BEVERLY HILLS (MI) -- Nobody in Flyerland is deriving much pleasure from watching what started out as a promising 2010-2011 basketball campaign melt into the muck of the merely okay. And despite the feverish protestations of message board posters everywhere 17-8 is not the end of the world or just cause to fire BG, it’s simply disappointingly ordinary, that’s all.
It’s probably of no consolation to any of us, but UD is in some fairly good company when it comes to mumbling and grumbling about their favorite hoops team, searching for an answer to the elusive question:
“Whahappened?”
Look no further than last years’ Final Four darlings, the Butler Bulldogs. Butler fans must lead the nation in face-palms as they think back 12 short months to their team’s magical run to the NCAA Championship game.
The Indy Star provides a simple one-word answer to what ails Bulldog Nation:
Defense
http://www.indystar.com/article/2011...-Bulldogs-s-D-
Another poster child for NCAA success has been Gonzaga. When Flyer fans kvetch about the Red and Blue you will often hear “Why can’t Dayton be like the Zags?” Well, those fans finally got their wish because this season the Red and Blue are pretty much the spittin’ image of the Catholic school on the West Coast.
Rush the Court provides the details:
http://rushthecourt.net/2011/02/07/w...-with-gonzaga/
Finally, the program that brought us
Brian Gregory; the team that UD resembles the most; the blueprint for most of what the Flyers do on both sides of the ball -- the MSU Spartans -- are hurtin’ for certain.
The excellent writer Michael Rosenberg of
The Detroit Freep provides a chilling ‘what if’ tale:
http://www.freep.com/article/2011021...ws|text|Sports
Read those final three sentences over again:
“As bad as this has been, Izzo is lucky he stayed in East Lansing rather than jump to Cleveland. And you know who else is lucky? The guy who would have replaced him.”
Gee, I wonder who
“that guy” might be? Can you imagine the chaos that would have ensued at UD had Izzo gone to the Land of the Cleves and BG taken his place in East Lansing? This season is the proverbial day at the beach complete with seashells and balloons compared to what might have been had that occurred.
I guess what I’m trying to say is relax,
Flyer Faithful…as hard as it may seem to believe, things actually could be worse!
That’s it “From the Swamp.”
You can email me at:
swampy@udpride.com