The next 700 words or so will somehow try to connect our Bethune-Cookman University Men's 4x400 Relay Team with LeBron James.

Just go with me. It isn't every day you can find a parallel between 3:06.51 and 51/8/8.

Both are amazing stats. However, both weren't good enough to win.

Both will be competing next week, though. Our guys will be at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field National Championships. LeBron James can rock a "shorts suit" at least three more times, even if J.R. Smith ... no, too dang easy.

Since everyone on the internet is a basketball expert, we'll focus on how our guys' best effort at the time only sufficed to make us, as NASCAR driving sage Ricky Bobby once proclaimed "the first loser." Hey, it's a cruel world sometimes.

Let's go back to last month's Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Championship meet in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Theoretically, it was wide open. A grand final stage.

Bethune-Cookman trailed North Carolina A&T by one lousy point in the team standings. All that was left was the 4x400 relay. Win or finish second ahead of them and deny the Aggies a repeat and restore the Wildcats atop the podium after a one-year absence.

How easy a task? Like stopping LeBron with the ball in the final seconds at Quicken Loans Arena. Or keeping Tom Brady from connecting with Rob Gronkowski in Foxboro, Massachusetts in January. Or bump drafting any given Earnhardt out of the lead on the Daytona backstretch in February.

Daunting? Heck, yeah. But here's the deal – for a few moments, Jordan Williams, Jonathan Moore, Christopher Jackson and Caleb Okwaraji made it feel like another UMBC over Virginia was possible.

Yeah, N.C. A&T ended up smashing the conference record and won the darned thing with a 3:04.75. But on their tales were the Wildcats – Williams led after the first leg for crying out loud – who just didn't cut their previous best time by five seconds, they took a machete to it and registered a school-record 3:06.51 – FIVE SECONDS FASTER THAN THEIR PREVIOUS BEST TIME .

Afterwards, the foursome did the only thing they could do – show sportsmanship and congratulate the Aggies on their way to the podium, then spend a long bus ride home pondering all the "what ifs", while watching Liam Neeson kill people and Kevin Hart being mildly funny.

One thing about track is that it provides opportunities.  NCAA postseason is like the NBA Playoffs.  It's a do over. Make it in, and anything is possible.

That 3:06.51? If BCU could maintain the seeding that time provided at the NCAA East Preliminary last weekend, then a chance to run at the National Championship was very real.

The day before the relays, Williams, a sophomore who could become the face of the program, qualified in the 400. Moore, a senior who has quietly racked up five (5) MEAC championships in middle distance races, punched his ticket to Eugene, Oregon with a brilliantly strategized 800 meter heat victory ahead of guys from Florida, Clemson, etc.

Jackson, a senior, fell just shy in the 800. Okwaraji, a freshman, was denied in the 400 hurdles. Williams and Moore got together and said they had to do in the 4X400 for their teammates.

All it took was running in a driving rain. Staying in the top three along with Rutgers and LSU, whose history includes the fastest 4x400 in the history of the planet. Clemson and North Carolina were in the heat, also.

Not a major problem, except for that minor clerical error that had the Wildcats disqualified for nine agonizing minutes and was so easily resolved that Head Coach Donald Cooper's $100 protest fee was returned without a receipt. Throw in the women's 4x100 team's success, and that was a good day that's going to produce a very unique experience at one of the hallowed track and field stadiums in the sport this week.

Some days you do your best and just like James Ingram crooned, it's not good enough….that day. That's why you get keep going. Other opportunities come around. Hang in there, Cavs.

One more thing  … the Wildcats' time that got them to the NCAA meet was 3:06.79. North Carolina A&T? 3:06.87 in a previous heat.  That's right – they beat A&T. Didn't matter that much that day. Everyone's going to Track Town. Except LeBron. J.R. didn't know how many laps were left…see? Too dang easy…