Giving thanks for sports — why 2020 hasn’t broken me yet
By: Tanner Lafever
Tags: Thanksgiving, Sports, College Basketball, College Football, Tournaments

It’s been a weird year.

Obviously.

So it comes as no real surprise to yours truly that it was also a weird Thanksgiving week leading to a weird Thanksgiving day and weekend thereafter.

But with the calendar since turning to December, I sit here in the midst of it all and I’m struck by a feeling of gratitude for what my present situation does provide, rather than what it lacks.

No, I’m not talking about the really important stuff like family — whom, for the first time ever, I was unable to join for a traditional Thursday celebration.

(I did get to see them that weekend, but it was certainly a noticeable, and missed departure from the norm to go through the official calendar-marked holiday date solo for the first time.)

What I’m most struck by in this very moment in time is how thankful I am that despite all of the challenges and hardships this hellhole of a year has sent our collective way, I still have sports to keep me going.

As college basketball made it’s long awaited return less than two weeks ago it all began to crystalize for me just how much there is to appreciate even amidst the chaos that continues to be 2020.

Every 12 months, this particular portion of the calendar serves as my personal favorite of the sports year.

The NFL entering its home stretch is nice, and lord knows that machine sucks up as much of the proverbial ‘oxygen in the room’ as it can.

That alone would be enough reason for some people.

But for this guy here, it’s the college scene that makes every day this time of year a true delight to wake up to.

How it all works

Thanksgiving time means rivalry week for college football, with conference championship weekend right around the corner. It means the true College Football Playoff contenders have both everything to play for and everything to lose.

It’s a time for historic moments like this:

The ‘Kick Six’ not only marked the grandest moment in Iron Bowl history, but it simultaneously stoked previously unfathomable championship dreams for some, while abruptly dashing what were the championship expectations of others.

And it’s a time for infamous images like this:

Elijah Moore and Ole Miss may not have won the 2019 Egg Bowl, but at least they (and we) will always have the memories of that fateful evening. (Matt Bush — USA TODAY Sports)

Thanksgiving time also means wall-to-wall college hoops content at seemingly every conceivable hour and on every conceivable network as holiday tournaments take place across the country.

It means it’s time to stay up late Monday-Wednesday as eight teams converge on a majestic island locale, one home to both rich tropical beauty and an equally idyllic (in its own special way) Lāhainā Civic Center, where you’ll find the most magical, forgiving rims of any basketball hoops in existence.

That last statement is unequivocally true BTW, and comes supported by the scientific proof that is any respectable basketball observer who knows what the heck they’re talking about.

Per tradition, we’re gifted with countless tournaments across the country, spanning from seemingly the near break of dawn until deep into the night.

Multi-team events litter Florida and the South Carolina coast, while a bevy of others pack New York City. From there you can jump from Kansas City to Vegas to California, finding high level hoops all along the way. And lest we forget to mention, the Maui Invitational is far from the only source of island action.

Chances are, if you can identify a sea-locked piece of territory in the Northern/Western hemisphere during this part of the calendar, you will, in fact, find a college basketball tournament taking place there.

And so, these are the events, and in turn, the memories, that I’m filled with each and every year as we toe the precipice of holiday season.

(At least in the crevasses of my being not otherwise stuffed to occupancy by Thanksgiving snacking, dinner and leftovers.)

Like clockwork I can recall our family arriving at my Grandma’s house that late Wednesday afternoon following a two hour’s drive, taking my luggage downstairs, and then making my way directly to the living room to plop down in one of her swiveling recliners to watch the Maui Invitational championship game — all the while desperately hoping I wouldn’t be summoned to help with additional unpacking, or to socialize out in the kitchen area.

(Sorry mom…)

Maybe I’m just an odd bird the way my mind works, but so often its remembrance of sporting events that transport me back to a specific time and place, amplifying the love and affection I feel for the people with whom I shared those moments.

So in some form or fashion, each of the following Maui championship moments are seared into my mind:

North Carolina/Iowa (2004)

North Carolina/Notre Dame (2008)

UConn/Kentucky (2010)

Duke/Kansas (2011)

Kansas/Vanderbilt (2015)

Notre Dame/Wichita State (2017)

Gonzaga/Duke (2018)

Kansas/Dayton (2019)

I was at Grandma’s house, in one of those swivel recliners, for each and every one of them.

But while basketball carries the first half of the week, college football is what brings it home.

Again, I can vividly recall sitting on Grandma’s recliner, family all around, on Thanksgiving night in disbelief as Mississippi receiver Elijah Moore quite literally ‘pissed away’ his team’s chance to send a bitterly contested 2019 Egg Bowl to overtime against hated rival Mississippi State.

It was the kind of moment you almost had to see to believe, and even then it doesn’t quite register that it indeed actually happened.

Of course we’re talking Ole Miss/Mississippi State here, so then again, the more you think about it the more it almost makes perfect sense.

But wait, the clock hasn’t even turned to Friday yet, so the fun is only just beginning.

The Iowa Hawkeyes, one of my childhood teams (and alma mater), and Big Ten conference realignment helped kick start another staple of Thanksgiving weekend when, 10 years ago now, their annual Black Friday meeting with Nebraska was put into motion.

And with six consecutive series wins to date, its been a new tradition a certain Black & Gold fan contingent is more than happy to get behind.

Bryon Houlgrave/The Register

Then Saturday comes, and your full slate of Auburn/Alabama’s, Florida/FSU’s, Ohio State/Michigan’s, etc., set the framework for a day of little ‘thanks’ giving or holiday spirit between foes around the country who are eager and conditioned to despise one another.

Football doesn’t really get much better than that.

An altered ‘meal,’ just as satisfying as the usual main course

And so my tradition for said sports week had been set for years now.

Before 2020 the only other time I can recall departing from my standard practice was seven years ago, when, instead of taking in the athletic festivities of the week from afar at my usual post at Grandma’s, my family and I became live participants.

(Getting to work on a late-November suntan while we were at it.)

Atlantis Resort — Paradise Island, Bahamas

Not only did the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament backdrop treat us to a mind-blowing week of high-level basketball, beautiful weather and cherished memories — it also just so happened to coincide with the historic ‘Kick Six’ Iron Bowl that very same weekend.

So in a hotel room somewhere inside of that jaw-dropping resort, we watched the closing moments of an all-time college football clash…and then quite literally walked down a few hotel hallways into a repurposed ballroom to take our seats for the tournament championship game — a heartbreaking 88–83 overtime defeat by Villanova over Iowa.

Huh, I guess it’s no wonder why I kind of dig this time of year?

And while 2020 certainly threw a wrench into the regular proceedings, in coming out on the other side of it all I found myself as fulfilled as always.

With little-to-no fan attendance across the board, schedule/location changes galore, and a myriad of other oddities and on the fly adjustments, there was still nothing to do but, as always, sit down, watch the games and have a total blast doing it.

You had constant action from a pseudo ‘bubble’ set up on tribal land at the Mohegan Sun Casino & Resort.

Meanwhile, traditional tourney’s like the Battle 4 Atlantis (Sioux Falls, South Dakota) and Maui Invitational (Asheville, North Carolina) were rerouted to slightly less tropical venues.

And yet, it was an absolute treat.

Mid-pandemic I was able to see both sources of my college fandom play football and basketball games within the same week. Given the mess of a year we’re still in the thick of — and how desolate the sports landscape was just a few months ago — those treats alone would have been plenty enough for me.

But in the spirit of giving thanks, I was thankfully both quite able and happy to stuff my sports-loving gullet even further from there.

I watched Boston College and Rhode Island play three combined basketball games over two days for crying out loud, and I am not ashamed to say it was delightful.

I…you know what, I’ll stop there.

I’m pretty sure the last sentence made my point well enough.

And that point is, I was just elated to discover that even in a year that’s been anything but normal, my favorite sports stretch of the calendar was still there for me in the same way its always been.

For that, I am truly thankful.