Crow. No, I'm not referring to Arizona State's president; I'm talking about the thing that every fan who bleeds maroon and gold had to eat after the 2011-2012 football season.
Calm down, I'm not here to rehash the past. After all, most of Sun Devil nation is just now opening their blinds and reentering society after three solid months of wearing the same pair of sweat pants while listening to Sinead O'Connor's "Nothing Compares To 2U" on loop.
I'm here today to help Sun Devils everywhere get on the road to recovery. But this is a gospel best served cold.
This Sunday at 1:30 pm, the ASU basketball will have the chance to enact revenge on those pesky Arizona Wildcats for humiliating the university's football team on their home turf back in November.
Sure, it was only a four point loss. But for most it felt like 400 as it was undoubtedly one of the lowest moments of program that has been around for over 114 years.
This time around though, the Devils get to play spoiler.
Sitting at 9-20, it's easy to see that not much has gone right for Herb Sendek and his boys this year. Unless James Harden and Jeff Pendergraph are going to pull a Rodney Dangerfield and make a return, odds are ASU is not going to run the table in the Pac-12 tournament and earn an automatic bid into the NCAA tournament.
The Wildcats, on the other hand, are looking like their season will extend well into mid-March. But that could all change in the blink of an eye with an ugly blemish in their RPI from a slip up to the Sun Devils on the final game of the regular season.
No, I'm not proclaiming that I expect this to happen and nor should you. As sad it may sound, the Devils have given us little reason to believe that they could ever pull off an upset of this caliber with the current roster they have assembled. But I have never been one to count out a team with nothing left to play for but pride and the pure ecstasy that comes from ruining your rival's 31 game portfolio of hard work in 40 minutes of basketball.
Sendek has kept his players in the right state of mind all season and although that has rarely translated into wins on the court, it has allowed every one of his men to judiciously build off each defeat rather than wallow in them. And for that reason, you can bet your Sparky-loving hiney that he will have Trent Lockett and company more prepared for this game than they have been for any competition throughout this grueling season.
So here's to a little Duel in the Desert role reversal this Sunday. Now someone go tell Jordan Bachynski that even though he likes to quote Ghandi in press conferences that the whole "eye for an eye makes the whole world blind" thing doesn't apply here.