CMJ

Oh yeah....go Owls!

UAB closed that out like a champ.

CUSA = CBI Champ CUSA = 2 NIT Semifinalists CUSA - Sweet 16 of NCAA Tournament

I know it's sacrilegious to say, but if UAB takes this, I think it'll be a more impressive win than ours versus Oklahoma State. Vanderbilt looks like they sold out their arena and it is really into this game.

UAB

Charlotte holds on by 3. Congrats to the 49ers, joining us as CBI Champs.

Charlotte up 18 at the half.

No matter who we have, whether it's McCasland, or someone to be determined, I would expect a step back next year as we move conferences. I'm not saying we're gonna have a losing record or anything, but I wouldn't think we'd go 18-2 or 16-4 either.

Welcome to the board. Purdue fans were exceedingly nice a couple of years ago. Big 10 hoops fans seem to be good people. Some times "big time" program fans come on here to talk crap.

The "stall ball" that's got us to our best ever run in the history of our program. Listen, I've long respected your knowledge, but you've made it apparent the last few seasons that you'd rather lose entertainingly than win. Which IMHO is garbage. Winning IS entertaining. Mentioning Larry Brown is also misleading because before Jankovich even went to SMU as an assistant, that was the plan. This would be more like Few being promoted. I'm sure if you'd been living in Spokane you woulda bitched that he was taking over the program.

I remember several of us were screaming to keep one of JJ's assistants, but we went outside the family. That worked out well. LOL.

Only look beyond Hodge if Hodge doesn't want it.

A "lawyerly dodge" is my favorite term for what it was. 🙂

Pretty much agree with everything. I feel like schools that try to hire within the same coaching tree do well when the head guy gets picked off, but when they look for an exciting new name they often fail. We have an identity now, and Hodge is the right hand man of the guy who built that identity. Hodge is the only choice if/when Mac leaves.

Just for grins, I found the old Purdue game thread. It went 11 pages. Granted we had numerous threads going pre and postgame, but still....the fact that last night's game thread has more posts than the Purdue one shows we're taking basketball seriously.

So let's make sure we don't lose a game in the NIT. Give him a welcome home celebration after they win the title and pull on his heartstrings.

I'm sure he figures Beard nearly did, so why can't he.

BTW- in addition to us...Charlotte also won yesterday. Advanced to the title game of the CBI.

Also need more fan support. All things being equal, people want to be where the support is. I mean, maybe you don't want the headache of Big Blue Nation, but otherwise yeah.

I feel like they did mention him and Texas Tech at one point, but not in that specific conversation.

Take Houston since Cougar King just dropped by --- arguably the best program in college basketball history without a title. Only school that really competed with UCLA during Alcindor's era. Couldn't win with Phi Slama Jama. It is HARD to win it all. Even when teams are dominant -- they're hard.

The time line is different for everyone. That said, Gonzaga still is waiting for National Title #1. Winning it all takes a lot of luck in addition to the quality of your team. Sometimes it's having teams you don't match up well against be upset, sometimes it's having a role player have the game of his life, sometimes it's just avoiding that crucial injury. Titles are HARD.

I remember back before JJ's first tournament run, basketball threads might get 15 posts total if they were lucky. Amazing to see.

I think it's possible that he could eventually turn us into a Gonzaga type school, but it won't happen fast. There's also no guarantee it will and if things turned south he'd probably always regret that he never jumped when he had the chance. The Mark Few's of the world are rare indeed. People thought he was going to leave Spokane for about ten years...until it became apparent he never was.