FEAR LEON - read this post from another thread from BOBCAT LOVE SHAME....things don't automatically get better every year...its a process. Check out the path VCU has taken...it's not all NCAA sweet 16's every year....

"Frankly, I don't think Gonzaga is a realistic comp or example for us. They made the tournament in 1999, won some games, and have been there every year since. They made a very conscious decision to fund their program and put it on par with national programs. They may not spend quite as much on basketball as a Duke or Kansas, but their annual basketball expenditures are closer to Duke than we are to Gonzaga. Likewise, Butler is a private school that was able to build on two final four runs and pay a very large amount of money over a long period of years to retain Brad Stevens. There are advantages to the private school model that OU simply can't match at this point.

In my mind, the comp that makes more sense is VCU. It's a public school that traditionally has had far less athletic success than other in-state public schools (UVA/Va Tech). They don't own the Virginia market, and even in Richmond they were considered the also-ran behind U of R for years. What they did, however, was manage to parlay a period of about 10 years of strong basketball into long term, prolonged success. And, contrary to popular belief, they didn't do it overnight and they didn't go to the tournament every year in the process. 

Jeff Capel helped to build a strong program there, but never won an NCAA tournament game for them. Next, they hired an assistant from a big time program (Anthony Grant) who beat Duke in the first round of the tournament in his first year. The next year, they were upset by W&M in the CAA tournament, and missed the NCAA's and lost in the NIT in the first round. The year following, they went 24-10, won the regular season CAA title, but lost to UCLA in the first round of the NCAAs. At which point, Grant left for Alabama. So, if you're keeping score, between Capel and Grant, VCU compiled a 155-66 record and won a single NCAA tournament game.

Skaka Smart was then given the head job, and proceeded to go 27-9, which included 7 losses in conference, missed the NCAA tournament but ended up winning the CBI. You know, the tournament people around here think is beneath us. Finally, in 2011, they broke through by getting into the tournament as an at large, winning their play in game against USC, and famously knocking off Georgetown, Purdue, Florida State, and Kansas on their way to the final four. Since then, they've been to the tournament every year, and they've committed a ton of money to Smart and been added to the Atlantic 10. 

So, what's the point? The point is that we need to be realistic and patient regarding our definition of success. VCU didn't beat Duke under Anthony Grant and then make the NCAA tournament every year after, what they did was establish a culture of winning, compete consistently for an NCAA tournament spot, recruit well, and most importantly, win a ton of basketball games. Bottom line is this: if you win games consistently, regardless of whether or not they're regular season games, CBI games, NIT games, or NCAA tournament games, people will take notice. If you're viewed as a program that's always competing for a spot in the NCAA tournament, recruits will take notice. And Jim Christian has shown he can win basketball games in this league, and while last year's run apparently made people impatient and spoiled and led them to believe that the only games that matter for a program like ours take place in the NCAA tournament, that's simply not the case. If we want to take the next step, we need to win a lot over a long period of time, consistently. Christian is the winningest coach in MAC history, percentage wise. If he continues that, it will mean very good things for our program, and the people who are jumping ship already have no sense of what it actually takes to build a long term winning program. It's not going to happen over night. There aren't going to be annual sweet 16 runs. But there will be a lot of wins, and if wins over teams like BG, Ball State, and Buffalo aren't good enough for you, I've got bad news: you're a fan of the wrong team. Because that's who we play. "

Sports fandom is neither realistic nor patient. Nor is it rational. There is nothing rational about losing sleep over what 18-22 year olds do simply because they happen to attend the same school you went to.

No. Sports fandom is an undulating emotional beast, and as horrible as the lows feel sometimes, we can't kill the beast because the highs are great. It's a drug. And like any drug to an addict, when you're feeling low, all you want to do is feel that high again.

I think some people tend to forget that 2009-10 was largely a fluke. We were a 9 seed in the MAC tournament. We got lucky with an incredibly talented transfer who got incredibly hot at the right time and carried the team to the NCAAs.

But the sports fan doesn't want to look at it that way. The sports fan wants to remember dominating a Georgetown team that we were told we had no chance against. The sports fan wants to remember DJ's no-look to DeVaughn. The sports fan wants to remember every person in America talking about THE OHIO BOBCATS!!!!!

The sports fan doesn't want to remember how non-competitive we were against Tennessee the very next game. The sports fan doesn't want to remember getting bounced from the MAC tournament by Ball State in 2011. The sports fan doesn't want to remember that our Sweet 16 run last year was largely the function of very favorable match-ups.

Those are the lows of sports fandom. We only want the highs.

My point? It's easy to remember the good things and forget the bad things. The only reason it stings this bad right now is because we were so high this time last year. Do I KNOW if Jim Christian will be able to succeed at OHIO? No. We have a single data point, which isn't enough to establish a trend. I think he will. But that's not the sports fan in me. The sports fan in me cares very little about any of that right now, because I will not be high again this year.

Until the football team upsets a top 10 ranked Louisville team on the last Saturday in August.

Or until the Reds fire Dusty Baker. That will do it too.

Spot on.  Great post.  Although as an Orioles fan, I care nothing about Dusty Baker.

CM, all you had to say is "Cubs fans."  It's the anticipation, it's the watching, it's the enjoying, it's the highs, it's the lows, it's the memories.

I have played basketball and the effort by Walt WAS there..when a player is tanking the game he doesnt play defense and usually chucks the ball..not the case with Walt though I'm curious if any plays were drawn for him.

Walt has deactivated his twitter account.

Question Walt's commitment, heart, soul, effort, etc. - and I gotta question your knowledge of the man, and/or the motives of your post.  

Borna - that was not directed at you - your post was excellent. I have told Walt personally that he was one of my all time favorite Bobcats - for the reasons I listed for what others seemed to be questioning - all things that do not show up on stat lines.

My ONLY complaint about Walt is that I would have wished he would have learned in 4 years to keep his mouth guard in his mouth!  

Yup.

I'm doing that right now.

Who would he defer to? That was part of the problem down the stretch. We didn't have a consistent bench scorer. I do understand your point. Just kind of rationalizing why Walt played through a tough night. Like others, I feel bad that it ended that way for Walt and don't think it was due to a lack of effort.