Jammed between a heaping bulk of a man clad in maroon and a drunken reveler exploding with the words “Go Salukes!” sat the story of a man whose steps have been marked with the achievements of a team of 15.

It has been four years of steps – four years of watching the Saluki men’s basketball team transform themselves every fall into a team that mirrors my existence on this campus. No, I haven’t won an MVC tournament either, but I have overcome adversity to achieve my potential.

It’s a story as old as any sports clich. Raw talent molding itself into a well-oiled series of cogs that works effortlessly to win. No one part overshadowing the achievements of the team.

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But it hit me like the sweat and spit of whomever sat behind me in the student section Saturday as the Salukis won their last home game of my tenure here at the University, a 65-55 victory against Wichita State.

This is a group of guys that have worked with three different coaches – adapting, training and winning – because that’s what they know how to do. And this is the last time I will see them apply that face-to-face, baseline-to-baseline defense that parallels my four years at SIUC.

Yeah, yeah, I know what you’re thinking.

“Save me the melodramatic-sports-is-my-life column and this-is-my-last-semester-as-a-senior soap opera.”

Anyway, why should you even care about what I have to relate to this team? Well, you don’t. But, I have access to a printing press, and you can just easily paste your eyes to the left of this column and ignore me.

I have fallen off a 40-foot cliff, gotten into drunken brawls and lost several times, been shot – that’s my personal favorite- and, lastly, been counted out by those back at home.

Yet, somehow, for some reason, I have always quietly and patiently worked my butt off to win just a piece of everything that came so effortlessly for the other guy.

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And that is what made my lip quiver as I watched Stetson Hairston clip his piece of the net Saturday afternoon and made me smile as I watched Mike Dale step into the game, knowing he was counted out long before he even stepped onto this campus.

I just shook my head nearly two months ago as I watched Josh Warren bank a three to beat Southwest Missouri State and keep the Salukis’ home winning streak alive.

Isn’t that why everyone watches this team? Isn’t that the feeling you get being a member of this 20,000 strong community that is generally counted out by the rest of this state?

Sports do not only adapt from stories of life, but it is in essence an extension of it.

The Salukis on the hardwood have walked with me from the first day of being lost in Faner Hall until I could effortlessly waltz into a class 30 minutes late and still pull out an A.

It is the dogged determination of the Dawgs to bite, scratch and claw their way out of whatever fight that has led me to this spot – being smothered by the behemoth of man in maroon sitting next to me Saturday.

And it was that determination, like my life on this campus, that made me well up with some kind of emotion – if not tears, then joy – as I watched the team that has marked my every step in Carbondale take their nets with them.

And yes, I have never had anything handed to me like an MVC tournament championship, but I know it’s out there for the taking.