Football budget makes this kind of thing tough. Mid-Majors who have basketball success usually dont have a D1 football program.

I vividly remember standing on the Convo floor in 1994 listing to then Coach Hunter talking about his goal every year, before he left Athens, was to hang a national championship banner from the rafters.

Some may call that thinking crazy or unrealistic and certainly the data backs that up. But. If you don't aim for it, or make that a goal, or believe yourself it's achievable then it will never happen for certain.

Every inevitability starts with the seed of an idea or desire that becomes a goal and a belief.

+1,000,000

Then you better get the guy you worship, Boals, to start recruiting these guys. Obviously, Saul and JC were clueless per your assessment of their coaching abilities. The jury is out on Boals. His love of Ohio is apparent. The rest remains to be seen.

One other thing, if I'm a mid-major, I'm not modeling my team after this Peacocks squad. I give them a ton of credit for reaching the Elite Eight and making history but they got hot at the right time with a lot of luck involved.

I'm a believer in Jeff Boals' vision for Ohio basketball and think he's building a roster that can win games in March. It's a shame how last season ended but I'm encouraged by their incoming recruiting class. I really believe we could've been a dangerous team this March if not for their offseason losses.

I am seeing things that St Peters is doing that should inform our coaching staff. Both their offense and defense are very energized. They run patterns on offense that are fast but look to be well scripted. They seem to be in perpetual motion with no standing around waiting for the point to make a move. And the whole team looked very confident, rarely passing up an open shot. They (and others in the tourney as well) also have well organized out-of-bounds plays. We seem pretty disorganized in that department.

To me we appeared to lose confidence as the year went on which affected both our shooting and passing. The defense also seemed less intense during the late season slump. It would appear that St Peters evolved in the opposite direction as their season progressed.

St. Peters ain't making it to the final four.

I suspect Huggins comments were driven more by the thought that big time programs shouldn’t have to subject themselves to being beaten (embarrassed) in the tournament by mid-majors rather than a commentary on their worthiness. Given his pedestrian overall post season performance I can understand why he’d feel that way.

There is no secreat formula to a Mid Major basketball. St. Peter's miraculous run is something special considering their record earlier in the year, but it could be done in other ways. For me basketball, expeically at the high school and college level, boils down to having a point guard, a shooting guard and a rebounder. The other two positions are gravy. Perhaps you might have another shooting guard, or another bug man rebounder. It doesn't matter, you have to have a floor general that gets the ball to a shooter and you have to have someone who means business under the boards. There is no reason we or any other mid major couldn't do that. However, as I have said before, if a Mid Major is going to make noise in the tournament all the stars have to perfectly align into a rare conjunction, which by definition is rare indeed.

Now to Coach Huggins' comments. There's something about the guy (and I have met others like him during my coaching days) who are spot on with some things, but wildly off the mark with others. Take for example his comments about Oscar Tshiebwe. He claimed Oscar didn't possess the right work ethnic to be a star at WVU, before he tranferred to Kentucky. I have never met Oscar, but I have people very close to me that are very close to Oscar. Again, while Huggins can be brilliant, he can me wildly off the mark. In many ways Coach Huggins and Oscar share many traits, most notably their conservative beliefs. However, for whatever reason Coach Huggins didn't see the potential in Oscar, just like he doesn't like mid majors in the tournament, though he once coached at one. Oscar, just like St. Peter's will get the last laugh. Coach Huggins can be ruthless. There is one former assistant of Huggins (who I am familiar with) who had to take a fall for him and that coach never got the chance in the coaching world that Huggins did, so I don't think Coach Huggins comments are one to be taken very seriously. Coach Huggins career reminds me of that old 70s song, "When You're Hot You're Hot, When You're Not You're Not.

thats for sure.unc will win. lets keep our fingers crossed for a duke vs unc title game. that would be a fitting way to send coach k off especially if duke won.

Saul was excoriated on this board and ultimately dismissed in part for his failure to recruit and develop a sufficient amount of D1 talent. To his credit he did recruit the likes of: Ryan Taylor, Jordan Dartis, Jason Preston, BVP, Jason Carter, Lunden McDay and Gavin Block. All guys who proved to hold their own on the court at the D1 level.
Boals has to date IMO Mark Sears and even though this year was inexplicable Ben Roderick that have been D1 level performers as his signature recruits. Sure hope his incoming class has some true D1 talent cause it’s sorely needed.

Agree . . . that missed free throw still haunts, but if it goes in and we beat UNC, I can see us winning the next one. Go OHIO!