Tonight is not just Big Monday. And it's not just a game between two of 2009's Big East contenders who are now struggling to stay afloat.
Tonight, UConn and Louisville: THIS! IS! YOUR! SEASON!
That's right! It's America's favorite game show, where two teams with failing NCAA Tournament hopes meet in front of a national television audience. The grand prize: exiting Freedom Hall at 14-8, with dreams of 20 wins and a low NCAA seed still kicking.
And the loser, at 13-9, can almost certainly start making alternative plans for March, barring a major turnaround over the final nine games of the Big East schedule.
These are two teams who have done just about everything possible to blow their seasons, losing five or six games each that could've/should've gone the other way. It's hard to believe that a year ago, this was a top-five matchup in which UConn completely dominated from start to finish. Now, UConn enters desperate for a win - and its first true road win this season - with games against the top three Big East teams remaining.
Unfortunately for UConn and its fans, Louisville is not only going to be righteously pissed over that game, but also over their absolute hose-job in the final seconds at West Virginia Saturday. UConn probably should be pissed over the Marquette chokejob on Saturday, but that would imply that the Blane Dog 3000 has human feelings.
No matter what happens tonight, one fan base will be completely miserable. Will it be UConn's? (Spoiler: Probably.) Join us before, during and after the game to talk about it right here in this thread.
UConn has lost five of seven since we joined SBNation. Sorry about that, everyone.
But, as Fergy pointed to in this post, we cannot just stand idly by. No, we must seek inspiration. Behold:
Now let's do this.