Buy the ticket, take the ride…and if it occasionally gets a little heavier than what you had in mind, well…maybe chalk it off to forced conscious expansion: Tune in, freak out, get beaten.

Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

As Tim Miles ran off the court on Wednesday night in Chicago, his patented grin slap-dashing its way across his face, he waved to the crowd. He tossed his hands into the air, saluting the cheers from the Nebraska fans who had just witnessed another weird chapter in another weird season.

And then, as they are wont to do in this particular era of Nebraska men’s basketball, things got stranger.

Tim quite promptly crashed onto the ground, tripping on the off-court tarmac like a frat bro trying to get over the last step into the Gamma house after a few too many games of Flip Cup.

Perhaps due to the understandable exhaustion at his current undertaking, or perhaps dealing with the simple challenge of a sudden 1-inch change in stadium altitude, Tim went down into a pile of white shirt and red tie.

And then, as he is wont to do in this particular era of Nebraska men’s basketball, Tim Miles quite literally rolled with it.

The grinning, goofy, gallows-walking Miles showed why I’ll be so sad to see him leave: he crashed into a human barrel roll right there on the floor, popped up, and threw his arms into the air, shouting out “safe!”

He could’ve slowly gotten up, worried about his health or his reputation. He could’ve knelt briefly on the ground, taking somber note of just one more stumble thrown his way in a season rife with crashing and burning.

But that’s not Tim. He bounced back. He always does.

Say what you want about his Xs and Os and the amount of timeouts he never calls. You’d certainly have a point.

Say what you want about his recruits, his transfers, and his ability to draw up and/or defend an inbounds play. I’d be nodding in agreement with you.

But you don’t get a win, even against Rutgers, with this many guys playing this many minutes, unless you can hit the ground and then jump back up with a smile on your face.

courtesy of Google.com

There will be time for debate, or for mourning, or for slapping on your tap shoes to cut a rug on the freshly dug professional grave of Tim Miles if you so chooose, but for now let’s just marvel at one man’s ability to get back up with a smile on his face.

Tim bought the ticket, now let’s all take the ride.