I'm sur that a Toledo fan would remind you that they have four MAC titles in the last four years. They just don't have the tournament title which brings the most attention to the University. I think that's surprising but not all that surprising. I think a regular season championship is more dependent on catching the right breaks than anything else. A tournament title is DEFINATELY mostly luck so I don't think we should be all that surprised when a team, no matter what we think of that team, doesn't win. What surprises me is when people ARE surprised.
And with all that said...give me Ohio's last four years over Toledo's last four years. I can't imagine being a Rockets fan and winning four straight regular season titles and not sniffing the Big Dance once. No thank you. Like it or not, such is life in a one-bid league.
+1. I couldn’t take that reminder seriously. It’s big dance or bust, but I’ll applaud Tod K on the talent he’s been able to bring in year in and year out. Just 1 MAC tourney title over the years and he’s probably gone.
Agree....definitely gone and forever a Toledo legend with just one conference tournament championship.
Perhaps I'm old school ... But I'll take a conference title any day. I think NCAA Bids are great, but fade unless they come with a win or two (like the Cats have delivered). But over time what good are 2-3 NCAA appearances if they don't come with a win or two.
I think almost everyone would take a tournament title over a regular season title, including the AD and college president. Almost all of the 2000 or so collegiate athletic departments lose money. The point of taking on the cost is mostly as a marketing expense for exposure of the school. It is also in part a campus entertainment and quality of life expense and to lesser extent executing the college mission of developing leaders of the future. Unless a mid-major program is really good, even just losing one game in the NCAA tournament is probably the best chance for marketing exposure so it is important to the coach's goals. Winning 1 tournament as opposed to 4 regular season championships, well, I imagine that preference is pretty split. And as far as the AD goes consistently winning is what gets games on lesser TV channels and sells tickets to regular season games.
Todd K hasn't won a tournament. That's a knock on him. And, yes, people are human and not robots so it might have something to do with him as a coach or the type of players he recruits as to why they succeed in winning most MAC games but always lose one in the tournament. But I would contend that every game, regular season or not (baseball more so than basketball and basketball more so than football), has a lot of lucky breaks in the outcome. Even over the course of a long season lucky breaks, injuries and such play a very, very big factor. Unless you are a team as far above the league as 2019 Buffalo, the chances of any team winning any particular tournament aren't great but if he keeps winning low to mid twenties every regular season odds are pretty good that at some point he'll get one. FJC31 was dismissive of my comment but I also, while no fan of Toledo, felt like I HAD to comment. In my mind it was an obviously false statement and also probably an intentionally false one. It is the sort of deceitful thing that politicians do when they lie in that knowing that they are lying about their opponent's record but if they are called out on it then they can be snarky dismissive of their opponent's record rather than be forced to own the lie.
There was a time when MAC champions got at-large bids. Especially now, with the way that the MAC is post-pandemic, that probably isn't happening again any time soon. I am fully aware that describes "life in the MAC" But I think that using that as the reason that the regular season title doesn't count for anything because you are very unlikely to parlay that into the ultimate national title is just ridiculous. A MAC team is very unlikely to parlay a tournament championship into a national championship as well. I mean, duh. It is like you gave zero thought to what you said. The same rules apply on that argument. If you want to make a distinction, and there is a distinction, look at it from the marketing and campus life and ticket sales standpoint. Doing anything else makes no sense at all. Any other argument is just from a standpoint of personal preference. Getting dismissive and snarky when comparing someone's possible personal preferences to yours is pretty rude.
Todd K is 57 now. He's reaching the point where his age is going to start making it harder to get that big payday. But is is probably still slightly closer to that in the hierarchy than Boals is right now. But our offseason looks pretty good so far. If we can get a high quality grad transfer center oe something like that, I think having a team that approaches the school record in wins and wins both MAC titles becomes a realistic possibility. And if that happens, at 51, even though we probably won't lose Boals to a job offering a smallish raise, odds are very good that he'll be offered the sort of job that he can't refuse.
Last Edited: 5/4/2024 6:54:03 PM by Victory