View Single Post
Old 05-13-2019, 07:56 AM   #12
waterhead
Senior Moderator
 
waterhead's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2010
Posts: 9,298
waterhead is on a distinguished road
Quote:
Originally Posted by waterhead View Post
I don’t think it’s easy making 9 straight tournaments but I can tell you the type of fan that can still have a problem with it. Out of those 9 years I think we have had one “contender”. A team that has a reasonable expectation for a F4. If you use our seed it’s the only team that was even supposed to make the sweet 16 if you were going by chalk.

When Huggins was here I felt like a contender about one out of every 2-3 years after he made the final 4. Just eeking into the tournament doesn’t really get my gears pumping. Sure the ride is fun getting there and there is still a hope and prayer...but I don’t want to kid myself too much.

Anyway, it is possible to appreciate both
Just to illustrate this point a bit more. Huggins had 9 years (out of 14) as a top 4 seed, 7 years as a top 3, and 5 as a top 2. If you get a protected seed I think there is at least a reasonable chance at a F4 whether you make it there or not. Cronin has had 1 top 4 seed and it was a 2 seed.

I would rather be in the dance than not. But if you told me we could go 6 of 9 years instead of all 9 and we could enter the dance with a protected seed in 3 of them. I would probably trade that out for 1 of 9.

I can appreciate the consistency of getting there. I think 9 of 9 with Cronin and 14 of 14 with Huggins is obviously a very high bar so I don't even expect that to continue. But if and when we do make it I would like to believe we are contenders (not pretenders) in 1 out of 3 appearances.

Maybe it's asking too much from an AAC team...but that is what my hopes are. Not even sure that is what my expectations are. I think regular season is about half the fun...maybe even 2/3rds of the fun...but the NCAA tourney is still a big deal to me.
waterhead is offline   Reply With Quote