Monday Motivation: Considering the Kihei Of It All
The other day my friend David Teel wrote a piece in the Richmond Times-Dispatch that focused on Kihei Clark and it has been on my mind off and on ever since.
The point of the piece is to get at Clark’s thought process as he went about changing his mind and deciding to come back to UVa for a fifth year.
Now, this is a topic that has—be it by media members or fans on message boards—generated enough #Content to fill a Buick. So what else do can be added on the situation, you might be thinking.
Truthfully? I think it comes down to what we expect from players and also what we expect from ourselves.
Look, no matter where you fall on the Kihei of it all, there is one indisputable fact: A guy who very easily could have followed his original plan and moved on—potentially with good reason—decided instead that he wanted to do more for the team he and you both love. How cool is it that a kid who has been around FOREVER and who has caught a lot of flak at various points….still wants to come back and be a Wahoo one more year?
Can you think of a single player who has drawn the kind of ire for as long as Clark has? Can you think of one of them who willingly came back to take more of it?
And for what? The guy has won a national title. He’s already made one of the greatest plays in school (NCAA?) history. He’s an incredibly decorated player.
He’s also lived through a lot of noise.
So why do this?
A lot of this stuff comes with the territory of, as Tony Bennett likes to sometimes refer, being in the arena. No player in recent years has been in the arena nearly the way Clark has, though. And no player has been picked apart to the degree he has either, all the while carrying the expectations he does. Simply put: 2019 set the bar excruciatingly high for the then-rookie.
“I don’t follow much stuff media-wise, social-media wise,” Bennett told Teel, “but sometimes they’ll put undue criticism on him. He’s had a full, robust college career. He’s improved his game, he’s a wonderful young man, he’s going to get his degree.”
Two things stand out from that quote: First, Bennett is absolutely correct. The kid has handled himself and his situation extremely well, and he’s carried more than he should have. And second, part of the issue or the matter or however we want to frame all of this is that Clark’s career has been so “robust.” That is both the feature and the bug.
Think about NFL Draft picks. We’ve all seen that top-flight quarterback who is viewed as the best player in the draft who then comes back for his senior season. And the entire year what happens? His game is picked apart. Like buzzards who find a squirrel on Broad Street, evaluators and fans alike can’t help but focus on his mechanics, on the time it takes him to get the ball out, the way he played against the best DBs, etc etc etc.
Now, think about Clark. It’s natural (and understandable mind you) for people to think about the way rosters fit, the way skillsets overlap, the way minutes are getting or should get doled out. All of that is totally fair game and expected of major college athletics. What’s gone beyond the pale is when things have crossed the rubicon into hateful diatribes. And we all know what that looks like because we’ve all seen it.
Some folks can’t handle seeing something too much without trying to problem solve, without finding potential faults and imagine what would be different if those weren’t in play.
Had UVa continued to have the same success that the Cavaliers had during his freshman season, some of this likely still would have happened.
And yet, with all of that in mind, the kid still wants to come back. It's pretty remarkable, really.
He still has so much love for his school and faith in this team and so much love and faith in this program to be willing to go through all of that again, in hopes of making his last year look a lot more like his first than 2020-2021 did.
If he can be that excited, so can fans. And that part should be something we all agree on.
In the final analysis, that’s all that matters.
