Here's to the students whose pictures appear on every page of their yearbooks. It was a victory for overachieving nerds, to the kids who do their homework, mow the lawn and go to church. Except Battier isn't really a nerd. He's a classy young man who instantly melts any preconceived notions about sanctimoniousness when you meet him. When he climbed the ladder to take his ceremonial snip of the net, one almost expected him to keep climbing.
Basketball is just a steppingstone.
Battier for president. Here's to the basketball players who stay in school when the NBA beckons, who savor their brief time on an idyllic campus, reading textbooks instead of balancing checkbooks, hanging out at the student union instead of in hotel suites. He would have had to relive the failure of losing to Connecticut in the 1999 title game. He would have missed the moment Monday when Krzyzewski did a little hop and hugged his wife and daughters. He won three state championships in high school.