In my head, I knew it was over. I was sitting on the United Center sideline both trying to write the game story that I would file at the buzzer, and trying to come to terms with the fact that my four-year Daily Orange career was all about to end. All the road trips. The late coverages. The feeling of being a relevant writer about the most relevant team in the city.

Darius Thompson hit a 3-pointer from the corner. The score was 51-37 with 10 minutes to play. I leaned over to Matt Schneidman, the person I’ve covered men’s soccer, men’s lacrosse, football, summer league baseball and this men’s basketball team with.

“It’s over,” I said.

As beat writers, it’s not our job to make what we do about us. We write about the team that we cover, whether that’s Syracuse men’s basketball or something else entirely. But for the beat writers, sometimes it is about us and soaking in the chance to experience something that we never thought we would get to do.

You know how the rest of the story went on Sunday night. It wasn’t, in fact, over. Syracuse went on a 21-2 run, as I scrambled to rewrite my runner, continue to tweet and mentally capture all the noteworthy moments that made up one of the most epic comebacks in NCAA Tournament history.

I ran onto the court seconds after the game ended to try take pictures and listen for moments that the people not there with us would want to know. My heart was racing, the realization that not only had I just witnessed this comeback, but that myself, Matt and Jesse Dougherty’s time as SU men’s basketball writers would continue on. The hard work that we put in all season now meant so much more. We were the beat team for a basketball team that couldn’t be more prominent and center stage.

And that’s what I thought about as I raced around the court. When I stuck my recorder in players’ faces. When I shook hands with the guys from the student radio station. When I passed by Jesse and we both gave each other a look of utter shock before breaking out in laughter.

Because, for us, it’s not so much about Syracuse winning. It’s about us winning. It’s about us getting to travel around the country in a Honda or a Jeep or hopefully, this week, a plane, and make memories that will be impossible to forget. We had joked about it happening. The stories we would write, the places we would travel. It’s a joke that’s turned into a reality.

In a week, we’ll be sitting courtside inside the massive NRG Stadium. And whether it’s Saturday or it’s Monday, it will be the end. I can’t count how many times I’ve been up to the top floor of The Daily Orange archives. It’s a dark and dusty room in 744 Ostrom Avenue that has every single newspaper we’ve ever printed. That’s 112 years. I see the historical papers, the ones that people always want to go find because they mean something in SU sports history.

I don’t know what will happen next week, but I do know that someday what we write will be in those archives. No matter what happens, it will mean something. And when I got behind the wheel at 4:39 a.m. for my driving shift from Syracuse to Chicago, thinking about that is what kept me up and alert.

Syracuse is winning right now. And we’re all just along for the ride.

Published on March 28, 2016 at 6:03 pm