The Floyd Street Tribune: The high-wire act that is the "we got this" approach
Inside: A column on the potential dangers or glories of a coaching staff moving (mostly) in silence. Plus, what's going on with DJ Wagner and more.
Thanks for reading The Floyd Street Tribune! Missed last week’s newsletter? Paid subscribers have access to each newsletter via the main TFST page.
A thought on the “they got this” approach
A week ago, someone very much in the know about Louisville men’s basketball gently mocked the Louisville media for wondering aloud (and doing so often) about the guard situation with Kenny Payne’s Cards. (In fairness, many in the fan base are concerned, too.) It was a quick two lines, a throwaway aside in the grand scheme of the message, but the gist of the chiding was not to worry about Payne and his staff.
He’s Got This. They Got This.
And that, at its core, is the very mindset that has Louisville’s fan base — and yes, the media that covers the team, albeit for different reasons — on pins and needles. There is immense danger and possibility to every approach to running a program. You could be so above-the-fray that you lose sight of the program’s arc, or you could be so combative from the beginning that no one cuts you any slack when you need it most. In the case of Payne and company, they have elected the Move in Silence, We Got This approach, which is, even in a vacuum, an extreme high-wire act in modern power conference college basketball.
Considering the past seven traumatic years for the Louisville men’s basketball program and its fans, this version of the high-wire act is like a stuntman teetering along a rope, only instead of it being between buildings or something, the rope stretches between Mount Everest and K2 — oh, and you can’t see any of his steps, only the outcome. If the stuntman makes it, holy crap, he made it! I have no idea how but he did it like they said he would! If the stuntman doesn’t make it … well, damn. Wonder what he was doing up there; would’ve loved to have seen it play out.
