Not trying to
but this board can be fickle...
While I personally do not agree with the sentiments of "Not Duane" and several others, I do recall during the end of the Huggins era (not comparing, just stating facts or at least my memory of them) a number of very vocal posters on this board were opined that the "price paid" for the on court success that Huggs' teams rang up was too high and that a lesser degree of success would be tolerated as long as kids graduated and UC avoided any further scandals or negative publicity.
Also, last season and for a couple of others of Mick's teams the cry has been for more offense even at the expense of some of the defensive prowess. The board has seen discussions that said if we could just average 70 points per game we'd be Final 4 material or that winning 64-60 was boring. Well we're getting what we asked for. This team is significantly more talented on offense but it appears to be coming at the cost of defensive intensity and effectiveness. Personally, I like winning
60-59 (remember when UC was 46-0 when scoring 60?
) over losing 77-70 even though it is a "prettier" game to watch. As Al Davis would say, just win baby.
Sometimes it seems our expectations as UC fans are not realistic. Several of the more stats guru-like members of our forum have noted many many times that the teams that play in Elite 8s, Final 4 and NC games have McD AA or Parade AA or this many players in the NBA. UC has none of that at the moment.
That being said, should we be screaming about quality of recruits or coaching development? That's a whole different topic. But as for this team, Mick has been extremely successful by almost every metric except a deep tourney run. I'm ok with that... and optimistic that that run will happen. JMO
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Temple Game Thread
