That's all I could think of while reading your entire post. I'm not a Bills fan, but I've suffered through plenty of heartbreak from many teams across different sports/levels falling just short. I've been envious of the Marlins in that regard, though I know the grass is not greener over there.
Wondering what negative Illini “insider story “ was told by Rez.
I want Betts.
Quite the gap for Duke - will be 12 years, biggest since K started.
Theory is that they attract talent, but young & soft that get squishy when it matters. Look at what they couldn't win with: Zion, Flagg, Tatum, Banchero. Superstuds.
Morez, Mara and Cadeau weren't exactly unheralded - Mara and Cadeau were ranked in the teens coming out of HS, Morez was around 30. They simply weren't being coached to their strengths and May did. That was a masterful job by him. May would have been right there with Duke & UConn if he stuck.
Illini in 2005. The Bears in 2007. The Illini again 2026. At some point the pain/trauma with recurring booster shots every 5-10 years gets to be too much.
Being checked out of the Bulls post-Jordan has almost been a reprieve to enjoy watching Kobe, LeBron and the Dubz plus all the recent parity in the NBA.
But having to endure the smugness of Duke/UNC in the 00s-10s to the more recent flavors of Hurley and May… it gnaws away. The disassociation starts to rise because you wonder what is it all for.
Michigan, UConn (pre-2023), and the Red Sox especially infuriate me. They’re largely irrelevant for large stretches of time then come out of nowhere for a periodic (sometimes hyper-dominant) title run.
At least with Duke, UNC, and KU (and the Dodgers in baseball) it’s comprehensible. They stack talent year-over-year like no other. But UConn 2023 wasn’t even a top 4 seed. Michigan 2026 came out of nowhere picking up previously unheralded players like Morez, Mara, and Cadeau.
When do we capture lighting in a bottle? I’m sure Purdue 2024 hurts that much more for them. Any other year they waltz to a title behind Edey and Braden.
The 2016 Cubs title is having to do some major lifting to endure the never-ending heartbreak and futility in other areas of State of Illinois fandom.
FIFY
I see this differently. He can definitely be crazy and cocky, but I think he can control himself when he wants/needs to.
I should point out though that State of Illinois fandoms include the Cardinals, and they’ve experienced a lot of success in the timeframe we’re discussing. Just saying.
Illini in 2005. The Bears in 2007. The Illini again 2026. At some point the pain/trauma with recurring booster shots every 5-10 years gets to be too much.
Being checked out of the Bulls post-Jordan has almost been a reprieve to enjoy watching Kobe, LeBron and the Dubz plus all the recent parity in the NBA.
But having to endure the smugness of Duke/UNC in the 00s-10s to the more recent flavors of Hurley and May… it gnaws away. The disassociation starts to rise because you wonder what is it all for.
Michigan, UConn (pre-2023), and the Red Sox especially infuriate me. They’re largely irrelevant for large stretches of time then come out of nowhere for a periodic (sometimes hyper-dominant) title run.
At least with Duke, UNC, and KU (and the Dodgers in baseball) it’s comprehensible. They stack talent year-over-year like no other. But UConn 2023 wasn’t even a top 4 seed. Michigan 2026 came out of nowhere picking up previously unheralded players like Morez, Mara, and Cadeau.
When do we capture lighting in a bottle? I’m sure Purdue 2024 hurts that much more for them. Any other year they waltz to a title behind Edey and Braden.
The 2016 Cubs title is having to do some major lifting to endure the never-ending heartbreak and futility in other areas of State of Illinois fandom.
They aren't an Illinois team. Rooting for them would be like rooting for a different country in the Olympics.
Will be curious to see how Hurley manages without Murray.
I disagree he's fortunate he hasn't gotten kicked out of more games than he has. Karma is eventually going to catch up with him unless he mellows out some.
Could be a directly inverse relationship to how well BC does.
The Cardinals were founded on the South side of Chicago (The Racine Street Cardinals) and charter members of the NFL.. Old timers like myself saw them play in Chicago when they had the best team in the NFL, when they were champions in 1947 (with the dream backfield of Chrisman, Trippi, Angsman and Harder) so stastically, since they have never won the NFL since, they have been the worst team ever to play in the NFL. So please excuse Chicago oldtimers who are still fans. Thay are few and far between, but alas, I am one of them!
That is not the team that Det_Illini_Fan is talking about. He said that the cardinals have had a lot of success since 2005.
I had an uncle who played on that team ('46/'47). He was also captain of the 1943 Great Lakes team that beat Notre Dame, and went on to be the HC at Illinois Wesleyan after his short pro career.
His record against the spread in tournament games (18-1 I believe, and if anything it appears that dumb money was betting on him recently, not against) is beyond discounting due to sample size. I'm curious whether there's anything in his approach that sacrifices regular season performance- either intended (i.e. for the purpose of being better in the tournament) or not.
I assume you mean "coaching is overvalued" here in the sense of whether teams over/underperform in the tournament relative to pre-tournament expectations?
