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Why do the Buffs Always suck?
- Thread starter lvbuff
- Start date
Is the problem them sucking or you caring?
There could be an entire thesis written on this topic, but this one hits pretty much dead on.
Birch1
Well-Known Member
Depends on expectations honestly. I think it's realistic to think that in a five year stretch we should be a tourney team 3-4 times with one of those being a potential S16 team ("potential" is the key word there). And in that regard, Tad needs to right the ship. But he's not the only one. I bag on recruiting CO HS kids (any state that allows my untalented ass to get minutes is a state that probably shouldn't be putting kids on P12 teams), but what option does Tad have? @YngC made a great point on the Freeballin' podcast a few weeks ago that has really stuck in my head about how these guys can't just go to a random HS and watch potential D1 athletes unless they're hopping on a 2 hour flight. It's hard to recruit bigtime without that, so you have to get lucky in one form or another. Honestly, the fact that Kim English hasn't been able to land a big fish makes me think there are bigger institutional problems than we think. Kim's a rock star, and he is loved. The fact that he struck out this year is concerning - and I'm not concerned with English's effort. Honestly, our best hope is @RumblinBuff wins lotto and decides to give up on the baseball dream and instead invests heavily in a recruiting budget specifically for basketball. Until then, we have to hope that football just takes off and gives enough of the crumbs to raise the basketball program.
I've watched a lot of CO HS basketball over the past 30 of years and this state is basically a talent wasteland. With the population growth CO HS football has really progressed while I think HS basketball has regressed.
I think some of the problem is that there's such an emphasis on specializing in a sport. I see that all the time even at my son's age (10) where other parents have their kids down to only playing 1 sport or focusing on 1 activity with the thought that if they put everything into that one thing it will result in a scholarship (or worse, personal bragging rights for the parents because their kid is standing out at something). I believe that it was a lot better back in the stone ages when I was growing up and athletes played a fall sport, a winter sport and a spring sport. But I see a lot of football players only playing football, even specializing on offense or defense before they are even in high school. Then, they do football weight lifting for their PE requirement and don't play another sport except maybe track & field which they use as training to improve their speed and/or explosiveness.
There's a snowball effect here. When the entire basketball team is also playing year-round, doing traveling teams, etc, then it is difficult for a football player to say he'll join them once the season's over and that they need to understand that he still needs to get his lifts in every day during the season. Within this culture of specializing, there doesn't seem to be much room for accommodating athletes who don't.
Anyway, considering our lack of a basketball culture in CO to go along with our whiteness, within this culture of specialization it's no surprise to me that football is progressing with population gain but we're still too underpopulated to see basketball make gains yet.
forgot wisco....mich st....
Birch1
Well-Known Member
Clemson?
They made the S16 last year, but they hadn't danced since 2011 prior to that (and that was as a 12 seed). If we suck, and we danced 4 times in that stretch I'm not sure you can point to Clemson as a success.
You can if you only watch enough basketball to remember tourney runs and the occasional upset of an elite program. I'm sure there are folks who think Valpo has a better hoops program than CU because of that 1 tourney run over a decade ago.
Birch1
Well-Known Member
Haha. Nice dig. And Goose with the high five.
But Clemson could be burgeoning no?
Predicted response:
Goose: “No.”
They could be. Certainly a well-run athletic department right now.
Could be. But the same could have been said about us heading into the Mayor's Jr. year. Nothing is certain.
Hoops Fan
Well-Known Member
Death and Taxes
BuffG
Well-Known Member
This is why I dream of Chauncey running the program sometime in the next 5 years. I know a lot of people think that’s silly. It could be but, there’s no other obvious people who could bring that type of cache here.
The NBA is a players league more than any other. The network of players is a fraction of the size of NFL players. Thus, connections are relatively most valuable in basketball. Chauncey is firmly in that fraternity and at the right age to pull strings with just about anybody. We don’t have the culture/money/tradition angle.
I’m sure it won’t happen but it’s more likely than the state becoming a basketball hotbed or winning the lotto.
I'd much rather see Chauncey get hired as AD for Basketball if we ever had the money to do that.
I don't think money would be an obstacle for that. Chauncey made his money and as far as I know was smart with it so the paycheck wouldn't be a big factor.
Much more important would be a combination of Chauncey feeling like he is driven to do it and believing he had authority and a situation where he could make a difference.
Chauncey is all about winning, that is what he does. If he took the job he would be 100% dedicated to it and he wouldn't be willing to settle for less than full support.
He wouldn't do it for free, that would be a lack of respect but I don't think he would also ask for anything out of line with what the school could afford and what others in similar positions make.
That's most of what I meant. Peer institutions that actually have a separate Associate AD dedicated to basketball are programs that put a ton of resources into their basketball operations with a large organization of people who work in it. Places like Kentucky. So "having the money" wasn't about paying Chauncey. It was about paying for all the other stuff that would justify paying for someone like Chauncey to be in that job.