The ride to the airport was long and slow it felt like as DJ neared the plane that would take him across the country for a do or die game against liberty. It felt like no time at all had elapsed since Mississippi State had just discovered they were heading back to the NCAA tournament for the first time in a decade. Now the day had come to travel to their destination to play for it all. The NCAA basketball tournament is not like other collegiate sport tournaments. You win and advance or you lose and go home.

DJ had spent the year redshirting and even encountered an injury later on in the season but that didn’t take the edge off of the trip and what the purpose of it was. It meant just as much to him as everyone else that we not only get to the tournament, but win games. He had put in the same amount of work in the off-season and in-season practices that everyone else had. Nobody wants to fly to San Jose, California and come home empty handed.

They loaded up the plane, anxious, but excited, and flew westwards. The flight was long and boring but it helped refocus everyones minds as we grew closer to our moment of glory. Everything went smoothly, checked into the hotel, and prepared for the night. Day one of the trip had gone off without a hitch and they were all ready to show the country what they were capable of in the coming days.

The next day they had practice and prepared for the game the following day. It was an intense game and very tense as everyone was getting their mind right for the task at hand. They had done the work all season to make it to the NCAA Tournament and now that they were there and had made the journey nobody wanted to be the team that went home. Everyone prepared vigorously and centered their mind on accomplishing something great. A basketball player dreams of making a banner hang in their arena. The room just had a different energy to it as you could sense the upcoming game on the horizon.

The day of reckoning came. This would be all or nothing. There was winning, and setting a precedent of something that hadn’t been done in years, and there was going home. There was no in between. From the jump Mississippi State hit Liberty hard. It was a hard fought game and while Mississippi State hadn’t won a tournament game in an extended period of time, Liberty hadn’t won one ever. Liberty played with a different type of ferocity that was unforseen by Mississippi State.

The game was intense for everyone involved. The end of the bench to the starting point guard was alive. When everything is on the line the game you play transforms entirely. The game becomes about survival. It turns into pure instincts.

When the clock wound down to zero the final score was Mississippi State 76 Liberty 80. The season had come to a close in an unforseen fashion. The locker room was dead silent as coach walked in and tried to console the seniors and players who had worked so hard to make it to this moment. In times like those though, there are no words to take the sting out of a loss everyone knew should not have happened.

That same energy carried over until the ride home. With nothing to think about on the plane everyones head was marinating on the loss that had just transpired. It made for a long flight but it made for a good lesson. It’s hard to forget a 6 hour plane ride sitting and loathing about something that can’t be undone.

DJ brought something home with him further than just the loss and shame though. He came back with the energy to do better than the guys before him. It’s a change you can see in the way he practices, moves, carries himself. Every single day matters and it all started that day. When the stage was set and the team came up short. DJ is determined to never see that happen again and it won’t.

Sometimes a loss can go further in your head than a win. It can hang with you and motivate you more than success. Your successes are built upon your failures but once the foundation is set and you know that feeling of a loss, you don’t want to be back in that hole. Going into this season it is evident that when the stage is set again coming up short will not be an option. It’s not always guaranteed that you can get a next time and making the most of every oppurtunity is paramount to your life.

Games are the one thing people see but a lot of people forget about the preparation that goes into a basketball game. They don’t think about the hours and hours of practice that go into this moment.

The early mornings, the late nights, the long days, all prepare you to go out for two 20-minute halves and play to the best of your ability in the hopes of achieving more than just what you have now. You are motivated with the ambition of glory that can be achieved by perfecting your craft. Everyone ignores those times though, nobody thinks about the mind behind the body when it comes to how you are performing on the court. Fans saying “He’s tired” or “He’s out of shape,” don’t know that maybe you had a test to take that day or that your family thousands of miles away needs your help with something you have no way of helping them with. All of these things take a mental toll on your body much greater than any amount of running will do.

Often times you are told to be tough and show little emotion. This translates great onto the basketball floor, where being overly emotional is seen as a very negative characteristic to have. When you are going through a hard time, off the court, though it can be challenging to turn that valve off and go back to feeling and acting like a normal person. You are turned into a machine by the rigorous training and exercise that your body is subjected to until that attitude and that discipline becomes second nature.

When coaches are recruiting you and looking at “Coachability” they will sometimes refer to things such as being a quick learner but more often than not it is the discipline and with that comes listening without questioning. That in itself can be a destructive tendency to have in life. It can be a bad mindset to just always act instinctively without thinking.

With all that being said a lot of steps are being taken, especially in recent years, that are leading to a more developed help resource within athletic teams and departments. It is even becoming prevalent at the highest level which is a great shift in the attitude towards mental health. You need action taken preemptively to prepare young people especially for the attention that they will begin to get once they reach various levels of their career. It can be overwhelming the scrutiny you are placed under.

It should also be noted that stars such as Kevin Love and Trae Young are taking strides in bringing attention to such issues as how tired you can get mentally from all the stress of winning games and playing to the top of your game night in and night out. Some find it hard to believe that even superstar athletes have their breaking points. There’s comfort in knowing that your mind becoming weary doesn’t make you an outcast when you’re living in a world full of incredible talent and playing against some of the most elite players in the world.

All around it is really just important to note the stress placed upon college athletes and young professional athletes just starting to enter the spotlight of basketball stardom. We expect so much from people who aren’t even old enough to get into a night club. This is an agregous attack on the mental well-being of young people everywhere so it does bring up the question of is the risk worth the reward? Is the risk of all the stress bearing down on you and overwhelming you worth the reward of millions of dollars or is that too steep a price to pay? Many would answer unequivocably that they’d pay that price in a moment to recieve the attention, money, and fame of athletes, but do they really know what they are signing up for or are they just speaking out of a place of which they do not know. I mean really how many people know what it’s like to have a platform of millions upon millions of people microanalyzing every decision you make on and off the court at the age of 19, very few. Very few people know what that’s like but very many are quick to judge those under that scrutiny.

We are nearing a time where mental health is being seen as just important as physical health and that is an important milestone in the span of humanity. We are finally, through the realization that even the rich and famous deal with stress, understanding the extent of detererioating mental health on your physical well-being. It is an often overlooked and often underattended part of our life, but now we are entering a new era. You see that when schools go out of their way to hire special sports psycologists to help players deal with stress or for some more serious issues. It’s a step in the right direction but it’s bigger than sports and it will continue going in the right direction as more high-profile people bring attention to it.

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton