TheTastyGreek

If you've got a need for 2 extra tickets and have 500 bucks to drop, let me know. I'll throw in a parking pass. Hurry, though. They'll go fast. NT03 is already interested.

Thanks for stopping by. See you again in 3 and a half weeks. 3rd time the charm?

25 years ago, we lost to Texas. A godawful Texas team that only beat 3 other teams that year, and finished 4-7. They sucked. We still lost. Doesn't stop people from lamenting the lost opportunity, a quarter of a century later. Nobody cares about Kentucky football... Except people in Kentucky. They care about it like t-shirt douchebags care about Texas here in Texas. WKU beat the flagship school in the state in a marquee sport. The school their idiot douchebag students represent and support, the school that Kentucky residents who probably couldn't spell their own state, much less get into college there or anywhere else, wear shirts for. WKU has always been a legit basketball school. And they beat a top 5 Louisville a few years ago on the court. The one thing they've always had as a strike against them is that they weren't playing top division football. This is year 4, and already they knocked off the biggest school in the state. It's a big deal. Whatever it's worth to have scoreboard in that state, they've got it now.

In basketball? On what planet? UCF has been the textbook definition of mediocre in CUSA. Joined in 06. Since then, 56-54 in CUSA play. Average finish: 5th/6th out of 12. 7 CUSA tournaments, one-and-done 4 times. Only even made it as far as the semifinals once. Never made a final. Zero NCAA tournament appearances since joining CUSA. One NIT berth... Last year (a one-and-done visit). One buy-in to the CBI. That's it.

270 wins, 7 years winning the A-10 regular season, tournament, or both. 4 NIT berths, including an Elite Eight finish (lost in overtime, short of Madison Square Garden). 7 NCAA berths, 5 tournament victories, one Elite Eight. They've only missed the marquee postseason tournaments twice since the 90's ended, They've averaged 21 wins per year against an A-10 schedule. They made the Elite Eight. Since the 90's ended, they've still been one of the consistently toughest teams in college basketball.

Standard memorial? BIH, P.

This is the gist of it, to me. That, and the fact that this is not the NBA. Not trying to convince anyone of anything; and I don't think anyone is changing their mind anyway. I don't intend to bring it up again. It bothers the hell out of me, I understand the POV where it doesn't seem like a big deal, I'm not trying to judge or scold anyone that doesn't share my thoughts, and I'm not trying to be the moral crusader that craps all over the program. I think that about covers it.

He was at at least one game last year... Possibly two.

I think this was supposed to be from a quote in my post? If I'm wrong, please ignore. Again, in brief... (Theoretically, I'm supposed to be working, and I'm wasting way too much time with this today): I'm not saying this is a Penn State or Baylor/Dave Bliss level of questionable ethics. But I do think this is ethically troublesome. Thought so when it happened at other schools, and I'm not inclined to ignore or excuse it away just because it means we could win another game or two this season, or that we might have jumped up from an 8-10% chance at an NCAA win (assuming a berth) to a 15% chance. There are a lot of things inherent in college sports that are ethically troublesome. But within that framework of icky-ness, I think our school and our athletics department have done a commendable job overall. There may be times when they make me want to slap my head, but I've rarely felt the need to shake my head. And when I have, it's generally been a hypocrisy thing (like the timeline on Sam Dibrell's situation) rather than something where I feel like we (as an institution) have acted unfairly or negatively towards our student athletes.

Knox (by all accounts I heard) left voluntarily and somewhat unexpectedly, and I believe he wound up giving up basketball to go and finish up school at UTD. If I'm wrong on any of that, I'd definitely love to know about it. He left in May, after he'd finished up the school year. Not 4 weeks before his fall classes would have started. When he left, we already had an open scholarship available for anyone else. Knox leaving opened up a 2nd one. He didn't conveniently "decide" to leave the same afternoon we landed a recruit that needed a scholarship when we had none to give. As far as looking in the mirror... I'm not saying I was the biggest Knox partisan on the board. But I definitely wouldn't have been on board with him having his scholarship pulled. I don't remember exactly how I put it, but I believe I said that someone on any team is going to be the 12th or 13th guy on the end of the bench, and when that guy is 6'10" and on the honor roll... That's a good situation.

I don't think Benford is a terrible guy, I think he's a guy who is willing to do some more ethically uncomfortable things (in my opinion- ethics, like opinions, tend to vary) to succeed in his job than what I'd ideally like to see from our school. Looking at that sentence, it seems a lot more hostile than what I'm actually trying to communicate. The guy has a job to do, and what happened doesn't violate any rules and it improved our overall talent level. Discussing this without it turning into the standard course of disagreement will take a little more time than I have at the moment. In brief: - I'm bothered by it. - I don't want to turn into a bitter grump who bitches about it for the rest of eternity or craps all over the coach/program forever because of what happened. That's part of why I didn't post much for a month and why I'm not chiming in on recruiting and basketball news while it's still on my mind. - I recognize that people with a different perspective on the program wouldn't be as uncomfortable with what happened. If anyone gives a crap about my opinion on the matter beyond that, I'll be happy to share it (public or private) when I'm able to do so in a way that isn't rushed and half-assed.

GoMeanGreen is the wife. GoEMAW is the mistress. If I'd suffered some sort of teenage violent brain injury that prohibited me from getting in to North Texas, I might just have gone with Kansas State instead. All because of those charming devils. The diminished cognitive capacity would probably make me incapable of recognizing that I should be ashamed of the company there, and I could still enjoy the jokes and pretty pictures.

Posted on GoEMAW:

It bothers me. Seems to bother GrandGreen. Reasonable people can disagree. At the end of the day, we're all alums, and we all put our socks on one at a time. But, to me, it's pretty disgraceful. Talent level went up, though. So... Your mileage may vary.

All I'll say was that I'll never forget the last time we played Kansas State. Gutwrenching game, but I'm glad I was there to see an amazing comeback. In San Marcos, against Texas State, in basketball. Bill Snyder smells like mothballs and soggy diapers. Charlie Weis smells like meatballs and soggy diapers. Not sure which is worse.

Boy, are you ever off base on this one.

Welcome back, Winters. I've got fun EMAW stuff planned for November. Bring on the Daniel Sams highlight videos. And also a good online performance of Wabash by your band. And feet pix.

I believe Charlie Weatherbie is available for hire.

I didn't want to be the one to bring this up, because I don't want to turn into the bitter crank that constantly waves what happened to Trey Norris around like a bloody shirt... But this is exactly how to look at the class so far. I'd go a little farther, and point out that Marquette had a disturbing habit of signing guys and then not actually providing scholarships for them (before they'd ever even had a chance to show up on campus and try to fight their way on to the court). I was concerned about the Brazilian guy and whether he was scholarship worthy... But that was before the Trey situation. Now, based on that... I'd guess that our incoming recruiting will likely mirror Marquette the same way our handling of existing players has. If all of the commits actually end up here (even if they ink in November)... I'll be quite surprised.

RPI does not include margin of victory/defeat. EDIT to clarify... The better way to explain this is not to mention games against different opponents. Sorry about that. From an RPI perspective, there is no difference between us getting blown out at Kansas State by 60 points and us losing by one point on a last second desperation full court shot. Score margin is not part of the RPI calculations.

That class also lost Cezar Guererro, a 4-star guard that never showed up at WKU (who has since gone to Oklahoma State, bailed out on them and is transferring to Fresno) and a 7 footer (3 or 4 star, depending on which evaluation site you prefer) who had to go JUCO and should join them next year. Their super recruiting class is down to TJ Price and George Fant. Both very talented, and some other nice complementary pieces still around from class of 2011... But the guys who made that class stand out in terms of evaluations will not be wearing (and in some cases, never wore) WKU laundry.

No capes, no respect. No question. Info.

Throw in a GTFO 4 weeks before classes start, and that seems to be both the team staff and gmg forum perspective

I think they are very different situations (not that I was thrilled about Odoh bailing out on us). I'm not going to try and argue or tell anyone what their opinion on this situation ought to be. To me, this is disgusting. Your mileage may vary. Edit: "Your" meaning in general, not UNT90 specifically. We good.