Lessons from the NCAA Tournament: The suffering makes all the success sweeter

The Orlando Magic are suffering right now. I am here to tell you, this suffering will make the inevitable breakthrough all the better.

It did not take long for the outcome of Thursday night’s 122-92 loss to the Golden State Warriors to become evident.

Klay Thompson scored 21 points in the first quarter, outscoring the Orlando Magic by a point. And the game was seemingly over. The Warriors’ firepower was too much. Stephen Curry added 17 points in the third quarter along and that was that. Orlando trailed by as much as 36 points and gave up 36 points off 21 turnovers.

By all accounts, it was a sloppy and frustrating game where the Magic were never really in tune with the game plan and overall unprepared to play (Frank Vogel’s words, not mine).

Orlando lost its seventh game by 30 or more points. It is a disappointing statistic for a disappointing season. A stat that shows both how outmatched the Magic have been throughout the season and how quickly they will recede from the fight.

Quite simply, teams with the ambitions the Magic have do not have these losses often. And, yes, this was the Warriors, but there is no way any NBA team should beat another by this much. Let along for it to happen regularly — this is the second 30-point loss in the last week.

For Magic fans, it becomes only more frustrating. They have to sit through these games and find a reason to watch every night. The worst thing a team can do is make it a chore to watch their games. Orlando’s season has been frustrating on that end.

I am here to tell you, though, all this suffering will be worth it someday. Someday things will turn in the Magic’s favor. And it will get better in one glorious moment.

I saw it firsthand Thursday afternoon.

Full disclosure, I did not watch the Magic’s game against the Warriors. Yes, even I miss a game (this is my first of the year). I did my best to follow — and many thanks to OMD’s Ruben Badillo for the postgame grades — but I was too delirious still from the day’s events.

Orlando Magic

The reason I did not watch the game (or enough of it to comment too much specifically on what happened) is that I am in Salt Lake City for the NCAA Tournament. My alma mater, Northwestern, is in its first NCAA Tournament ever.

That was not a typo. The Wildcats of the Big Ten are in their first NCAA Tournament ever. And it was not a moment anyone within the basketball community for that school could miss.

Northwestern’s basketball history is littered with plenty of disappointment and bitter defeats. The year I covered the team for The Daily Northwestern in 2008, the team won one Big Ten game. One Big Ten game.

In the 10 years I have followed the program, I have seen them knock on the door of the Tournament only to see them fall flat on their face — taking an inopportune bad loss or suffering some unfortunate injury. They were never really close.

The Tournament dream seemed impossible. Everyone got excited for a NIT run to the quarterfinals (Klay Thompson dashed those dreams while he was at Washington State).

Being here in Salt Lake City — a relatively strange town — watching this team play on this stage is quite simply a dream come true. It has made all the suffering worth it — for me and for lifelong fans who have shared with fellow alumni here just how insane this feeling is for them.

The amount of purple in the town is simply incredible. There are decades and generations of cathartic release occurring.

And that was before the game itself.

The NCAA Tournament is well under way, as most basketball fans know. And the first day saw few surprises or excitement. Except, that game between Northwestern and Vanderbilt.

The two teams played tight to the end — Northwestern lost a 15-point lead in the second half — exchanging the lead several times in the last few minutes. It ended with a Vanderbilt player committing a boneheaded foul in the backcourt with his team up one and 30 seconds to play. Northwestern made its free throws and won the game 68-66.

In that moment there was a general release of pent-up anxiety. The Wildcats had not only made the Tournament, but they had won their first game.

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None of this is likely important to you as a Magic fan. It probably ruined a few brackets. And it probably made Magic color analyst Jeff Turner mildly upset (sorry, about that Jeff).

But experiencing all this firsthand was one of the greatest joys as a fan.

There will come a time soon for Northwestern when the Tournament becomes commonplace. The crowd for the next Tournament appearance will not be as big as this one — where the Utah Jazz’s Vivint Smart Home Arena was filled with purple and even the TV broadcasters apparently noted the crowd noise in the Wildcats’ favor.

But this victory was made all the sweeter and impactful by the suffering that had come before. The pain and heartbreak made everyone hardened and determined to see success. And made the enjoyment that much better.

Obviously, a pro franchise cannot go through the decades of ineptitude Northwestern had in basketball (and, believe me, it was ineptitude). Not everyone has the same blind allegiance as they do to their alma maters.

But the hard times, like these times for the Magic, are not a time to give up either. It is sticking through these times that will make the (inevitable) success better and more rewarding.

The 1995 Finals run was great for its newness and the tone it set for the franchise. The first great run is always special.

But the 2009 Finals run was nearly as satisfying in so many ways. All the years of suffering through the sense of complete loss in losing Shaquille O’Neal and the missteps and miscues in the intervening 14 years washed away.

The 2009 Finals run felt like the team had to work for it. It had to go through the failed rebuild with Tracy McGrady, the missed opportunities in the Draft, Anfernee Hardaway‘s injury and all that to reach the top again, finally.

Even the few years running up to 2009 were special. Winning the division in 2008 and getting out of the first round that year for the first time in 12 years washed away all that pain. But it would not have meant as much without those defeats and without that struggle.

We always grow from our failures as we build toward our successes — as fans, as teams, as organizations and as individuals.

If there is a lesson to take from this season as a fan, it is this: Forever is a long time. Things will turn for the better one way or another. And getting through all this pain will make even that small measure of success feel so much better.

Next: Grades: Golden State Warriors 122, Orlando Magic 92

Just keep the faith. If Northwestern can do it after so many years of waiting, Magic fans can too. And they will be rewarded for it.