You can't see it, but I'm shaking my head as I write this.
How in the world did we get here?
Well, the obvious explanation is that the nationally ranked Central Cabarrus boys are a really good basketball team, evidenced most recently by their 90-62 victory over Fayetteville Seventy-First to win the Class 3A state championship Friday at Winston-Salem's Lawrence Joel Coliseum.
But this?
Two consecutive Class 3A state titles in dominant fashion?
A best-in-America 65-game winning streak?
A ranking as high as 15th in the country?
The first Cabarrus County team to win back-to-back state titles since the 2017 and 2018 Cox Mill teams that featured two future NBA players and a slew of other college athletes?
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But here the Vikings are: champions. Again.
I'm still shaking my head, or "smh," as the kids write it these days.
I have to be honest: I didn't expect this.
After Tuesday's epic semifinal win over top-seeded Hickory, which I consider the second-best team in the state, I DID expect the the second-seeded Vikings to go on and win another title Friday.
But what I didn't expect was what happened this year:
At the start of the season, I wasn't sure this team would even get back to the state title game, let alone win it.
I DEFINITELY didn't expect the Vikings to go undefeated again.
And for the life of me, I didn't expect this team to be better than last year's squad -- the one that effectively had a 6-foot-2 starting center going against over-sized, over-talented opponents and combined talent with guile, guts and gamesmanship to outplay most teams in the nation.
No way.
But that's what these 2024 Vikings did.
And they put the perfect exclamation point on it Friday night in Winston-Salem.
I wrote last spring that the 2023 Vikings, who finished second in the nation at a postseasn tournament, were the best high school hoops team Cabarrus County has ever had.
This one was even better.
More height is one reason. Six-foot-9 Joshua Dalton joined 6-6 human pogo stick DJ Kent, who was a first-teamer for the first time, in the starting lineup.
Then, twin guards Carson Daniel and Chase Daniel actually managed to be better than they were as starters a year ago, junior Emari Russell added athleticism to the lineup, and senior Noah Edmisten was the newest outside-shooting whiz.
Not to mention, on most nights during the season, juniors Jake Baker, Cayden Smith, Kevonta' Martin, Chinua Ezeigbo and LarQuise Burse-Jones came in and kept things rolling.
This team had the nerve to have depth, when last year's Vikings had a tighter rotation.
And, it might've only been a matter of scheduling, but last year's Central squad went 32-0 (that's not nothing), while this year's Vikings wound up 33-0.
"It's funny, if you look at both teams, last year's team was probably a little bit different to watch," Central Cabarrus coach Jim Baker told me. "They could toss it, and we'd get backdoor plays. We called it 'wind you up' -- drive and kick it and so forth. This team, these kids developed so much, the talent level just went through the roof.
"We averaged 87 points a game last year, and our opponents averaged 50. ... This team played a schedule as difficult as last year's and held its opponents to 43 points. And we were so much longer with Josh in there, and DJ developed. We blocked more shots this year."
Baker thought back to last year's graduating class.
"I lost a LOT last year with Gavin (Bullock) and Jaiden (Thompson) and those guys," the veteran coach added. "We lost two games in the summer, but what was crazy, midway through the summer, Emari Russell, my son Jake, Cayden Smith and Noah Edmisten all of a sudden figured out, 'We can step in here and do something, too.'
"We've got four stars, but those (other players) came in, and we didn't drop off. They knew how to play, they were so competitive. They're pretty special, that's for sure."
My intention in mentioning last year's squad is not to create some sort of "Which team was better?" debate. Both teams have their merits, and, selfishly, I would pay good money to see a light-hearted scrimmage between them, perhaps putting a Daniel twin on each roster.
But at Central Cabarrus, family is family. No acrimony; only love.
"One of the proudest things for me tonight is when we snuck the five seniors from last year back in the lockerroom," Jim Baker said. "Those five kids were just as happy as DJ and Carson and the guys. They were hugging each other and stuff. It's really become a special culture that we have."
That's actually the only way to pull off something like this two years in a row in today's high school basketball climate of transferring out to another school because you're not getting the desired playing time or taking your talents to the "most charitable" private school to reclass and try to improve your college recruitment.
It took more for the kids who weren't starting at Central to stay there this year.
It took something special for Dalton to see what was happening with the Vikings from afar and then, when he found out his family was moving from Virginia to the area, specifically targeted Central Cabarrus, even though it had a tall, lanky guy (Kent) already here dominating.
And, yes, it took character and dedication for Kent, who won his second straight championship game Most Valuable Player Award Friday, to decide to build on that and embrace the immense pressure of being the main man for a squad that already had done the amazing the previous year -- even as other schools told him the grass was greener on their campuses.
Also, those dang Daniel twins showed what leadership is all about.
Then, the Vikings pulled off the impossible this year -- unscathed again.
See, the toughest thing about being an unbeaten champion isn't that every other team is trying to be the first to knock you off; it's that so many people -- adult spectators, players, even classmates -- are cheering against you. They actually wish bad on you.
I covered the Independence football team that won 109 straight games in the mid 2000s, and fans HATED that team. Trust me, I saw and heard it myself.
We've even seen it at the highest levels.
It happened to the late, great boxer Muhammad Ali, it happened to Davidson graduate Steph Curry and the NBA's Golden State Warriors, and it's happening now with the back-to-back Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs.
As much as most folks around Cabarrus County seem to be happy for the Vikings, and there are many, the team also gets its share of vitriol for being so freaking good, for turning what looks like will be competitive games into blowouts.
It's the nature of the beast.
But what's been impressive is how this group of teenagers has handled it all. They walk into a gym away from Central Cabarrus, simply looking to play great basketball with their buddies and have fun, and a lot of people just want to see them fail.
A lot of it is innate, but Baker and his staff sure do their parts in preparing the players to handle that, to still go out and be great.
"I read this quote," Jim Baker said, "and I shared it with the team and told them it was a mark of honor: 'When you win, everybody loves you; when you dominate, everybody hates you.'
"And that's just part of it."
Few teams even sniffed being close to the Vikings, who won their games by an average of 46 points, and that was the case against 28-3 Seventy-First.
Somehow, in the state championship game, the Vikings made this one look like just another South Piedmont 3A Conference affair, crushing an otherwise strong opponent.
It didn't help Seventy-First that the Kent Show literally began to air.
At times Friday, Kent -- the Lees-McRae signee who had 25 points, nine rebounds, five steals and two blocked shots -- simply went into MVP mode.
First, it was a LeBron James-swoop-in-from-behind-like block that kept the Vikings' lead at 19 points (40-21) in the second quarter as Seventy-First was trying to put together a rally.
Then, it was the breakaway palm-the-ball-off-the-dribble-like-Dr. J dunk, followed by the vintage raise-the-roof celebration to the Central Cabarrus fans.
He had 18 points at the half, when the Vikings led by 26.
It was pretty much game over by then.
Dalton, who was named the West Region's Most Outstanding Player, led the team with 22 points. Finally, the Daniel twins did their damage -- 14 points, eight assists and five steals for Chase, and 13 points, seven assists and a steal for Carson.
As usual, a team effort for the Vikings.
It's the Central Cabarrus Way, and there might be more ahead.
"We're going to be pretty decent next year," Jim Baker said. "My juniors are pretty good. And, good Lord willing, if I'm still coaching, we'll have a chance.
"But somebody's going to (defeat) us somewhere," he warned. "You can't play the type of schedule we play and go undefeated all the time."
For at least two years, you can.
(smh.)