Shrinking the Big Deal

 Saw an ESPN headline this a.m. that made me laugh, after which it made me say, "Really?" After which it made me say, "How pathetic is this?"

Here's what the headline said: Fans Storm The Court After Stanford Upsets No. 14 UNC.

Really?

Storming the court because you beat somebody ranked 14th?

How pathetic.

Also, what a shrinkage of the Big Deal motif, to the extent that the Big Deal becomes virtually meaningless; if everything is a Big Deal, then nothing is a Big Deal. That's how it goes, right?

Now, I'm sure the kids who stormed the court out in Palo Alto last night would argue it was a Big Deal, because their Cardinal beat North Carolina. Michael Jordan! Sam Perkins and James Worthy! Phil Ford and Tyler Hansbrough and Eric Montross and Saint Dean Smith Himself!

Except that's not North Carolina anymore.

North Carolina -- this year, anyway -- is Caleb Wilson and some kid named Henri Veesaar and some other kid named Luka, though not Luka Doncic. Luka Bogavac is his name.

North Carolina -- this year -- is a team that lost by 14 to unranked SMU and, right now, sits eighth in the ACC.

 North Carolina -- this year -- might as well be Coastal Carolina. 

Oh, and Stanford?

The Cardinal are 14-4 after last night. UNC, on the other hand, is 14-3.

In other words, this was not Chaminade taking down Ralph Sampson and No. 1 Virginia. It wasn't Watford-For-The-Win. It wasn't North Carolina State and Jimmy V shocking Houston and Phi Slamma Jama, or Villanova shocking Patrick Ewing and Georgetown, or Cleveland State taking down Indiana and Bob Knight.

It was one 14-win team beating another 14-win team. That's it.

And, yes, I know, I'm making way too much of a Big Deal myself about this, veering once more across the center line into Old Man Shouting At Clouds  territory. In my day, we only risked getting trampled to death when it MEANT something. In my day, we didn't have to invent achievement, we ACHIEVED it. In my day ...

And so on, and so forth.

But enough of that. I'm not going to embarrass myself completely and take some deep sociological plunge into the Diminishment Of Striving Among America's Youth or  The Entitlement Generation And How It Will Be The Downfall Of Western Culture.

That stuff is boring, for one thing. Also it's the most tired of rants. It is, after all, what every generation has said about the succeeding generation since Pliny the Elder was telling Pliny the Younger to get off his shiftless ass and do something with his life.

"DoorDash is not a career, Younger," quoth Elder.

Again, enough of that. Although I do wonder one thing.

What would happen if Stanford played No. 13 Illinois and won?

Why, they'd tear the roof off the place. Damn kids.