It happened again!?!?!

Wow.

Just wow.

You try not to root for a team you cover so you can stay objective, but it's impossible not to feel bad for this group of kids. Three times in their last five regular season games, this group of Blue Devils (freshmen not included) have lost either at the buzzer or in the final seconds.

You wish better for a group of genuinely nice kids. You selfishly wish better for the team you cover because wins are always more fun to write about and get better publicity for you and the paper you cover. People like to read about winners.

When Ambrose's shot went up tonight I found myself truly rooting for a positive outcome for the second time since I took this beat. The first was the time the women's soccer team played at the Q a couple of years ago without some of their best players and with the playoffs on the line. The players had been suspended for a rules violation, and Mick D'Arcy picked the right thing over winning. When CCSU won the game anyway and went to the playoffs on a goal from someone who wasn't even a soccer player, justice had prevailed and I was genuinely happy that a coach who did things the right way was rewarded.

Tonight was the 2nd time. I wasn't rooting because I wanted to get to cover a winner. And I certainly wasn't rooting against Mr. Ambrose, who played brilliantly. And the more I think of it, maybe you can't even call what I was feeling "rooting."

All I know for sure is that Ken Horton deserved better tonight. Shemik Thompson deserved better. Robby Ptacek didn't deserve his fate. This team that has showed itself over three games to be a gutty bunch of never-say-die players and over the last year-plus to be nice people deserves a break. Just once, this group deserves to be on the other side of a gut-wrencher.

I still believe that Central is going to be a really good team. Maybe I was wrong (or at least ahead of myself) and the Devils are still a year away. But at some point, next week or next year, this team is going to take their frustrations out on someone. There are lots of wins ahead, and I become more convinced every day that the NEC Player of the Year award will someday be called the "Ken Horton Trophy."

I'll be back to my old objective, analytical self tomorrow. For now, I just find myself feeling sick for those kids. The basketball gods owe them a couple.