RE: Losing the city.
The thread shouldn't be "Losing the city." The thread should be called "jealousy of another one's success."
We made the Championship game back in 2008. Since then, we have been a below mediocre college basketball team. Luckily, we have an amazing fanbase that's passionate about the team.
14 years old (Freshman in High School) and younger hasn't experienced much success in our basketball program. Also, it's tough to love on a college basketball player like it is in football. The "one and done" is a huge contributor to that, but also the transfer portal. In College football, it's easy to love on Anthony Miller, Coxie, Gibson, Pollard, Henderson, White, etc. because they're going to be with the program for at least 3 years. It's also easy to love on those players because their coaches will put them in situations to be successful. When they are put in situations to be successful, then they can succeed and score touchdowns. That will result into wins, which results to the fanbase (specifically younger ones) to love them and embrace them as Tigers.
I couldn't embrace Wiseman, Achuiwa, and Duren, etc. as Tigers because they're only Tigers for 6-8 months. And if they don't like what they're doing, they will transfer. Lomax and Harris (who transferred) aren't good enough to where our younger fans look up to them. They're not good enough to be NBA players, they don't sell tickets, but also they're not put in situations to be successful and win on a consistent basis.
We see the Grizzlies every night on TV. We don't see the Tigers every night. I can't speak on everybody else, but I don't pay for an ESPN+ subscription to watch this team. Overall, it's an mediocre product on the court. They're playing games to "hoping" to win. Grizzlies are playing games "expecting" to win.
Kids also remember the Grizzlies making it to the Western Conference Finals. They remember the Grit N Grind days. That's where they first loved on the Grizzlies. Here comes JA, JJJ, etc. and they're winning. Why? They have a culture, they're having fun, but they're also successful at what they're doing. They're having fun doing what they do. The kids see JA dancing and the team is taking pictures after the game. It also helps that we get to see the Grizzlies every night on Bally Sports.
I don't think Houston has lost since those two players went down. They're 14-2 and they're ranked #11 team in the country. But, Coach Sampson is putting them in opportunities to be successful to win. I'm sure they're not making excuses for the players that are done for the season. But they're winning, because they have an expectation, determination, a culture that's successful, and Sampson is a winner. Again, I support both programs, and Memphis may always be supportive of the Tigers through thick-and-thin. However, our younger fans are Grizzlies fans, and not Tigers. With a good coach, and expectation to win, paying attention to the details of the game, the Tigers would've probably win at ECU. But there is always something (turnovers (all the games), poor free throw shooting (ECU game), lack of defensive and getting stops (Tulane game)) that's preventing the Tigers from winning. Which means, preventing our fans from liking them, especially, our younger ones.
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Losing the city.
