true its not as simple as it sounds in terms of progressing in march and there are many moving parts. but in order to be revered at the national level and viewed as a big boy again, sweet 16's aren't going to do it. college basketball fans outside of cincinnati and syracuse probably have already forgotten and could not tell you that uc beat cuse in the big east tournament. without thinking hard, can you name who won the semi's of the acc, sec, and big ten tournaments? washington has been to 3 sweet 16's since 2005, but i would venture to say that few people here really think of them as a national power. the only time people remember sweet 16 teams are when they are cinderallas. as for established programs, no one nationally sits back in goes, remember when msu/marquette/florida/whover made the sweet 16 five years ago. thats because sweet 16s are not the barometer for great programs. uc fans and cronin want it to be a great program again, and annual sweet 16 stops don't put uc on that level.
point being, i agree with you in what you are saying. this is a uc team that will be a difficult matchup for many teams, but who also could get easily exposed in march were they to face a strong, dominant front line. its unfortunate that uc is really a high quality big away from being a very, very real final 4 contender in my opinion. outside of that, uc has a guard combination this year that i think will be very special and of a caliber that we might not see for a long time in the future. regardless, the team and fans need something tangible to reach for to continue the growth and rebuilding of the program. a sweet 16 would be a good accomplishment this year, but it doesn't get uc to where we want them to be on a national scale.