Gotta have that fix

Welcome to Davidson College. To your left we have tables where you can sign up for meal plans, pick up your cat card and mailbox key, and buy some posters for your room. Over here we have tables where you can sign up for all of the different organizations that the campus has to offer from singing to religion to sports and politics. Finally, if you follow me into the bookstore you will find an assortment of new Davidson gear and school supplies. We will be getting in our new shipment of Stephen Curry jerseys next week.

Hold on, what?

Although the last week of orientation and the beginning of classes might look relatively ordinary to the standard observer of life at Davidson, right beneath the surface of all of the hubbub and nervousness and social connecting is a very new phenomenon: universal obsession with the Davidson's men's basketball team.

News of Davidson's Top 25 ranking and incredible schedule has spread through the student and faculty ranks, and all of a sudden being a basketball fanatic doesn't seem as nerdy as it did just a measly three years ago. You wouldn't believe how many obsessive upperclassmen have asked me about the unreleased schedule so they can make their Thanksgiving and Spring Break plans around the basketball team. Basketball really is the cool new thing to do now.

As a history major, I really enjoy looking at the progression of attitudes and social movements and I must say that the steady increase in interest in men's basketball in the last few years has been truly remarkable. For example, one incoming freshman contacted the men's basketball office over the summer to inquire about being a manager for the men's team. Every day more and more people contact the school asking about how they can get signed Davidson memorabilia ("how much does a signed Stephen Curry poster cost?"). We have Stephen Curry posters now? I'm sorry but I missed that memo.

I say all of this in recognition of the readership of this blog and their primary interests. I know how much all of you love to hear about the men's basketball team. None of you are alone in your obsessions right now.

But at the same time, I've got a ton of sports to cover this fall in my last semester as sports editor of the Davidsonian. From the promised rebuilding year of a men's soccer team that went through social peril last season to a football team with a gigantic chip on their shoulder to prove that they aren't the stereotypical doormat of Davidson's sports, this fall will provide many great sports stories. Did I mention that somewhere and at some point I should probably find time to write my thesis paper?

So hold off on your men's basketball needs for just a little bit. The blog might seem a little slower than most you Kool-Aid drinkers would like, but just sit back and enjoy the autumn cool and I promise that November 14th will be here before you know it.

Welcome back.