The Three Fates are a group of old, magical mythological sisters who sit on a mountain somewhere and control fate. The old birds have been around a long time, making cameos in everything from The Odyssey to Macbeth, stewing their toil and their trouble and plotting the paths of poor mortals everywhere.

Well, someone at Marquette must have upset one of them, because the Weird Sisters clearly have an agenda against this year's version of the men's basketball team.

The season started out promisingly enough. Whichever sister wove the thread (they have real Greek names, but we'll call her "Betty") let the Golden Eagles post a 12-1 non-conference record, beat Wisconsin at home and play tough in a close loss to Arizona.

But her warm, grandmotherly smile proved cruelly deceptive as soon as she passed the thread over to her spinning sister, "Blanche." Blanche kept the thread looking glossy but spun in a flu epidemic and a couple of key injuries, and after a big loss to Memphis and an even bigger loss to Louisville, the thread was headed downhill.

All of which brings us to Tuesday. Blanche had woven a 6-7 Conference USA record into the fabric of the season, adding an important, feel-good win against DePaul at home, just to give everyone false hope. But Tuesday, two days after the DePaul win and two days before an important game against Cincinnati, Blanche handed the thread over to the cruelest sister of all, "Maude the cutter."

Maude's job is to cut the thread, and boy did she seem to relish her work a week ago when she sent senior guard Travis Diener tumbling to the ground in a non-contact drill five minutes into practice.

I don't know what Maude has against the school, but when she broke Diener's fingers and ended his (and, possibly, the Golden Eagles') season, she really put the wrenching finishing touches on what has been a painful year.

No one will ever really know what happened, but my guess is that Maude became involved in a torrid love affair with someone at Marquette (we'll call him "Murray") and, well, it didn't work out, hearts were broken, things were said, and Maude found herself with a nice little vendetta.

I know the game of alternate universes all too well, and there are many that would be preferable to the current reality. Diener could have kept his balance Tuesday, he could have not fractured his ankle several months ago, and Marquette could be talking about a possible at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament instead of scrambling to reach .500 in C-USA with two games left in the season.

But then, Dwyane Wade could have decided to stay, the NCAA could have re-written the rules allowing Robert Jackson to stay another year and LeBron James could have decided to go to college at Marquette; the number of possible "what ifs" is infinite.

The bottom line is that what happened happened, and it's too bad but it's the hard reality of competitive sports. Athletes get injured, things break the wrong way, but people and teams have to move on.

After a stellar career at Marquette, Diener seems to have grasped this. The Associated Press reported that he seemed happy and upbeat on the sidelines in Cincinnati, and although he didn't look thrilled at the press conference announcing his injury, he didn't break down in tears, either. And if the way Marquette played the final five minutes Thursday is any indication, the rest of his teammates seem to have grasped it as well.

Now there's nothing to do but hold on and hope for the best.

Unless, that is, we can find Murray and persuade him to make up with Maude.

This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on Mar. 1 2005.