It’s almost time, friends. No, I’m not talking about Fall Break, the feast of St. Margaret of Scotland, or (shudder) the first presidential primaries. I’m talking about college basketball. A good time, then, for this review, “Holy Hoops”, by Jason Byassee, of Will Blythe’s (misguided, of course) To Hate Like This Is to Be Happy Forever: A Thoroughly Obsessive, Intermittently Uplifting, and Occasionally Unbiased Account of the Duke-North Carolina Basketball Rivalry (HarperCollins, 2006). Here’s the opening of the review:
The air has turned. The heat is gone, cool is here, cold is coming. This can only mean one thing: college basketball is on its way.
In advance of this quasi-liturgical season (at least for those reared in North Carolina, Kentucky, Indiana, and other enlightened places) let us ponder matters metaphysical. I have evidence for the existence of a merciful God. Proof, almost: Duke and North Carolina have never met in a men’s basketball Final Four. How could heaven compare to the joy of winning such an apocalyptic contest, or hell to losing it? If bonfires and naked revelry erupt when the two meet in regular season games, what manner of destruction and mayhem would accompany a title game between the two?
Now, what’s the connection to Vox Nova? Hmmm. Well, Coach K. is a Polish Catholic from Chicago. And, of course, all things pertaining to the true, the good, and the beautiful ought to be within our purview here. (There is some God-talk in the review.)
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