Some perspective...

Question

I am certainly not making any excuses for Horn, and I want our basketball program to succeed as much as any Gamecock fan, but let's put some things into perspective...

How many SEC programs currently are fielding great teams in all 3 major sports?

We have a good football team and a great baseball team. LSU is great in football and good in baseball, but their basketball team is not very good. Alabama is great in football, better than average in basketball, and average in baseball. Georgia is good in football, pretty good in baseball, and below average in basketball. Florida has an improving football team, a great baseball team, and a pretty good basketball team. Arkansas is really good in both football and baseball, but their basketball team is very mediocre.

My point is that we have finally reached the point where we expect a lot from our athletic program. But we are achieving great things. As you can see, we have two very good programs that are right up there with the best of the best in the SEC. Only three teams (Auburn, Alabama, and USC) have won a NC in the last two years in one of the 3 major sports, and we are one of them (and the only team with 2). That's more than what half the teams in the SEC can say...

While it sure would be great for our basketball team to rise to the elite, I'm very happy with where our athletic program is at right now. Horn is not the right guy to lead our basketball program, but to expect anything other than an NCAA berth every once in a while is almost unrealistic, and I'd be happy with the sustained success of both our baseball and football programs.

Just my opinion, FWIW...

Originally posted on Fighting Gamecocks Forum by Sending an SOS.

Answer 1

There is a HUGE difference in being elite (and IMO, only Kentucky is elite in the SEC this year) and being one of the worst mens college basketball teams from one of the big six BCS conferences in America.

While all of here would like to be elite in all 3 major sports, could we start with just not sucking in basketball?

Originally posted on Fighting Gamecocks Forum by cockdoc2.

Answer 2

Could we aspire to win 20 games and finish a game over .500 in the conference??? That would be a start. McGee said we should go to the NCAA each year. That hasn't worked out. Used to be you could finish in the top four in the SEC and pretty much be assured an NCAA bid. That didn't work the last time we did it. How about being in the top 100 in the NCAA in all statistical categories. I do not know if we are top 100 in ANY right now. No one is worried at this moment about ELITE. At this point I think we would embrace mediocre.

Originally posted on Fighting Gamecocks Forum by simms2000.

Answer 3

I agree with the other two posters....

I wish we could make the NCAA every year (and that should still be the goal no matter the coach) but maybe that is unrealistic RIGHT NOW.

However, there is no reason that we should not at least be a bubble NCAA / NIT team every year. Right now we are not even close to being a NIT team. That is 100% pathetic.

You can come up with all the reasons (excuses) for why we are not good but there is absolutely no reason why we should not be at least a NIT team every year.

I remember being unhappy about the NIT not that long ago....my how things have changed. Winning the NIT again right now would definitely be much better than anything we have had since Horn has been here.

Originally posted on Fighting Gamecocks Forum by sully2.

Answer 4

Both of you are missing my point (and perhaps I failed to make it). Success is the combination of hard work and dedication, financial investment, and luck.

It's not coincidence that other SEC programs fail toroduce 3 winners. It's expensive to do so, and it's hard to be the best everything. We should fire Horn because he stinks as a coach, but for those who think we can just fork out the money and build a winner - I just think its a lot tougher than one might think.

If it were easy to throw out money and attract a great coach, then why aren't the other traditional SEC powers able to do that with a ton of success? Like I said before, I think we can be a .550 team with an occasional NCAA berth (1-2 per decade), but expecting anything more than that, in my opinion, is unrealistic... Who else in the SEC is at the least a bubble team every year other than UK or UF? And UK's other programs stink. And we aren't UF!

This post was edited on 2/22 2:03 PM by Sending an SOS

Originally posted on Fighting Gamecocks Forum by Sending an SOS.

Answer 5

you need to step back and listen to yourself.

I guess you hope your kids make D's and higher, too.

Originally posted on Fighting Gamecocks Forum by Lucas_Jackson.

Answer 6

Actually, I hope my kids get all Zs because it's impossible...goals don't make sense if thy aren't realistic.

Seriously, I would want our team to win 100% of the time, but that's not realistic.

.550 isn't all that bad. Only two SEC teams have a historical win % above .630 - which gets you into the top 20 winningest programs in NCAA history. We are nowhere near (and likely never will be) in that discussion.

Originally posted on Fighting Gamecocks Forum by Sending an SOS.