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The thing making emotional recovery easier for me...

DCCyclone

Legend
Gold Member
May 29, 2001
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Falls Church, VA
...I'm realizing tonight, after a few tough days and evenings where I almost completely tuned out basketball altogether, is that this is not a one-shot deal for us.

There have been occasions in the past when elimination was painful because it felt like the opportunities for us were so few and far between. That was true when Orr had his one Sweet 16 team in 1986, when Floyd had his one Sweet 16 team in 1997, and when Eustachy had his 2000 and 2001 league title teams.

But this time is different, because it's not about trying to catch lightning in a bottle. "There's always next year" is not a throwaway line for us anymore in men's basketball.

We will see all the pre-season predictions this October put us in the top 10 nationally, and vying with Kansas to be the league title favorite.

And we can reasonably expect to be in the NCAA Tournament every year.

If we're going to make that magical run someday, it needs to come from a foundation of just always being pretty good, good enough to make the Dance, good enough to have winning league records all the time.

That's what Hoiberg has given us, for the first time ever. These 4 straight seasons weren't just NCAA Tournament teams, they were winning league marks and over 20 wins every time and decent Dance seeds and a couple league tourney title trophies. Not to mention a bunch of quality wins that are great memories every year.

I'm finding myself having an easier time this time than any time past shrugging off a tough loss like this. This time next year, pretty good odds we'll be in the Sweet 16 and favored to go much further.

The most celebrated coaches in NCAA basketball history had embarrassing early exits like this at times. No reason to be down on Fred or the program or anyone else for experiencing the same once. It's a mistake to overinterpret this.

I'm already looking forward to the pre-season mags that come out next September or October.
 
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