The Hunters and the Hunted

3-4-91

It was a pretty good week for Cobber sports. The track teams made a solid showing at the MIAC Championship Meet. The tennis teams spent a balmy and productive week in Arizona. And a renewed Lady Cobber basketball team, after assuming an unaccustomed role as underdog, played their most inspired game of the year, beating Gustavus 75-62 to advance to the "Sweet 16" of the NCAA Tournament.

The Lady Cobbers, long the hunted, have transformed themselves into the hunters.

Early last week, this Lady Cobber team, which had labored with the burden of defending a former lofty perch, found itself on a lower rung, looking up. And they had to adjust the way they thought of themselves.

Teams were no longer quaking at the thought of playing the vaunted Lady Cobbers. After three consecutive years of entering the NCAA tournament as a major favorite, this year's Lady Cobbers came in with seven losses, three of which came in their final week of regular- season play. The seven losses were the most for a Lady Cobber team in seven years. They had failed to win the MIAC title for just the second time in six years.

There were serious questions floating around last week as to how the Lady Cobbers would respond to their new circumstance. And Gustavus, a team that had beaten the Concordia women in their own house just two weeks earlier, was coming to town again, itching to impose a second embarrassment.

The Lady Cobber players faced a choice last week between a) maintaining that former self-image as defenders of the tradition or b) becoming hunters of their own unique goals.

Defending is a peculiar mental posture. After having spent such energy in attaining a coveted position, the role of defending that position requires an entirely different mindset. Self-satisfaction with past achievements, and the attainment of long-sought goals, can sap the emotional energy needed to defend one's gains. This is true in all fields of human endeavor.

Educators, for instance, have witnessed the corrosive effect of our nation's illusion that we are still the best-educated nation in the world.

Business leaders have tried to warn for years that our former status as the most productive nation in the world has become a myth born of complacency. And, perhaps due to an endless stream of well-publicized medical breakthroughs, we are only now awakening to the fact that our health care system borders on the barbaric in many parts of our country. Thinking you've arrived at the top usually means you've begun to head down.

Coaches are keenly aware of this tendency. They know, for instance, that it is the reason why repeating a championship season is so utterly difficult. And, as is their habit, coaches have come up with scores of cliches to articulate this basic human truth. Here is perhaps their purest and clearest: "The joy and satisfaction of life comes in the striving,"

The Lady Cobbers chose last week to abandon their defensive self-image as the hunted and adopt the role of the hunter. The change was evident in the ferocity of their play against Gustavus. They were attacking rather than reacting. They were passionate about wanting to play their best, rather than fearful they would lose.

The Lady Cobbers' successful role-change therapy, administered in the course of those three late-season losses, by no means assures them of more wins as they proceed in the tournament. They'll face another favored team this Friday at St. Thomas when they play Adrian College of Michigan, a team with a 22-3 record and an 83 point-per-game scoring average.

But if the performance of last Friday night is an indication of what lies ahead, you can rest assured that these Lady Cobbers have found a role they like. They are now the hunters.

St. Thomas, with its MIAC title in hand and the top ranking of the tournament's first-round survivors, is sitting in St. Paul, waiting to host this weekend's four-team NCAA Sectional Tournament, with a well-earned tag as the nation's best team.

Their two wins over Concordia in the regular-season are being called a watershed. No team has done that since the 84-85 season. St. Thomas, having chased Concordia for years, is now thinking, quite justifiably, about a first-ever Final Four appearance and a possible national title. With their 25-2 record, they are expected to reach the NCAA championship game on March 16th and win it. If they lose along the way, it will be called an upset.

St. Thomas has now become the hunted.

These pages are maintained by Jerry Pyle pyle@cord.edu. These articles are copyrighted © and may not be published or reproduced without the express permission of Jerry Pyle.

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