I like to watch Being There because it is an absolute gem of a movie! I'm always amazed at how many folks have never heard of it, let alone seen it.
Great book, great film, and the late great Peter Sellers.
Seems as if one looks at the overall picture, the statistics and whatnot over the past few years, BU should be COY but unfortunately the award is for one year only and another coach/team seems to do just a little bit better. I still decry the year Gard won over BU, one reason seemingly was that Wisc did better than what the sports writers and others who rate teams thought they would. I think he is a good coach but it was just a perception thing. "Wisconsin did better than we thought, so they must have a great coach", not that they, the sports writers, etc., were just plain wrong about how good Wisconsin was. And when Howard won it, well, we can see who is the better coach over the past years. BU had less to work with than Howard. BU turned this basketball program around. Howard was given a team that was not the dumpster fire Illinois was prior to BU. Far from it. If there is a Coach of the Decade, maybe BU would win that.
It's honestly really frustrating that if one of three things happen - the Tournament isn't cancelled in 2020 and we go on a run, we get past Loyola in 2021 or we are at full health and beat Houston in 2022 - I feel the program would get infinitely more respect nationally. I'm not saying we don't get any respect, but it sucks that our Tournament results have been more like a top 30-40 team, and our regular season results have been closer to a top 10-15 team. Really need to see that Second Weekend this year not only to get the monkey off of our back but also just to reestablish Illinois as a name your casual fan who tunes into March Madness associates with the "players" of the college basketball world.
Who are the Three best teams we have beaten this year?????
One of those things is not like the others.
I assume you mean Houston was good and possibly under-seeded enough that not getting past them was not some sort of "slip-up" on our part? If so, I agree, but everybody gets a lucky "hot streak" game every once in a while (like Shannon going off vs. UCLA last year), and it would have been nice for that to be ours! If you mean that COVID was equally unlucky for everyone, I agree in theory but it especially hurt teams who were bursting (back) on to the scene that year, IMO ... it would have and should have been Rutgers' program-defining return to the NCAA Tournament, for example. And I think the 2020 team that beat Iowa to end the season was playing like a team that could win two in the Tourney.
I more mean that team had just kind of fallen apart at that point and wasn't going anywhere against anybody. It was a total miracle we escaped that Chattanooga game.
If we did get one Sweet 16, then FIND {Sweet 16}; REPLACE ALL {Elite 8}.
I refuse to acknowledge that NarrowJ was in anyway correct.
From my anecdotal experience looking at top 10 lists and things like that on social media, our fan base is also CRIMINALLY underrated. We are as passionate as anyone. I really hope our fans are jazzed up enough by the NCAA Tournament to show up really well at whatever sites we get.
I refuse to acknowledge that NarrowJ was in anyway correct.
I look at the polls each week and all the love we got prior to the TSJ case in those power rankings - I think we’ve gotten a lot of respect nationally this year.
They said they actually leaned him up a bit, gave him the Dain Dainja treatment.
The Fletch Effect!
And I'd argue that Underwood deserves credit for instilling this confidence! But Fletch, heck yes!
The Fletch Effect!
