another thing on the subject of this wishy washy nature of our fan base:
rick and shaka won a lot of regular season games, and in the case of rick he was one of the best tourney coaches in the country for a decade. one of the 10 best coaches (period) of the aughts in fact. but he eventually stopped advancing in the tourney, and not only did we fire him, but a ridiculous portion of our fan base still hates him and talks shit about him to this day.
our fans have made it clear that exceeding what rick barnes did at Texas is now our standard, and yet we’re also supposed to be happy with a stop-gap coach like RT. look, i’ve enjoyed going to the second weekend two years in a row, and i’ll co tj is to enjoy whatever success we have, but RT is not going to build something special and long term here, he’s just not. so while going to the second weekend of the tourney is enjoyable in real time, A)the regular season aka 90% of our season wasn’t all that fun, and B)we’re just spinning our wheels until RT leaves and we (hopefully) bring in a long-term replacement who builds a nationally competitive program and who stays here for 15-20+ years.
so yeah, it’s odd to me, the disconnect our fans have where they think the program should be a perennial power, yet they get upset when someone suggests that we’re wasting our time on that front as long as RT is here. it’s possible to like and root for RT while still acknowledging that he’s not a long term answer. i’ll enjoy and appreciate his time here, but i am still looking ahead towards his replacement, because this program is not going to take the next step on RT’s watch.