Spark is fightin' the good fight up in here! Love it.
Edit: Look, I, like many others whose eyes bled last year, am skeptical if this guy can move the program to the next level. But, I appreciate the lengths you have gone to keep all this into perspective. We ARE better off than pre-Underwood. No doubt.
Nobody was particularly thrilled with last year, obviously, but if that's what the "bad years" look like under Underwood, well.. Bad years where you watch the selection show knowing you're not in it are considerably worse IMO. Obviously if that (or worse) becomes more common, no one will push back on firing a coach that hasn't been consistently good.
I'm not really sure what "the next level" is. The whinging isn't going to stop if he makes the second weekend this year, it'll just move to the next target. And if our standard is going to be "S16 or better every year," we're almost certainly not going to be that no matter who we get - because almost no one is that these days. Going consistently deep into the tournament is rarer than it's been previously, and with the portal stuff is going to be even more rare going forward. No high major team has made the last four S16s (there are five teams out of 350+ who have made the last two). Only one team total has made the last two E8's. Matter of fact, only 9 programs are on a better current tournament streak than we are (I assume most if not all of them would've also made the canceled tournament, but unsure on that).
We all want us to win a title, I'm just very dubious that firing Underwood and more than likely taking a step or two backwards is a good way forward. The Loyalty guys who want him fired are selling that we'll get Musselman or Miller, and I just sincerely doubt that's going to happen - we're far more likely to get a guy from a mid-major who had one really good year. I also think those guys are likely to be turned on just as fast during the inevitable complete rebuild.
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