It was supposed to be Isaiah Canaan’s night.
The All-American guard who has taken this campus and this entire community by storm had one final game at the Bank.
Poised to see him join the 2,000-point club and earn one last victory, more than 30 family members and 8,000 fans filled the stands, all there to see him one last time. It might as well have been changed from Senior Night to Isaiah Canaan Appreciation night.
Canaan had other plans.
I had heard rumors before the game that he would give up his starting spot to Jordan Burge, the four-year walk-on who has yet to score a point.
I was doubtful. Surely Canaan wouldn’t give up his Senior Night start for Burge. He’s a senior, too.
Yet, the starting players’ numbers were displayed on the scoreboard before the game, and Canaan’s No. 3 was replaced by Burge’s No. 33.
All I could do was let out a big smile, laugh and do my best not to cry in front of everybody.
Despite Canaan’s gesture, the evening didn’t have a storybook ending.
Burge failed to score his first points, and Canaan ended the night with 1,999 career points.
Additionally, the most successful senior class in program history ended its home career with an anticlimactic 16-point loss.
As far as I’m concerned, none of that even matters.
After the game, Head Coach Steve Prohm told the media, “If you’re not playing the game to impact people, what are you doing it for anyways?”
It is so easy to get caught up in the excitement and the winning of sports.I am guilty of it all the time. A loss by one of my favorite sports teams can literally ruin my entire day.
Sports have a tendency to bring up emotions in all of us. Win or lose, sports can cause our perspective on what’s really important to fly out the window.
Sure, it sucks that the Racers lost. I’ll be even more upset if they lose this evening in the semi-finals of the OVC Tournament.
But I was reminded of how irrelevant the scoreboard really is when I saw Burge and Canaan embrace at center court before the walk-on left the game for the final time.
Prohm is right. At the end of the day, the trophies lose their shine and the banners become yellowed and dusty.
It is the people you meet and the memories you make in life that should motivate you to do what you do.
Starting on Senior Night is a memory Burge will carry with him the rest of his life.
Losing to SEMO on Senior Night will be forgotten as soon as tonight’s tournament game tips off.
Column by Jonathan Ferris, Staff writer.