Heading into the quarterfinals of the recent NCAA men’s basketball tournament, some of the favorites had already lost and the University of Connecticut was the highest-ranked team in the field. Three more victories and the Huskies would win the national championship.

 Before the Elite 8 game, however, the U-Conn coach complained about the place where his team had to play.  Games are supposed to be played on neutral courts, where there isn’t a home team, but this game was 20 or so miles from his opponent’s campus. 

 In making the bracket, the NCAA did not predict that George Mason, a No. 11 seed that nobody considered a threat, would get three rounds deep and have such an advantage.  The crowd did indeed go wild as George Mason defeated Connecticut and advanced to the Final Four.

 The Connecticut coach made a fatal mistake.  He complained about an element he had no control over, the game site, and allowed doubt to enter into the minds of his players.  Instead of complaining, he should have stressed to his players that they were the better team and that none of those fans would be able to change what U-Conn could do on the court.

 You players are way too young to know Jack Nicklaus, but he’s the champion golfer whose records Tiger Woods is trying to break.  When he arrived at the U.S. Open each year, Nicklaus knew that officials would make the course tougher for their biggest tournament with deep rough, narrow fairways and over par scores.

 Nicklaus then sat back as his opponents moaned, grumbled and whined about how tough the course was. Players who cried about the rough or the fast greens were crossed off Nicklaus’ list of players he had to worry about. “They’d complain themselves right out of this championship,” he said.

 Do not get caught in that trap.  Do not get caught wasting time complaining about calls, field conditions, trash talk or anything that is aside from the job you have on the field.  Do not lose focus on baseball.

 In our opening game of a recent  tournament, a young man made that mistake.  The game was tied 4-4 in the final inning and he represented the go-ahead run.  In a rundown, one of our players stumbled into him, he took offense and lost his cool.

 Here’s what happened when he shoved our player out of anger:

1.        He was tossed from the game, forcing his team to go with a weaker lineup in a tie game.

2.        His team lost focus on the game, after they had battled back to tie.

3.        His team lost all momentum, failing to get a single out before losing the game in the bottom half of the inning.

4.        They took a No. 4 seed and the tougher route in the bracket. The Cubs, as No. 1 seed, went on to win the tournament.

 In the fall, we played at a field in Grand Prairie that had a way-too-tall mound. It looked like a termite mound or something.  We walked seven batters and never quite got the hang of that mound.  But the other team had to pitch off the same mound and they only walked one.  They went to the final and we went home.

 A distraction such as a bad call or an overaggressive play can become a rally-killer.  A bigger obstacle, like that mound or that shove, can make the difference in the game.  As Cubs, we must be strong enough to overcome it.