3 NCAA Finals: Need a new coach? X?

[RONALD78]

If Xavier ever gets to the Final Four three times, let alone three straight years like UCLA, and loses each time without a National Title, would X fans and Neutral be screaming for a new coach??? Lots of laughter flows this! I would be thrilled for Xavier to be there once, let alone three times. But how many UCLA idiot/fans may want a new coach now? And how many Xavier fans will be screaming for a new coach should Xavier get there several times but fail to win it all???? I would hope none! Getting to the FF is hard enough, winning it all is very,very difficult!!! oh, you do not think so...well, ask the 15 teams each year that lose from the Sweet 16 on how hard it was to be the last team standing! Xavier is on the edge of now getting to the FF...hell 2 Elite 8s in 5 years that is so good. But once X gets there , it will be very hard to be the last team standing. It should happen and hopefully sooner than later! GO X!!!!

[ftheyanks]

While programs like Duke, UNC, UCLA, Kentucky measures themselves in National Championships won...I find college basketball interesting, in that, essentially teams/schools are measured by Final Four appearances.

Sure Roy Williams said his team fell short of their goals...but I firmly believe that they can call this season a success by getting to San Antonio.

March Madness is a crazy one and done tournament. There are no 'best of' series. It's almost a coin flip when two teams as equal as KU and UNC meet up. UNC still might be the better team, but they didn't win.

UCLA is the same way. I don't really expect there to be a lot of outrage by fans in Westwood. Three consecutive Final Four appearances is a great accomplishment.

And on a 2nd tier level...two Elite 8 appearances for Xavier in four years is amazing. If we can get to that level every 2--4 years...and maybe get one more win to win a regional...then I think that's all we can ask for.

[xuhuh!]

you gotta appreciate the wins, the conference titles, championships, ncaa wins when they happen, and remember, the other teams are trying to improve and win, too..so, it's not an automatic, annual event.

[Mr. Neutral]

Yes, you're right that the attitude that fans ostensibly should take is to appreciate whatever accomplishments their team earns on the court, but the reality of things is that once a team plateaus, even if it's at a very high level, people begin to ask why they can't go to the next level.

It happens in every field, so to expect college b-ball to be otherwise is folly.

National commentators who aren't ungrateful UCLA fans are asking if Howland's offensive limitations aren't holding UCLA back from going even farther.

We admire athletes like Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods who were/are constantly striving to get better, and only winning it all satisfies them. As fans, though, we're supposed to accept 2nd best (or worse). It's an odd dichotomy.

[muskienick]

I would love for us to be in a position to be able to answer this thread's question. I hope it will happen within the next 5-10 years.

The fact is that we are all human beings. Even after the first of XU's two appearances in the Elite 8 we were wondering (and some of us wrote on message boards) "what if?" What if Thad's team would have played better in their first 19 games and we had gotten a better seed? What if Thad had taken Myles out for a short rest after his 4th foul? What if the officials weren't so affected by the Duke mystique?

Heck, Sean hadn't even coached one game for Xavier as Head Coach and people were after his scalp because the AD hadn't engaged in a world-wide search for somebody (supposedly) better.

Some were also after his scalp when he didn't go against usual coaching philosophy near the end of regulation of the OSU NCAA Tourney game.

To this point, I haven't heard any massive hue and cry for Howland's scalp or seen him hung in effigy in a quad on the Bruin campus. I'm sure there is talk on UCLA chat boards of things he could have done differently just as Sean's naming as coach and decisions in the Buckeye game were second-guessed.

But all that aside, I cannot imagine any scenario where a multitude of Xavier posters would actually suggest the ouster of a Xavier Head coach who took three teams to the Final Four without winning it all at least once.

Look at the Huggins situation at UC. He took the Bearcats to exactly one (1) (uno) (une) (ein) Final Four. Fans of UC still consider him a God and wear the garb of whichever team he happens to be coaching that day. It's not like UC fans hadn't experienced as much or more success in their storied history. They were in the championship game three years in a row in the early 60's and won two of them! Instead of calling for Huggins' scalp for plateau-ing under the Final Four barrier, they have deified him.

'Splain that!

[muskienick]

Before you "'Splain that" by saying that Bearcat fans are just stone stupid, I would like to discount that by saying that I know of highly intelligent people who are both UC grads and extremely avid fans who now villify President Zimpher and continue to idolize Huggins.

I don't think there is any easy explanation of the "Huggins Mystique" other than to say that he is truly the personification of Beelzebub.