I was going to post: TO(S) to Final Four

Best defensive player on the best defensive team in the country, and somehow coach Christian got him to sign a LOI with us.

What's supposed to be sinking in? :-)

Still don't get the venom that comes out against Coach Christian. I responded positively to the Treg Setty post and wished him well. Yet, as others have mentioned what Coach Christian said and did was pretty much part and parcel of what a lot of us went through growing up. As a coach I vowed never to do those sorts of things and I was fortunate to coach with people who thought the same way. However, if some of you don't believe this has gone on and still goes on (though far less than when I was a kid) you must have never played sports at the high school level, or live in some sort bubble that prevents you from seeing reality.

Coach Christian was tame compared to Coach Bobby Knight and the late Rick Majerus and just so we understand reality here, they were not all angry, conservative men. Coach Majerus was a big supporter and contributor to many liberal causes and candidates. Does anyone thing Coach Christian was less fiery and animated in his comments compared to Coach Nee? Coach Majerus' players admitted that weren't too happy with his demeanor either in the first season. However, when he went 29-3 in his second season those mutiny thoughts were gone.

If I had a dollar for every time I was embarrassed, demeaned etc by a coach from 7th grade on up, I would be far richer than I am now. I remember one time in high school a kid from our school went to one of these elite basketball camps that a university had (those camps were far less than prevalent than they are now.) He told the story that the head coach (now retired, but whom you often see on ESPN) told the campers that whoever won the skills competition would get to drive his shiny Cadillac from the other end of the parking lot to where they were standing. The kid that won was told by the coach not to damage his "shiny Cadillac." When the kid told him he was only 15 and didn't have his license yet, the coach went on a profane rant about not being man enough to take the challenge and this didn't bode well for his athletic career.

What you got with Coach Christian and a ton of other like minded coaches in the MAC and around the country in high school and college didn't come in a vacuum. This isn't even something peculiar to sports, I have seen school play directors sound like the barking head football coach. Again, when I was coaching I didn't do these sorts of things, but to pretend they are out of the ordinary is just not in keeping with reality.

Things are continuing to work out for Owens and Tech. He might be getting some NBA work outs after this run to the final.

Glad to see that he ran back onto the floor after the ankle turn. It didn't look good on the replay, but apparently they taped him up and maybe gave him some meds.

Thanks for the information about Ulice Payne. I was not aware of all of the things he had done after Marquette championship. Very impressive!

There was another highly regarded recruit in that class, or maybe the one after it: Larry Slappy. I can't remember exactly what happened to him. I think he only played one year, and showed promised but didn't quite live up to his reputation. These high-profile recruits were toward the end of Snyder's career. It was kind of ironic that at the point in his career when he could sign what would today be five-star recruits, his style was such that once signed he could not relate to some of them. He was so used to working with the "diamond's in the rough" kind of guys that he had trouble with the prima donna types. Though his later work, as you described so well, is very impressive, I heard at the time that Ulice in his college years was a load to handle. Kind of marched to beat of his own drum, and not necessarily the beat of the coach's drum, so to speak.

Where is that "beating the dead horse over and over" GIF when you need it?

Tech made their push last night after Owens fouled out. Maybe that ankle injury was bothering him more than was let on. Heck of a 2nd half last night, pretty entertaining game. I thought Tech blew it with too much hero ball in OT, so much 1-on-1 offense with the ball not moving much.

There was at least one ill-advised three, early in the shot clock, taken by TT in the OT that I think could be called "Hero ball."

Beating a dead horse? Did we have another signee in the National Championship game and his berated former coach in the ACC? Did I miss something? Did I miss the mea culpas from those who wanted a coach who competed with Coach Billy Hahn for taking the program backwards the fastest? As I have said ad nauseam, I liked both Coach Hahn and Coach Phillips as men. Truth of the matter is they were probably more fun and likable than some of the high profile coaches we have had in Athens. It doesn't mean they needed to be retained. Maybe if we are going to have a beating the dead horse gif, we could have a mea culpa one as well.