Hoosier hysteria, HIV style

My mother and I compete each March to choose the national basketball champion. She's retired, which means she can park in front of the television and watch teams I have little interest in watching. Utah, Loyola Marymount, Alabama-Birmingham -- she's always good at picking a dark horse like Gonzaga or Siena.\nI skew my picks to place IU as close to the Final Four as possible, which means in the past few years I've done miserably against her. Hardheaded and clear-eyed, she saw the charts through probability and not romance. She didn't like those popping veins on Bobby Knight's neck, the chair incident in Puerto Rico -- to her, anyone so out of control could never win a title except through exceptional talent and some luck.\nMy diagnosis of AIDS came right after the Hoosier Classic and the holiday tournament -- you know, the one where they invite the school of blind nuns or some other patsy team to get chewed up. From that date in 1997 to today, my interest in basketball wavered, waned and has fallen precipitously. Finally, when Bobby Knight got his unceremonious boot, I lost it altogether.\nMind you, I don't know Mike Davis personally, and really don't have anything against him. I got a little tired of hearing how fabulous our record was last year considering the circumstances -- I mean, come on. We recruit people to play this game and they don't pay to go to school, they get fed, and lots of people are very nice to them when they are out and about in town. Yes, you should win some games if this is the circumstance of your life.\nI like passionate people, and I guess that's why I liked Bobby Knight. I like people who stake their ground and don't walk away from their convictions (well, except for the Charles Manson types). I don't respect firing people for not fitting into a civil society, when definitions of the same are squishy at best.\nThe idea that one's life and achievements can only be assessed by specific utterance and a few microscopically examined actions is kindergarten politics, played by skimpy four-eyed geeks. It's an extended whine that can't be satisfied.\nMaybe I feel this way because of the HIV thing, the fact that my disease carries with it the burden of such examinations. Maybe I feel this way because I like to champion the minority viewpoint -- that of people who believe, and act upon their beliefs in spite of fuzzy gag orders and zero tolerance public spaces.\nLife is messy. Emotion is messier, and when conviction is thrown in, often the combination is volatile. Reaction is swift and almost always ill-informed. It's a good description of how people become infected with HIV, it's a good description of how great coaches get fired, how true leaders have their accomplishments diminished by the jealous and the less accomplished.\nI'd rather meet a jerk who believes in something than an angel who believes in everything. It's easier to make friends with those most like us -- and I think Bobby Knight and I would be fast pals.