Barf, I hate losing. BYU is a very good team. They should be an at large team for sure and they know how to run offense. They did a terrific job in execution and strategy and we were poor at adjusting. Despite what looked like hot shooting, they were not good from the outside. Why did they shoot over 50%? Because they repeatedly and routinely beat us off the dribble. It was painful to watch us make no adjustments whatsoever. Why on earth we dont at least spring a zone on someone for several minutes a game is beyond me. We didnt play bad defense for most the game, we just had lapses where they made adjustments and we didnt. BARF.
Offensively, we are inept. The JP offense was a lot better than this. You know why we were 4-21 on 3's? It is not just because we are a poor shooting team, it was because, no less than SEVEN of those shots were forced up at the shot clock buzzer because our offense just plain sucks. On about half our possessions, we have 3 guys standing, doing nothing for 15-20 seconds. WHAT THE HECK?!? Our screens are terrible and our motion is arbitrary. Turnovers are not this issue, it is a complete and utter lack of offensive philosophy, strategy and execution. I was with a friend from out of town and I was explaining how we had been oh so close on Randle and Clarke. His reply, "they probably came to some games and saw how crappy the offense was and decided to go somewhere that was going to be more fun to play." BARF.
All that said, we played a good team to within 6. It also appears that Illinois is FOR REAL. Geesh, what a great improvement in a years time. They just beat #11 Purdue on the road. That was the start of an 8 game stretch that will include 6 ranked teams. Texas A&M has still not lost since we beat them but I will be STUNNED if they start the Big 12 off better than 5-5. We'll see. Before we get too encouraged by close losses to good teams and one quality win, look no further than the first 9-20 JP team. They played EVERYONE close most the year and had a couple top 75 wins. That team started 7-11 but were within 6 points at the under 4 timeout in ALL 11 losses.
I cant believe there are those still talking about the NCAA. We have to win the CUSA tournament or go on a crazy run. I still think CUSA can get 2 teams in, but TU wont be one of them. We are headed for the NIT people... at best.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Monday, December 29, 2008
The Gus bus has left the station.
Lots of opinions on Malzhan leaving for Auburn, I am indifferent. I think he is an offensive genius but... can you really build a winning program in the SEC with a scheme better suited for Madden 09? It puts a lot of pressure on your defense and as we saw the last two years, that can make an average defense look terrible. I do wish him the best because he is a stand up guy.
There is one person that I think is glad to see Malzhan leave. Todd Graham. TG is a great person by all accounts but his glaring flaw seems to be a gigantor ego. As a defensive coach, I think it was eating him up that Malzhan was getting so much pub. He has already said at Rice after his OC left that it didnt matter because they ran "his" offense. His comments on Malzhan leaving, while not as direct, pretty much hint the same thing. You need an ego to win but there is a fine line between confidence and arrogance. There were some stubborn coaching errors this last year.
How will we be next year? The D has got to get a LOT better and we will be breaking in our 3 QB in as many years. The schedule, from what I have seen, looks to be much tougher but we have a great recruiting class.
One thing I can say for sure is that we have a lot of great kids and some very classy coaches. For a program that was literally on the verge of shutting down, we have done quite well. I personally dont thing we will ever be Boise or TCU, I am happy with where we are at, after all, we are THE smallest D1A football school. We done good.
There is one person that I think is glad to see Malzhan leave. Todd Graham. TG is a great person by all accounts but his glaring flaw seems to be a gigantor ego. As a defensive coach, I think it was eating him up that Malzhan was getting so much pub. He has already said at Rice after his OC left that it didnt matter because they ran "his" offense. His comments on Malzhan leaving, while not as direct, pretty much hint the same thing. You need an ego to win but there is a fine line between confidence and arrogance. There were some stubborn coaching errors this last year.
How will we be next year? The D has got to get a LOT better and we will be breaking in our 3 QB in as many years. The schedule, from what I have seen, looks to be much tougher but we have a great recruiting class.
One thing I can say for sure is that we have a lot of great kids and some very classy coaches. For a program that was literally on the verge of shutting down, we have done quite well. I personally dont thing we will ever be Boise or TCU, I am happy with where we are at, after all, we are THE smallest D1A football school. We done good.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Looking good!
We looked pretty good tonight. Offense was (FINALLY) much better, in no small part because we played basically 6 guys and we did not try to run the clock down. We did what good offense should do, look for open shots, and when they are there, take them. We did a great job of balancing jump shots with drives. Reese is playing much better, 12 points, 7 boards, 4 assists, 2 steals and ZERO turnovers. He also played tough defense but we elected to let them shoot most the game and it cost us. That is the only bad thing you can find tonight, despite us playing rather well, we let a bad team hang with us until the end. They are not as bad as I thought but they wont likely finish in the top 200. They did just take Baylor to the wire so I wont get overly concerned.
While we are talking expected RPI, Ctt over at ITS, who is easily the MVP poster in hoops asked me to post here about Illinois. I thought, and many of their own fans thought, that they were headed for another tough year, expecting to be .500 or a little over. So far, they seem much better. Their schedule is much like the A&M schedule when Billy G was there. You play a bunch of mostly easy home games to ease in your young team. This CAN backfire and expose you as a fraud but in the case of BG's teams at A&M it propelled their confidence and they rode that wave thru the entire season. Illinois won at Vandy which is a top 100 win and tonight they beat Mizzou on the road. That is a REALLY solid win for them. They have one more dog then the sched gets BRUTAL, they will likely close the year with 10-12 games against the top 50, 6 or 7 of those on the road. Will Illinois make the NCAA? I still am not sure but the loss to them will not be a negative. My ample gut tells me we are going to beat BYU... we'll see how I feel after it is filled with eggnog and fruitcake.
While we are talking expected RPI, Ctt over at ITS, who is easily the MVP poster in hoops asked me to post here about Illinois. I thought, and many of their own fans thought, that they were headed for another tough year, expecting to be .500 or a little over. So far, they seem much better. Their schedule is much like the A&M schedule when Billy G was there. You play a bunch of mostly easy home games to ease in your young team. This CAN backfire and expose you as a fraud but in the case of BG's teams at A&M it propelled their confidence and they rode that wave thru the entire season. Illinois won at Vandy which is a top 100 win and tonight they beat Mizzou on the road. That is a REALLY solid win for them. They have one more dog then the sched gets BRUTAL, they will likely close the year with 10-12 games against the top 50, 6 or 7 of those on the road. Will Illinois make the NCAA? I still am not sure but the loss to them will not be a negative. My ample gut tells me we are going to beat BYU... we'll see how I feel after it is filled with eggnog and fruitcake.
Trap game???
Some people may look at the UTA game tonight as a trap game. I mean, we are coming off a good performance on the road, the crowd will be thin, the students will be gone, the band wont be there and UTA is coming off a game against a top 25 opponent that they should have beaten. Trap? No way. UTA is a dog, them hanging with Baylor was a fluke, just like Rice hanging with OU. We win this one by 20+, it should never be close.
The real test is the next 4 games. If we go 4-0, we can start talking NCAA, 3-1 and we can feel great about the NIT and talk about the NCAA bubble. If we go 1-3 or, gasp, 0-4, we are going to be in trouble. My gut tells me we go 2-2, beat BYU, lose one of the two roadies and then lose to Memphis. We'll see.
The real test is the next 4 games. If we go 4-0, we can start talking NCAA, 3-1 and we can feel great about the NIT and talk about the NCAA bubble. If we go 1-3 or, gasp, 0-4, we are going to be in trouble. My gut tells me we go 2-2, beat BYU, lose one of the two roadies and then lose to Memphis. We'll see.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
RPI... seriously???
I see a lot of spin doctors over on ITS using the "facts" of RPI to show how much we have improved and how good our bad opponents have been. Here is the only fact you need to know, RPI is meaningless until all teams are well connected with common opponents, PERIOD. Jeff Sagarin explains this in his ratings and he attempts to make up for it with weighted statistical bias. RPI does no such thing so schools like Presby and Tx A&M-CC, who play all road games to start the season have an RPI skewed by this (the new formula only counts a road loss as .6 of a loss)
If you are trying to spin that a Presby team, minus their best guard, was actually a good opponent, you lose all credibility. If you are going to use RPI in the beginning of December, at least use a weighted version so it has SOME realism. Check out RPIforecast.com but even those numbers will change quite a bit but at least they TRY to be realistic.
Our RPI is about to get a kick in the pants the next couple games and the huge bummer is CUSA. We'll see how it pans out but I thought the conference would be better this year. ECU has some huge games coming up so we will find out how legit they are in the next couple weeks.
Some people are talking about how we are better than we were last year at this time. SO FREAKIN WHAT?! Last year we played ONE home game in the first 5. We lost to Hampton on a neutral UALR on the road and got blasted by OU. Then, we proceeded to go on a 6 game run with a decent win against Charlotte (#69). This year, we play 3 dogs out of the gate (ORU is headed for a 150+ ranking) at home and got blasted by OU and OSU. Charlotte will probably be equal or close to the A&M win, the Ohio loss will be similar to Hampton. S0, I guess we have one less bad loss. Is that better? Maybe, but shouldn't we be a LOT better after the run we went on to end the year? After extra practice and the Canada trip? I think the run we went on to end the year gives us hope for the same but let's not pretend how much "better" we are than we were last year.
If you are trying to spin that a Presby team, minus their best guard, was actually a good opponent, you lose all credibility. If you are going to use RPI in the beginning of December, at least use a weighted version so it has SOME realism. Check out RPIforecast.com but even those numbers will change quite a bit but at least they TRY to be realistic.
Our RPI is about to get a kick in the pants the next couple games and the huge bummer is CUSA. We'll see how it pans out but I thought the conference would be better this year. ECU has some huge games coming up so we will find out how legit they are in the next couple weeks.
Some people are talking about how we are better than we were last year at this time. SO FREAKIN WHAT?! Last year we played ONE home game in the first 5. We lost to Hampton on a neutral UALR on the road and got blasted by OU. Then, we proceeded to go on a 6 game run with a decent win against Charlotte (#69). This year, we play 3 dogs out of the gate (ORU is headed for a 150+ ranking) at home and got blasted by OU and OSU. Charlotte will probably be equal or close to the A&M win, the Ohio loss will be similar to Hampton. S0, I guess we have one less bad loss. Is that better? Maybe, but shouldn't we be a LOT better after the run we went on to end the year? After extra practice and the Canada trip? I think the run we went on to end the year gives us hope for the same but let's not pretend how much "better" we are than we were last year.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
The revolving door
So, it appears Hernandez is gone. Yikes, that makes how many point guards that have bailed in the Woj era? Is that 4? James, Hill, Jackson and Hernandez? Yes, there is turnover everywhere, but not like this. You dont lose your future PG a few games into the season, recruit a HS kid to replace him and a JUCO to come start in his place and have BOTH his replacements leave at the end of the first semester. That is NOT normal. Most defections are in the off season. I dont care if you bleed blue and gold, this has to concern you. Forget just the guards, between 11th hour recruiting misses and kids flat out leaving we are up to what, 10 kids that have bailed in 3.5 years? That is no way to rebuild.
Speaking of rebuilding... TU is a guard school, it always has been and for us to be successful, it needs to stay that way. There are tons of great guards out there, especially the 2-3 position. Outside Uzoh, our guards are not good. I am sure they are terrific kids but these guys are, at this point, back-ups on JP's teams. I saw a post from II talking about how much better we would be if we had Chris Wallace and Kyle Blankenship. Maybe, Wallace had no left hand and Blankenship wasnt very athletic but it is hard to argue, they could feed the post and they actually RAN offense. PROVE ME WRONG FELLAS! We all want these guys to be good, we are CHEERING for them but right now they are square pegs (great show from the 80s) to our round holes.
We need to focus on guards in our recruiting. I mean, if you cant take care of the ball, you cant get your big men shots. How can a big man get an easy shot if there is nobody to feed it to him?
I dont think Woj is a bad recruiter but he has a lot to learn about the kind of kids he needs to get to have success at Tulsa (sorry CBI is not the kind of success we thrive on in these parts). Seals, Parker, Collier, Pooh Williamson, Steve Harris, Heard, Coley, Swanson, Reed, Harrington, Rod Thompson, etc. are the guys who have paved the road for our most recent success and those guys are still out there for the taking. Sprinkle in a Kurtz, Ruffin or a KJ and wham, you got a sweet 16 team. Idlet, Jordan and Uzoh are all solid players but that's it, the other guys just arent close. Woj has to be very careful, a couple recruiting slip ups can snowball. For JP, it was passing on Caleb Green when Pooh convinced him he wasnt athletic enough to play at the D1 level, it spiraled out of control from there. A couple busted JUCOs, some transfers and a tough schedule spelled the end pretty quick.
Speaking of rebuilding... TU is a guard school, it always has been and for us to be successful, it needs to stay that way. There are tons of great guards out there, especially the 2-3 position. Outside Uzoh, our guards are not good. I am sure they are terrific kids but these guys are, at this point, back-ups on JP's teams. I saw a post from II talking about how much better we would be if we had Chris Wallace and Kyle Blankenship. Maybe, Wallace had no left hand and Blankenship wasnt very athletic but it is hard to argue, they could feed the post and they actually RAN offense. PROVE ME WRONG FELLAS! We all want these guys to be good, we are CHEERING for them but right now they are square pegs (great show from the 80s) to our round holes.
We need to focus on guards in our recruiting. I mean, if you cant take care of the ball, you cant get your big men shots. How can a big man get an easy shot if there is nobody to feed it to him?
I dont think Woj is a bad recruiter but he has a lot to learn about the kind of kids he needs to get to have success at Tulsa (sorry CBI is not the kind of success we thrive on in these parts). Seals, Parker, Collier, Pooh Williamson, Steve Harris, Heard, Coley, Swanson, Reed, Harrington, Rod Thompson, etc. are the guys who have paved the road for our most recent success and those guys are still out there for the taking. Sprinkle in a Kurtz, Ruffin or a KJ and wham, you got a sweet 16 team. Idlet, Jordan and Uzoh are all solid players but that's it, the other guys just arent close. Woj has to be very careful, a couple recruiting slip ups can snowball. For JP, it was passing on Caleb Green when Pooh convinced him he wasnt athletic enough to play at the D1 level, it spiraled out of control from there. A couple busted JUCOs, some transfers and a tough schedule spelled the end pretty quick.
Spanking the Blue Hose
OK, so it wasnt a spank but I just wanted to type that. Seriously, "The Blue Hose"? Nice nickname, please, PLEASE, tell me the Presby women's team goes by the same name. Anyway, the crowd was 1200 or so, maybe, and we sucked most the game, I mean, we basically played them even for 32 minutes despite a huge margin in FTs and fouls in our favor. Before anyone tries to spin this positive because of their RPI, Presbyterian was missing their best guard and their RPI is a mirage. Pomeroy has them at 200+. RPIforecast has them at 162 but that is WITH their guard who will likely miss a bunch of games. The team we played today is not in the top 200, played only 6 guys for the bulk of the game and we struggled. BARF. Jordan, NBA, really? Has anyone saying that actually watched an NBA center? He had a good 5-6 inches on his man and that kid WORKED him over. He was 8-9 while Jordan hit a whopping 2 shots the entire game. Granted, the kid is a nice undersized post player but he can only hope to sniff Europe. In general, their team was very well coached but just not good, their guards could not hit the broad side of an oversized barn.
Can we talk about FTs? Wow, talked to Ken at half and he picked up on something that I noticed too. Our technique is flawed, pretty much every player is having their FTs roll off their fourth finger and even pinky. They should roll off your middle finger if you want to be consistent. Uzoh does this a lot as well. Jordan was the only guy today with proper form (he hit 8-9 too). You CAN coach hitting FTs in low pressure situations (first half, etc.) with good repetitive technique.
We just are not a very good team right now. I think we will roll the next two opponents by 20+ then lose to BYU by 15. We pound the next pansy but follow that with 3 straight losses to be 9-8 on 1/14. We'll see but that is what I am thinking right now.
Can we talk about FTs? Wow, talked to Ken at half and he picked up on something that I noticed too. Our technique is flawed, pretty much every player is having their FTs roll off their fourth finger and even pinky. They should roll off your middle finger if you want to be consistent. Uzoh does this a lot as well. Jordan was the only guy today with proper form (he hit 8-9 too). You CAN coach hitting FTs in low pressure situations (first half, etc.) with good repetitive technique.
We just are not a very good team right now. I think we will roll the next two opponents by 20+ then lose to BYU by 15. We pound the next pansy but follow that with 3 straight losses to be 9-8 on 1/14. We'll see but that is what I am thinking right now.
Friday, December 12, 2008
Time to get on a roll
Glad we hung on to beat SMS, they are a decent team, it is for sure a rebuilding year for them and I wish them the best but they should have never fired Barry Hinson. He played some BRUTAL schedules and got hosed by the selection committee a couple times. He was a perfect fit for them.
This was the first of what should be 4 wins in a row before the BYU game. If we dont see Hernandez in these games for 10-15 minutes I think it is fair to say he is not going to contribute to this team because these next 3 games are against terrible teams. The thing I want to see the most is better FT shooting, more assists and less TOs. We have no chemistry and that is killing us.
I've seen (corrected for the small minded grammar police) some posts about it and let me reiterate, RPI is a useless tool at this point, well, almost. A better way than straight RPI is rpiforecast.com, at least they attempt to forecast the season. There are probably 15 teams in the RPI top 50 currently that are no better than 150 or so. Until all the teams are connected to eachother thru common opponents, there is not a lot of validity in any computer analysis. Right now, I tend to agree with RPIforecast, I think 18-12 is a fair assumption of what our record will be at this point. I hope our RPI is higher than 98 though and I would be discouraged if our SOS was over 100. It may be though, even with this upgrade, there are just too many dogs on the schedule still and CUSA is not as good as we hoped. There is still time though.
So, let's get ready to blow out three teams in a row and use that momentum to beat a very solid BYU team at home. After that, we can start to feel good about where we are. From there, we are a good road win away from being a contender for the top tier of CUSA.
This was the first of what should be 4 wins in a row before the BYU game. If we dont see Hernandez in these games for 10-15 minutes I think it is fair to say he is not going to contribute to this team because these next 3 games are against terrible teams. The thing I want to see the most is better FT shooting, more assists and less TOs. We have no chemistry and that is killing us.
I've seen (corrected for the small minded grammar police) some posts about it and let me reiterate, RPI is a useless tool at this point, well, almost. A better way than straight RPI is rpiforecast.com, at least they attempt to forecast the season. There are probably 15 teams in the RPI top 50 currently that are no better than 150 or so. Until all the teams are connected to eachother thru common opponents, there is not a lot of validity in any computer analysis. Right now, I tend to agree with RPIforecast, I think 18-12 is a fair assumption of what our record will be at this point. I hope our RPI is higher than 98 though and I would be discouraged if our SOS was over 100. It may be though, even with this upgrade, there are just too many dogs on the schedule still and CUSA is not as good as we hoped. There is still time though.
So, let's get ready to blow out three teams in a row and use that momentum to beat a very solid BYU team at home. After that, we can start to feel good about where we are. From there, we are a good road win away from being a contender for the top tier of CUSA.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
The state of the program (hoops)
Wow, we have really spiraled out of control as fans. Yes, we have taken some steps back since the end of last year but there is no reason to be calling for the coaches head. The stark reality is that is it not 1999 anymore. There are 344 D1A teams and with more and more kids going to the NBA, recruiting is harder than ever. You add the information age and there is nary a kid that slips through the cracks. Coach Wojcik has come really close to assembling an elite 8 level squad, McLean, Randle & Clarke are 3 guys that would be starting right now and we would be challenging Memphis for the league title. Hill would have made a great back-up PG as well. Alas, two guys left and two were 11th hour misses. While that does give us a glimmer of hope, it also raises questions about what we are doing wrong. Why did we miss on these guys? Why did they leave? I am so sick and tired of the Koolaid crowd calling every kid who leaves TU a "cancer" or a bad student or lazy etc. That is just a load of crap. Even if it WAS true, part of recruiting is making sure the kids can stay happy, eligible and motivated.
So where are we? I say we are probably a team ranked around 100, 75 on our best days and 125 on our worst. That is not too shabby really, I mean in football terms that would put us around #34. The bad news is that we are spoiled in hoops, we want an NCAA tournament berth every year and an NIT on the off years and IMHO we are just not close to that. Only 34 teams out of 344 will get an at-large bid. We really need to be in the top 30 to promise a spot and top 50 to be on the bubble and I dont see it, no matter what happens the rest of this year. Some say we have a lottery pick and another NBA player on our roster, sorry, I dont see it. You have to be able to guard the Shaq's of the world if you are going to even be an NBA backup and the guards in the NBA are either big or world class athetes.
Our biggest woes are at the PG spot. Hill left, Clarke went elsewhere and the JUCO we brought in has been injured and does not appear to be good enough to play against better teams. He is recovering from an injury so, we'll see, but it just doesnt look promising. That raises another question, Wojcik was a very good PG! Why cant he find and develop even an average PG? Perplexing.
In closing, it is too early to bail on this coach and this team. Last year was a fun ride but we were ONCE BOUNCE away from having a miserable season (the OT win against UAB in the CUSA tourny) before we turned it around, almost inexplicably. Sure it was fools gold and pretty meaningless in the GRAND scope of things but starring at a hand full of fools gold sure looks good after you have been holding a turd for so long.
So where are we? I say we are probably a team ranked around 100, 75 on our best days and 125 on our worst. That is not too shabby really, I mean in football terms that would put us around #34. The bad news is that we are spoiled in hoops, we want an NCAA tournament berth every year and an NIT on the off years and IMHO we are just not close to that. Only 34 teams out of 344 will get an at-large bid. We really need to be in the top 30 to promise a spot and top 50 to be on the bubble and I dont see it, no matter what happens the rest of this year. Some say we have a lottery pick and another NBA player on our roster, sorry, I dont see it. You have to be able to guard the Shaq's of the world if you are going to even be an NBA backup and the guards in the NBA are either big or world class athetes.
Our biggest woes are at the PG spot. Hill left, Clarke went elsewhere and the JUCO we brought in has been injured and does not appear to be good enough to play against better teams. He is recovering from an injury so, we'll see, but it just doesnt look promising. That raises another question, Wojcik was a very good PG! Why cant he find and develop even an average PG? Perplexing.
In closing, it is too early to bail on this coach and this team. Last year was a fun ride but we were ONCE BOUNCE away from having a miserable season (the OT win against UAB in the CUSA tourny) before we turned it around, almost inexplicably. Sure it was fools gold and pretty meaningless in the GRAND scope of things but starring at a hand full of fools gold sure looks good after you have been holding a turd for so long.
Monday, December 8, 2008
Goodbye Tulsa Sports Forum!
I had a great run, over 10 years, on whatever the "official" message board for TU has been. Going all the way back to the old AZ boards, I made some great friends. The highlight for me was between the Rivals board and the AZ board on the old InsideTulsaSports boards. Lots of good times, not too much negativity and thanks to a private, invite only board, we always had the scoop. Back then, I was one of the insiders, ahh the glory days! We would meet up before games and sometimes just to hang and have fun. Then, rivals happened. It was bound to and Chris and the others did a good job but I am just not a fan of paying for information, I understand it though. The timing could not have been worse though because we still stunk in football and the wheels were coming off in hoops. It got ugly. I was first accused of being a hater, then a homer. I am a nerd, I like to bring balance to the force, it was nothing personal, just my cyber alter-ego.
The roller coaster ride went on for years, we got good in football but this last year, we lost the head of the TU fan nation and it hurt us all. I knew him first as QTBill, when he worked at QT across from TU, then as Catbird and finally as Bill Babb. We became fast friends in real life even though our cyber egos butted heads numerous times. We went to several concerts together and often would catch lunch at Ricardo's, a place he turned me on to. Bill exhibited the spirit I wish we all had. I feel the need to temper over-reaction (poop in the punch bowl) but Bill just loved TU and no matter what, he thought glory was just around the corner. You see, Bill saw these sports programs for what they were, the wonderful, hard-working, upstanding young men, that made them up. To him, there were no losses, because in any loss he could find a young man who had broke a career record in tackles or a kid who had exhibited immense character. The world would be a better place if we all were like Bill, myself included. In addition to being a terrific person, Bill was, without question, the best moderator of any forum I have been a part of and I am a super nerd, forum lover.
Bill never told me how sick he was, just that he didnt want to continue moderating the ITS Rivals board. Its tough because no one person could do what he did, so he came up with a plan for a new "super moderator" if you will, The Big Kielbasa. TBK is made up of several posters, who shall remain nameless, I only know 4 of them but there may be more. I wont go into any more detail other than Bill told me that the board, "needs you to be you." A couple members of TBK just dont like me, we have had it out in emails and some on the board. When it became clear that I knew what was up, that just made it worse. Again, I am not a popular poster but I dont break the rules. Unfortunately, TBK clan has made this personal, it certainly isnt to me and was never to Catbird. So, it is not really possible for "me to be me" anymore. It is not really fun having to bite my tongue or think about how things are worded, especially when I see horrible, personal and offensive things go unedited and unpunished.
Just to be clear, I was suspended for being "overly negative", comparing TU fans behavior in the TU/ORU thread to the behavior of Rice fans and ultimately for a post in the Brandon Jackson thread. In the last thread I did bring up a question about the coach's staff. It was probably better left unposted but a legit question, I was just frustrated about the turnaround in the program. If you have read the boards lately, you know the avalanche of negativity, swearing and personal attacks that has gone completely unmoderated.
So, for the three or four people who may care, (ok, so this is really for me) I will post what I think right here, in this here blog. I will lurk on ITS and comment over here when I feel like it. Best of luck to all, you know where to find me.
The roller coaster ride went on for years, we got good in football but this last year, we lost the head of the TU fan nation and it hurt us all. I knew him first as QTBill, when he worked at QT across from TU, then as Catbird and finally as Bill Babb. We became fast friends in real life even though our cyber egos butted heads numerous times. We went to several concerts together and often would catch lunch at Ricardo's, a place he turned me on to. Bill exhibited the spirit I wish we all had. I feel the need to temper over-reaction (poop in the punch bowl) but Bill just loved TU and no matter what, he thought glory was just around the corner. You see, Bill saw these sports programs for what they were, the wonderful, hard-working, upstanding young men, that made them up. To him, there were no losses, because in any loss he could find a young man who had broke a career record in tackles or a kid who had exhibited immense character. The world would be a better place if we all were like Bill, myself included. In addition to being a terrific person, Bill was, without question, the best moderator of any forum I have been a part of and I am a super nerd, forum lover.
Bill never told me how sick he was, just that he didnt want to continue moderating the ITS Rivals board. Its tough because no one person could do what he did, so he came up with a plan for a new "super moderator" if you will, The Big Kielbasa. TBK is made up of several posters, who shall remain nameless, I only know 4 of them but there may be more. I wont go into any more detail other than Bill told me that the board, "needs you to be you." A couple members of TBK just dont like me, we have had it out in emails and some on the board. When it became clear that I knew what was up, that just made it worse. Again, I am not a popular poster but I dont break the rules. Unfortunately, TBK clan has made this personal, it certainly isnt to me and was never to Catbird. So, it is not really possible for "me to be me" anymore. It is not really fun having to bite my tongue or think about how things are worded, especially when I see horrible, personal and offensive things go unedited and unpunished.
Just to be clear, I was suspended for being "overly negative", comparing TU fans behavior in the TU/ORU thread to the behavior of Rice fans and ultimately for a post in the Brandon Jackson thread. In the last thread I did bring up a question about the coach's staff. It was probably better left unposted but a legit question, I was just frustrated about the turnaround in the program. If you have read the boards lately, you know the avalanche of negativity, swearing and personal attacks that has gone completely unmoderated.
So, for the three or four people who may care, (ok, so this is really for me) I will post what I think right here, in this here blog. I will lurk on ITS and comment over here when I feel like it. Best of luck to all, you know where to find me.
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