WMTRIBE75
1st String
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RE: Coaching Carousel
(02-19-2018 11:53 AM)TribePride91 Wrote: I am not sure that any tweet even deserves any oxygen at all. The reality of things right now are that the CAA is a one possession league this year. Many, many of the games have gone into overtime and a significant number of others are decided by 5 points or less. Now that Delaware got Daly back, there isn't a weak team in the league. Every year for the last 10+, there have been at least 5-6 legitimate contenders to the tournament crown. Unless the P5 schools change the criteria to let more mid majors into the dance as an at large candidate, the NCAA comes down to 3-4 days in March. Shaver has won more conference tournament games any other program in the last 10 years. No one, other than UNCW(the last 2 years), has won more than 1 tournament title. It is a very balanced tough league. Also, the team has not finished in the bottom of the league since McDowell's senior year. The last 5 years we have been a contender and have been to the semifinals 4 years in a row. No other school has done that either. So, ultimately then, this comes down to not winning the tournament. 4 trips to the finals was 4 more than we had in the 20+ years prior. It sounds like someone would rather we were JMU(1 tourney win and multiple years of awful or Delaware(same). It is not how things work. Each year is its own entity and we have had consistent success.
I wish that we would win a few more games too. But, if you told me we would be 9-7 and have 16 wins back in October after losing Daniel, Omar, Jack, Michael and Greg, I would have asked you to be drug tested. Charleston is the favorite and they have done nothing to lose that spot. We have as much chance really as any of the other 9 teams. Charleston has exactly zero championships since they joined the league too. Hofstra has zero, Towson has zero, and Northeastern has 1(2015). These are the other top 5 teams this year. Be positive, give the team great energy this week and in Charleston and see what happens. Plus, next year looks bright too, especially if we get another inside player to go with Nathan. But, Connor, David, Oliver and Cole all still have a real shot this year to go out as winners. Even if we don't win, they had 4 straight years of over .500, top half finishes in the conference every year. How many times did that happen in Tribe history? Once (2014-2017). Again essentially the same run we are on now.
Maybe some of you would rather be Auburn(success but with a coach who is a known rule violater). I personally would not. There will be no greater moment in Tribe sports as a fan for me than when we win that first title. But, it totally pales to what it will mean for the players and the coaches. They totally deserve it for all the work they put in. And as long as Coach Shaver is our coach, it will mean something to all the guys that played for him when it happens.
Absolutely wonderful post, 91. After reading your comments, I am ready to start packing for Charleston now. Everyone posts, and perhaps rightfully so, about what a daunting task it will be for us to win 3 straight in Charleston. I choose to look at it as our needing 3 one game winning streaks. The one thing that none of us ever seem to count on is that maybe Lady Luck will finally smile on us a little bit on our journey towards cutting down the nets. Not once during our 4 trips to the championship game in the last decade have we ever benefitted from another team's upset loss greasing our path. All 13 games in those 4 tourney runs have had us pitted against the team that we were bracketed to play. The closest thing that we have had go in our favor in any of those 4 years was during the second run in 2010 when, on the last Saturday of the regular season, some miraculous games occurred that allowed us to wind up a 3 seed and in the opposite bracket from odu, vcu, and mason.
If ever there is a year where a 1 or 2 seed can be knocked off in the quarterfinals by a Saturday winner, I think that it is this year. Maybe the Tribe benefits from this. And for all who think that we will be doomed the first time that we have to play a team that whipped up on us in the regular season, look no further back than championship run number 3; a quarterfinal win over a Charleston team that beat us by about 40 in our previous matchup, a semifinal win over a Towson team that beat up on us twice, and the excruciating championship game loss to a Delaware team that had also beat us twice. And while I still allow losses to bother me for too long, I am heartened by how close we came to winning our road games at Towson, Charleston, Hofstra, and Northeastern, games that we did not come close to playing as good as we can.
Already got my poster ready for Charleston. "4 no more". Dreaming is good for the soul.
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