We were really sorry to hear that columnist Robert Novak was diagnosed with a brain tumor, not because of his politics, but rather because he's a huge basketball fan, and in particular, a Maryland fan. In general, we're not fans of Maryland fans (you may have caught on to this by now), but Novak is almost exactly the sort of fan any team would want. He's loyal, he stuck with the team in the dark days, and he got the great pleasure of experiencing Maryland's national title after going through everything that happened there over a number of decades.
We read something a while back - we think it was a column Novak wrote, although we could be wrong - about how he grew up in Joliet, just a few years behind the legendary George Mikan, and how he grew to love Illinois basketball.
What we're saying is that he's one of us, he's a basketball junkie, and we've felt a kinship with him, an admiration for his passion, for a long time. Maryland has been very lucky to have him as such a faithful fan for all these years, and we hope his run at College Park has a few seasons left. Having beaten cancer three times and spinal meningitis, you can't count the guy out.