Leafing through my college hoops feed on Twitter tonight, I see these tweets about the flight status of the Texas AD flying to Richmond, and the optimism of them getting Shaka. It just takes ya back to three years ago.

THey were over there talking about him not living up to their expectations, tourney every year, FF every five years or so....interesting FF in 89 and 05. Before that you got to go back decades. Not sure why they think he is going to turn that program over following Weber's dismantling in a few years. Weber is doing the same thing at K State presently and the folks in Topeka seem surprised.

I think he will land on his feet and do well if that happens. If he survives I think he will open up a pipeline to Chicago and be there for a while. Pivotal year for him, Illini fans have been the same since my pops was a player and consistent throughout my time in Chicago 4 decades ago.

The folks in Champaign-Urbana --or anywhere else not named Kentucky, Kansas, or Duke for that matter-- that think they should be going Dancin' every year and heading to annual Sweet Sixteens need to look at just how damn hard it is to do that. Look at the list of teams that have managed five years in a row currently:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NCAA_Men%27s_Division_I_Bask...

A Small List of ELEVEN teams. Here's another that shows more teams after 5 years in a row. Add 13 teams that have been to 3 straight or more.

http://mcubed.net/ncaab/strkr64c.shtml


So...24 teams out of 351 have been to three consecutive tournaments or more.

EDIT: And that list doesn't include KENTUCKY.



I agree with borna, John will get them up to a higher level given the time to build the Chicago recruiting base. That stuff isn't done overnight, and reportedly he's made big strides in that area. You have to believe full seasons from Rice and Abrams would have meant 3-4 more wins this year too, easily getting them in the field.