It's difficult to keep my emotions separate while sitting on press row. I am a student reporter, and those two roles are very different. But I feel I do a good job keeping my emotions in check when having to report on Notre Dame sports.
But Sunday after the final horn sounded in Notre Dame's win over Connecticut, I became disappointed to be a Notre Dame student.
That disappointment stemmed from a portion of the student body storming the court.
Storming the court should come in games where the country goes, "Wow, that's an unbelievable win for that program." Yes, I know that's a weak definition, but there's a feeling when a student body should do it.
The two Michigan wins in football had solid storming the court cases. Those were two wins that defined the season, the first one more than the second.
As did the men's basketball win in 2003 over No. 4 Pittsburgh at the Joyce Center, and the win over Connecticut exactly one year later.
As for the students that didn't storm the court, they did the right thing.
Look at the members of the team. They didn't wait around on the court for the students to come down. They did some celebration while walking to the locker room, but no way did any of them expect or feel they deserved to be mobbed. Most of them were gone by the time the students made it to the court. They expected to win this game.
After their loss on Sunday, the Huskies have as many losses as the Irish. This wasn't the No. 1 team in the country. This wasn't the same defending national champion from April - the two best players from that team are now in the NBA.
This was a five-loss Connecticut team, ranked No. 19 in the country, losing a tough road game. The Irish have as many overall and conference losses as the Huskies.
This was a good conference win. It could possibly be the defining win that sends the Irish to the NCAA tournament.
But it wasn't worthy of storming the court.
And please, please, please, don't storm the court if the Irish beat Boston College.
Yes, that could be the Golden Eagles' first loss. It could be a top-5 team and the Big East's leader falling at the Joyce Center. That has all of the ingredients one would think about when storming the court.
As a senior who saw the football team lose four times in four years, my hatred toward Boston College is more than any school. But storming the court only legitimizes them into being on the same level as us, which is their only goal in life.
And that would be worse than anything.
