It’s not how you start out, its how you finish.

That statement could not more accurately describe the Syracuse basketball season. For a majority of the college hoops season, Syracuse appeared to be a team of destiny…25-0 with 6 games remaining in the season. Then the bottom dropped out when they lost 4 of the last 6 games…the offense was as exciting as a Saturday night in Onondaga County.

It’s been a rough sports year for me and I just don’t take the losses well. Case in point, it is 3 am on Sunday morning and I am sleepless, replaying Saturday night’s horrific performance by the Orange against the Dayton Flyers.

Anyone who says Dayton beat Syracuse is insane. Syracuse beat themselves. Dayton, other than some 3 pointers at the end, was not a great team. You cannot win basketball games without scoring and ‘Cuse sucked offensively…plain and simple.

All the teams I support, don’t just lose, they toy with me like a selfish lover until the end and then break my heart. Saturday was no exception. If it was January, Syracuse would have pulled the win off. Tyler Ennis missed 2 very makeable shots at the end of the game.

My frequent refrain during these times is I think I need a support group for sports fans that take losses to heart. To date, I cannot find one beyond Facebook friends expressing their own personal pain, but that does not alleviate mine. I often suffer and replay the game for days. Loved ones certify me as insane and they are correct.

Syracuse lost because they were horrific offensively. The NY Giants had a terrible 2013 season because they stunk. The offensive line was ineffective, injured and just plain awful as was the running game. Subsequently, quarterback, Eli Manning, was constantly rushed which led to him throwing 27 interceptions (Eli had a dead arm season). The NY Giants once impressive offense, disappeared just like the Orange offense.

The Yankees had dozens of injuries in 2013 and and sadistically played with my emotions for months before the pitching and offense collapsed.

I have a few weeks to mourn and then the 2014 baseball season starts in earnest. Perhaps, I can self-correct and brace myself emotionally for a tenuous Yankee infield and an emotional farewell to Yankee great, Derek Jeter. It just seems that it gets more difficult as I get older to shoulder the losses.

Reality check…being a sports fan is optional…why am I so passionate and tortured? I do have a fabulous, well-rounded life, but when it comes to MY teams, I am all in. Maybe I should throw myself into Esty and take up knitting, scrapbooking…non-spectator hobbies.

If anyone reading my post can offer counseling or point me in the right direction beyond rooting for teams other than the NY Giants, NY Yankees and Syracuse Orange, I am wide open for suggestions and all ears.

In the meantime, I have Adele’s song, Someone Like You, playing on a continuous loop and I am valiantly fighting the urge to grab a shovel and start sucking down Ben & Jerry’s Coffee Heath Bar Crunch (yes bitches, I am an emotional eater).

I am Orange crushed.