jacobkdoyle
Well-known member
- Joined
- Mar 23, 2014
- Messages
- 17,008
I was reading a few old threads from a couple years ago just to see what the conversation was like surrounding the team. It's crazy, pretty much every single thing I used to complain about has been addressed. There was one thread where I was griping about never having a 30 win season, or "if we can't go 27-4 with the team we have coming back, when will it ever happen?". Really funny looking back. And also makes me realize how far we've come. The perception of our team has changed so much. And not just from our fans, but from our opponents and conference mates too. We have ripped out Tulsa and Temple's hearts right in front of their own fans the last 2 years. Things like that make them hate us. We have the best record in conference history. The AAC has been around long enough now where that actually carries some weight. We're the hunted...the ones teams circle. And that in itself has to make our players that much more confident. We're seen as the #1 game on the schedule. It would be a season high note for a lot of teams to beat us. As little as just a couple years ago, we were losing double digit games, even in the AAC. In just a couple years time, that has become something that is absolutely unthinkable. I love it. Credit goes all around. I feel like Coach Cronin has been true to his word of letting the players truly dictate our success. He has allowed himself to let go a little bit and the players have responded. They have taken complete ownership of our results. Coming up on the game at USF makes me think of the game a few years ago where we won 54-51 and they had a game tying 3 in the air at the buzzer. And that USF team was dogsh*t (some things never change). But after the game Coach called it "winning beautifully". I can't help but think about that and compare that team to what we're doing now. It's night and day. And the willingness to push it up a notch against the USF type teams gives a great opportunity for our bench guys to get much needed experience. That feeds into the cycle of having upperclassmen who can lead the team when it's their time to shine.
I love where things are for this program. It just feels to me like we've done a better job of putting ourselves out there over the past couple years. Being proud of what we do and being transparent about the things that need work. The way Cronin used to approach offense was kind of an "it will fix itself" mentality. Reminds me of how I viewed my bank account in college. If I just don't check it, it's not an issue. But when you look at it head on, and embrace some of the numbers that help you pinpoint areas of weakness, you can learn to trim a lot of the fat.
Anyway, can't wait for the rest of this season. Proud of what everyone involved in the day to day has done to turn this thing into what it is. Coaches, players, everyone on the staff. Obviously we can't get fat and happy. There's a lot of season left. But I just had to express how much I am enjoying Bearcat Basketball.
I love where things are for this program. It just feels to me like we've done a better job of putting ourselves out there over the past couple years. Being proud of what we do and being transparent about the things that need work. The way Cronin used to approach offense was kind of an "it will fix itself" mentality. Reminds me of how I viewed my bank account in college. If I just don't check it, it's not an issue. But when you look at it head on, and embrace some of the numbers that help you pinpoint areas of weakness, you can learn to trim a lot of the fat.
Anyway, can't wait for the rest of this season. Proud of what everyone involved in the day to day has done to turn this thing into what it is. Coaches, players, everyone on the staff. Obviously we can't get fat and happy. There's a lot of season left. But I just had to express how much I am enjoying Bearcat Basketball.
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