San Diego State was nothing. Often for other teams in the WAC/MWC they were an automatic road win.
Then they got fed up with being sub par and hired Steve Fischer. Back in the day when this was Slider's webpage, I remember the narrative from a lot of posters then..."Can't believe they would hire somebody so greasy, we sure don't want anything like that coaching us. We were so above them.
11 NCAA tournament bids since then, SDSU has everyone in the MWC envious. They have a style of basketball that's hard for pundits to define, but we've seen it plenty. I've considered this team close to elite for 3-4 years, and finally circumstances have put them in the title game. They've proven anybody can do it.
Because it began with taking a risk.
Down in Boulder, it doesn't matter whether Deion succeeds or falls on his a$$, the point is that they want something more. He's on social media every day pushing his program, giving fans glimpses into spring practice--engaging fans. They just sold out their spring football game. Our football coach calls detractors little league coaches.
FAU has zilch for facilities. They just fended off bigger schools and extended their coach. We hire/extend coaches and keep them around until they destroy a program just to put the next new, first time head coach into an uphill position. Or we rehire old friends who sued us. Or pay guys comparatively well to keep us at .500. We build superb facilities...and still tread water. We just lost 90% of our basketball team and instead of engaging the fans, our AD ghosts the fans. We've seen new programs to the conference bypass us and leave for better things. If you're reading this, and reacting negatively, just stop reading now and move on. You're totally missing the point.
SDSU and CU say 'what do we have to lose?" CU's facilities aren't nearly as nice as ours, and they didn't have the dough up front to hire Deion, but they found it.
I'm putting faith in Linder to put together an entirely new roster to beat SDSU next year and get us back to the NCAA tourney, but what if he does? Will we go bold? If he would leave, would we go bold with the next hire to keep the train running? You already know the answer. Pre 1999, SDSU was in no way a program funded like Kansas, Duke, Kentucky etc. So they took a hard risk. CU is going to give it a shot. The bar full of Wyoming fans tonight blew up when Butler hit the game winner; even Wyoming fans are now SDSU fans because they represent what we dream of. It's not impossible anymore.
Then they got fed up with being sub par and hired Steve Fischer. Back in the day when this was Slider's webpage, I remember the narrative from a lot of posters then..."Can't believe they would hire somebody so greasy, we sure don't want anything like that coaching us. We were so above them.
11 NCAA tournament bids since then, SDSU has everyone in the MWC envious. They have a style of basketball that's hard for pundits to define, but we've seen it plenty. I've considered this team close to elite for 3-4 years, and finally circumstances have put them in the title game. They've proven anybody can do it.
Because it began with taking a risk.
Down in Boulder, it doesn't matter whether Deion succeeds or falls on his a$$, the point is that they want something more. He's on social media every day pushing his program, giving fans glimpses into spring practice--engaging fans. They just sold out their spring football game. Our football coach calls detractors little league coaches.
FAU has zilch for facilities. They just fended off bigger schools and extended their coach. We hire/extend coaches and keep them around until they destroy a program just to put the next new, first time head coach into an uphill position. Or we rehire old friends who sued us. Or pay guys comparatively well to keep us at .500. We build superb facilities...and still tread water. We just lost 90% of our basketball team and instead of engaging the fans, our AD ghosts the fans. We've seen new programs to the conference bypass us and leave for better things. If you're reading this, and reacting negatively, just stop reading now and move on. You're totally missing the point.
SDSU and CU say 'what do we have to lose?" CU's facilities aren't nearly as nice as ours, and they didn't have the dough up front to hire Deion, but they found it.
I'm putting faith in Linder to put together an entirely new roster to beat SDSU next year and get us back to the NCAA tourney, but what if he does? Will we go bold? If he would leave, would we go bold with the next hire to keep the train running? You already know the answer. Pre 1999, SDSU was in no way a program funded like Kansas, Duke, Kentucky etc. So they took a hard risk. CU is going to give it a shot. The bar full of Wyoming fans tonight blew up when Butler hit the game winner; even Wyoming fans are now SDSU fans because they represent what we dream of. It's not impossible anymore.
