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Of all the groups celebrating yesterday's victory, I put myself in the category of "cautiously optimistic" for the future.
Yesterday's victory, as the Stanford victory, was solid. What I've always wanted from a basketball team is to beat teams in a way that is *reproducible*, not because our opponents didn't have some key players or one of our guys had a hot night. We are doing just that, with a solid defense and now with multiple offensive threats.
It is important to note that both our most recent victories did come against teams who were missing key players, but that alone isn't the reason we won. Which is key.
What this means is that we are now the front runners to win the conference and, barring a complete collapse in the second half of conference play, to be a premier NCAA tournament team. I say this with cautious optimism, because what this means is significant.
College basketball has had an East coast bias for as long as I've been alive so, excepting a dominant pre-season from the P12, the tournament is really our only chance to show the country we can play ball with the rest of the field. And if we do in fact win at least a share of the regular season crown, *it will be on us to prove that to the rest of the country.*
It's not Oregon anymore, or UCLA, or the Arizona's - it would really be our job to ensure the P12 gets the respect it deserves going forward. So I ask "Do you know what this means...?" Because it hit me that an unofficial "goal" I had for our season, to make it to the Sweet 16, which sounds admirable, really isn't good enough anymore.
Full stop, here, if we were to make it to the Sweet 16, both myself and the rest of the board would undoubtedly be thrilled and I'd have the utmost respect for this team and AE for a long time. No shame in losing there for me. But that result, taken in the larger context of the conference, is underwhelming.
We're (P12) seem to be in a rebuilding state at the moment: UCLA trying to figure things out with Mick, AZ recoiling with FBI investigation, and CAE truly building a long term program at SC, but I hope we can be back on track to excellence soon.
This is just a bit of perspective. Like most, I am incredibly please with our performance so far and excited about how much better we can become.
Fight on!
Yesterday's victory, as the Stanford victory, was solid. What I've always wanted from a basketball team is to beat teams in a way that is *reproducible*, not because our opponents didn't have some key players or one of our guys had a hot night. We are doing just that, with a solid defense and now with multiple offensive threats.
It is important to note that both our most recent victories did come against teams who were missing key players, but that alone isn't the reason we won. Which is key.
What this means is that we are now the front runners to win the conference and, barring a complete collapse in the second half of conference play, to be a premier NCAA tournament team. I say this with cautious optimism, because what this means is significant.
College basketball has had an East coast bias for as long as I've been alive so, excepting a dominant pre-season from the P12, the tournament is really our only chance to show the country we can play ball with the rest of the field. And if we do in fact win at least a share of the regular season crown, *it will be on us to prove that to the rest of the country.*
It's not Oregon anymore, or UCLA, or the Arizona's - it would really be our job to ensure the P12 gets the respect it deserves going forward. So I ask "Do you know what this means...?" Because it hit me that an unofficial "goal" I had for our season, to make it to the Sweet 16, which sounds admirable, really isn't good enough anymore.
Full stop, here, if we were to make it to the Sweet 16, both myself and the rest of the board would undoubtedly be thrilled and I'd have the utmost respect for this team and AE for a long time. No shame in losing there for me. But that result, taken in the larger context of the conference, is underwhelming.
We're (P12) seem to be in a rebuilding state at the moment: UCLA trying to figure things out with Mick, AZ recoiling with FBI investigation, and CAE truly building a long term program at SC, but I hope we can be back on track to excellence soon.
This is just a bit of perspective. Like most, I am incredibly please with our performance so far and excited about how much better we can become.
Fight on!
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