Seems to me that the common thing all of our failed and fired Gopher Men's Basketball Coaches have had since before Clem Haskins...heck, even take it back to Jim Dutcher and Bill Musselman...all the way back to Johnny Kundla was that they very seldom finished high enough in the Big Ten Standings or they had to cheat to try to finish higher in the Big Ten Standings. Back in the old days, the tourney didn't invite so many teams and about the only way to get an invitation was to win your conference. So, those early coaches had it a LOT tougher than the more recent crop of coaches. It was only a few coaches, teams and fan bases who whined so much back then. That was before the "bubble" and the automatic invitations.
Now, teams finish in 7th or 8th place and they think they are getting screwed because they don't get invited to the tourney. It seems our own Coach may be voicing some sour grapes. It seems as though not only did he not do well enough in the Conference Standings or in the Conference Tourney, but he also feels he needs a softer ooc schedule.
There are SO MANY cupcakes on the Men's Hoops Schedule that season ticket holders are getting royally ripped off. The people who make the "selections" are working on their own bias and a lot of smoke and mirrors. IF you do too poorly in your own conference, you enter that fantasy never-never land called the bubble. Even the very fact that there is a "bubble-zone" tells me that the "books are cooked" and some teams are going to be nailed to the wall and royally jobbed while other teams are going on their magic carpet ride all expenses paid at the pleasure of the "selection committee." But, it keeps boored and dejected fans somewhat engaged and interested in the final third of the season.
Don't you care about those 18 Conference games and then the Conference Tourney? The Ohio State/Nebraska seeds? The selection committee bleeds the OHIO STATE colors. And, Nebraska forever has sucked in hoops. There are LOT more tv viewers in Ohio than in Nebraska. And, besides that, Nebraska has Creighton! But, BOTH Ohio State and Nebraska beat the Coach the last time they played. So, their placement meant nothing to me. Georgia let the bubble boys and girls mess with them because they didn't go 13-5 in their conference instead of 12-6 They could have made the selection committee put the screws to some other programs if ONLY they would have won enough conference games. Basically, to INSURE that the selection committee can't make posters on GOPHER HOLE whine and cry about not making the tournament AGAIN, the Coach and his Team HAVE to win MORE Conference Games. And they HAVE to close STRONG in the Conference Standings and they have still another chance to make a RUN in the Conference Tourney and beat two or three conference members in their tourney. The Conference RECORD means SO much because after the ooc schedule has been completed there are 18 conference games played. And then the conference tournament. It matters HOW the team plays at the end of the season. It matters HOW well the team does in it's final six or seven games. The selection committee may still screw teams over, but the coach and the team should at least care about finishing the highest they can possibly finish in the conference rather than to stumble and fall and quit playing for pride down the stretch in conference play. Personally, I STILL believe that the object of the game is to WIN the Conference Championship. And, if you can't do that: win the Conference Tourney. The rest will ALL take care of itself.
