I watch the last five minutes from the tunnel where the team comes out. I went there to pace, but I didn't need to pace. I just watched us slowly let the Penn State lead creep up to 12 before we tried to chip away but fell short. Tyler attended the press conference, I went back upstairs to gather my things, and then Tyler drove me to my hotel. Telling the guy at the front desk "yeah, so can you change my reservation so that I'm checking out tomorrow morning?" was not fun.

I walk into my room at the Marroitt Somethingorother and it's one of those where the TV is on and the message says "welcome to your room Mr. Rosenthal". There's a Marriott promotional video playing, and as I'm unzipping my suitcase on the bed, he's talking about some Marriott Hotel he designed (in Miami?) and the building that used to be on that site was named the "Ben Trovato." They thought it might be someone's name, but as they researched, they realized it was part of this Italian phrase:

Se non e vero e ben trovato

It means -- and please keep in mind I'm counting on a Marriott Hotels promotional video for the Italian translation here -- "it might not be true, but it's a story well told."

That landed with me. Maybe I'm just tired (and tired of losing), but that fit. I did some googling and I found that the expression is used when reacting to, say, an employee who gives a fantastic story of why they missed work yesterday. None of it is true, but kudos on the elaborate story. You're clearly making all of this up, but it's at least entertaining.

(I'm probably doing that thing where you assume a translation for some expression in another language is correct but you're way, way off. What I'm doing here is probably akin to someone from another country saying "there's this phrase in the United States that says "a bird you hold in your hand is worth two bushes'." It's likely that I'm butchering everything... but I'm going to continue.)

For whatever reason, "it might not be true, but it's a story well told" helped me understand my feelings towards this team. Specifically, my feelings when watching Brad Underwood talk about this team in a press conference. That's not a shot at Underwood. As I said earlier in the week, I'm fine with 20-11 (well, 20-12 now) the year after Kofi left. I'm simply saying that I like the way he talks about this team and what it might become... but it's not the reality.

The last two years I felt like I knew (and loved) the team. Think back to your feeling when Trent hit those threes in Michigan (one at Michigan State, another eight days later at Michigan). That's my GUY. Trent 4-ever. I remember going down to the court after that Michigan State game, with Kofi having come out of the locker room to see Giorgi (who had attended the game). Trent hits a dagger three, we win in Breslin, and there's Kofi and Giorgi hanging out and laughing? This is my TEAM.

This year, everyone is gone from that team besides Luke Goode, RJ Melendez, and Coleman Hawkins. We had to replace all five starters. And we did that through the transfer portal (Dain Dainja, Terrence Shannon Jr, and Matthew Mayer) and four freshmen (Skyy Clark, Jayden Epps, Ty Rodgers, and Sencire Harris). It was a complete and total roster overhaul. Which meant that as the season started, I was still trying to understand this team. I felt like I knew every single thing there was to know about Trent Frazier and Da'Monte Williams, but I knew nothing at all about Matthew Mayer and Terrence Shannon.

As the season wore on, I found that I was maybe following the story of this team more than I was following the actual team. I don't know if that makes sense, but that's how it felt. I didn't know the players so I relied on the stories throughout the season. Matt Mayer found a headband in the parking lot! The whole team messes with Coleman Hawkins when he gets mad at practice! We actually play Danger Zone in the SFC after a big Dain Dainja play! Underwood made a fart sound! Mayer drank too many Monster energy drinks!

It might not be a basketball team, but it's a story well told.

(As I'm typing this I realize that I'm using an Italian phrase and we have a player from Italy over on the bench. His name might be Niccolo Moretti, but I think I'm going to call him Ben Trovato.)

I mean, that's all part of this as well, right? We added a kid from France and a kid from Italy mid-season! And the kid from France already went back to France! This whole thing sounds like a movie pitch.

"OK, so you have this grizzled coach who brings in this whole new team. The star is coming back home to Illinois after things didn't work out in Texas. There's also a tall guy who wears a headband and has a Monster Energy Drink addiction. One guy is literally named "Danger." The freshman star quits, they add players from France and Italy halfway through, there's a super skinny kid who looks like one of those car dealership inflatables, and at the center of it all is this hard-to-figure-out character who seems like the problem at the beginning of the year but then by the end everyone realizes that he's the heart and soul of the team. What do you think?"

"I think this is my floor."

I like the idea of that team. That team makes for good stories along the way. None of it is true, and it's not going to work out in the end, but hey, great story.

That's where I've landed after this third (THIRD!) loss to Penn State. I'm entertained by this team - who doesn't love a good Sencire Harris energy burst? - but none of this eventually leads anywhere. The flaws were clear at the start and the flaws are clear at the end. The end.

Take the "employee misses work but gives an elaborate story" thing I mentioned above. That kind of fits how I've been feeling about this team. That explains why I convinced myself that things would be different this time when playing Penn State. You get so caught up in the story that you're not thinking about the realities. Even though you found it entertaining that their why-I'm-late story included a tractor trailer full of rubber ducks overturning on the interstate and then getting trapped in an elevator with three-fifths of Maroon 5, none of it was real.

The realities here? We can't shoot. Andrew Funk can shoot, and as Tyler tweeted this evening, Andrew Funk made 14 of 24 threes against us in three games, but we just can't consistently shoot the ball. The end.

During the game, Tyler and I were talking about the thing he's written all year - how it seems like any time we have a massive three, we miss. Every time we lean forward in our chairs - "three pointer to take the leeeeeeaaaad" - we miss. Over and over and over. The Luke Goode three in the first half which would have finally regained the lead was a perfect example of this. That three has dropped so many times over the years. And this year we just keep missing that momentum-shifter.

Which, obviously, is just the result of math. It feels like we miss those huge threes because we've missed more three pointers in 2023 than any other season in my lifetime (I'll look that stat up tomorrow but I know it's true). The makes should be extremely surprising at this point.

Yet I've continued to live in this fantasy land where the corner will be turned in the very next game. Riding up here on the train I had this "Penn State, then Northwestern - Indiana will be mighty fun on CBS Saturday afternoon" thought. But none of that is based in reality. Even if we did have a hot shooting night against Penn State, we were going to go ice cold the next day.

One more thought and then I'm going to bed. I just took some pills that I take before bed. When opening the bottle, remembered that I had put 5 pills in the travel bottle. You know, just in case I was going to be in Chicago Wednesday night, and Thursday night, and Friday night, and Saturday night, and Sunday night. Maybe I'll need ALL of these pills because Danger and Monster and the boys will go off at the BTT.

Fun story, but, uh, it's not true.