As I sit here on press row in an empty KeyArena where not 45 minutes ago there was a raucous, screaming sea of 15,000-plus Crimson voices belting out the fight song as the players celebrated a dramatic 72-70 overtime victory over LSU, I have so many thoughts swimming through my head.
But one keeps sticking out: It's officially time to get excited about this team.
I know I run the risk of letting the emotions of one night influence my objective analysis, but there were just so many reasons to like tonight. And I don't have time to get into them all, because I gotta catch the train down to the south end, but I'll just leave you with this.
We won a game, against a good team, without our best offensive effort. I don't have the efficiency numbers in front of me, but running the quick math in my head, this game had about 75 possessions. We scored 72 points.
And won -- with defense, toughness, some timely points from Klay Thompson at a crucial point in the game, and good free throw shooting.
I'll have the full recap up on the site sometime tomorrow morning, but consider this your permission slip.
Get excited, folks. This team is good.