easier said than done, in some cases, but it’s the only constant in life.
Early November, from what I’ve heard, is a lovely time for change. At least in Chapel Hill, November is the slide into winter, a quasi-fall tipping point in which the days grow shorter, and colder, and nights grow longer and full of college basketball. A thin place between seasons, both on the calendar and on the field of competition, with football rounding into the home stretch and basketball just getting underway. No amount of brain static can dampen my enthusiasm for this part of the year, and not only because I’ll celebrate another birthday at some point this month if all goes according to plan.
Such a sea change can be incredibly disorienting, but it can also be a wonderful thing. I woke up this morning with a profound sense of hope, and part of me worries it is the poisoning kind; I even find myself mildly optimistic about the football team, after the profound changes that have taken place in Kenan Stadium. More changes wouldn’t be unwelcome, of course, but I’d hate to get ahead of myself.
Either way, if you look, there are plenty of reasons for hope. It’s a season of change, of growth, of improvement. A basketball team of disparate parts from all over the map, hopefully gelling more and more each game. A football team, undistracted perhaps for the first time in years, hopefully putting something together. All these changes, but the same school. The same floor; the same field. The same beautiful blue.
It’s a great day to be a Tar Heel. That, at least, will never change.
