What level would you be happy with?

[maverick]

Good observation.

Much like a good team usually has a "deeper bench" than the opposition, the men's tournament is typically much "deeper" competitively than the women's tournament. Take this years tournaments for example: In the men's tourney, a 6 seed played a 7 seed for the national championship. That implies that in the men's tourney, at least 24 to 28 teams had a reasonable chance of winning the NC. Meanwhile, on the women's side, two undefeated #1 seeds played each other for the women's title. I think it's universally acknowledged that UCONN and Notre Dame had the two best teams in the country this year, so they were the top choice of most observers from the beginning.

Fact is, the women's tournament simply hasn't matured to the point where more than a handful of teams have a reasonable shot at the NC each year. This still leaves room for a team like the Lady Techsters to move in and set up camp.

It's interesting that 24-28 MBB teams had a shot at the NC and only a handful of WBB teams did, but we have a thread with many expressing they'll be satisfied when our WBB team wins a NC. Some folks' expectations are way off.

[Dawg06]

"Something that I’ve learned, whether it was from my mom or from learning about Coach (Nick) Saban, Coach John Wooden, Pete Carroll, Billie Moore — one of my main mentors and my mom’s Olympic coach — is that it’s about the process. So we can look at the national championships, but at the end of the day, were your teams the best that they can be? And I think that’s the goal. There’s not a win number or a national championship behind it. It’s more of the process and the focus on being the best and doing things the right way every day.

In terms in results, we need to consistently compete for a Conference USA championship. And again, I can’t promise anything my first few years, but that is our goal in terms of conference — and we have a great conference. If we are competing for a championship here, that means that we have national recognition and that means we are most likely in the NCAA tournament. So I’m looking forward to being consistent there."

[champion110]

It's interesting that 24-28 MBB teams had a shot at the NC and only a handful of WBB teams did, but we have a thread with many expressing they'll be satisfied when our WBB team wins a NC. Some folks' expectations are way off.

Everyone is confused about the descriptor.......... There is a difference between expectations, happy with, ecstatic about, satisfied, etc.... There should only be ONE GOAL for any program and that is the top. You can have different emotions about the steps along the way.

I think we all want (or most of us) the same thing. There are varying levels of happy and satisfied with the trip up, though, and with what some see as realistic.