Time to give up the ghost

[dawg80]

One thing I have never done, and never will do, is boo a Tech team. I have left games very disgusted and frustrated, but heretofore, I have never expressed my disappointment through booing.

Now, some of you may point out, well, heck, D80, you are openly critical on this board. Kind of a virtual booing. Well, that is true.

As for the whole point of this thread, the mystique that WAS the Lady Techsters is gone, forever. To honor those that acheived so much, all those great teams from 1979 to about 1999, I guess, I advocated retiring the Techster name and colors. But, that needed to be done when the streak was intact, making every NCAA tourney ever. Too late now.

[#1techfan]

I see your point and I agree that the mystique has been lost for a couple of years now. The Lady Techsters of today are not the same Lady Techsters of the past.

I do have to say though that the Lady Techsters of the past, when Leon was here, were not the same as the Lady Techsters that we had in post-Leon years. They were just different and maybe that has something to do with our lack of success.

Something needs to be figured out and done in regards to getting us back to prominence. And I do believe that we are better this year than in years past but that doesn't mean we are back to where we need to be by any stretch of the imagination.

[champion110]

I see your point and I agree that the mystique has been lost for a couple of years now. The Lady Techsters of today are not the same Lady Techsters of the past.

I do have to say though that the Lady Techsters of the past, when Leon was here, were not the same as the Lady Techsters that we had in post-Leon years. They were just different and maybe that has something to do with our lack of success.

Something needs to be figured out and done in regards to getting us back to prominence. And I do believe that we are better this year than in years past but that doesn't mean we are back to where we need to be by any stretch of the imagination.

I can agree with many of you that we are not where we need to be right now. I am not blind. I am looking for steps forward, not a huge leap back to the top. The Lady Techsters never had to be rebuilt - never - until the last 3 years. We don't even know what it looks like.

My goal this year isn't even an inch of what my goal was 6 years ago. My goal this year is to win the WAC and WAC tournament and get back to the NCAA. The goal next year will be much higher.

[malstator]

[quote=champion110;689534]Well, I will continue to have faith. I think there are some good points made above about Spoon and our ability to recruit. We are SHORT and we KNOW we are short. For those of you that did not watch the game yesterday, you may not realize just how good we played in the first half. Every UT player had like 2 inches on us, but we blocked out, rebounded, and stayed with them. The problem was that we didn't have the size inside to compete. Tenn. was able to draw fouls and get our best players out of the game just after half time. We kept fighting, but it was all uphill from there. We won't face another team like UT this season. We need to do what we can with the players we have. Next year, we have size coming in FINALLY. That will take the pressure off the guards having to do all the work.

There are a million excuses and there are several valid reasons we are where we are right now. For those of you that want to believe, there is hope. For those of you that don't, there is none. That is the simple matter of it.

Regardless of the score yesterday, for the last 3 years, we have NOT competed against the Vols. Yesterday, we did. We just couldn't do it for a full game. And, for those of you that think that Tenn. is in a down year, you are very mistaken. They will be a top 5 team. They are just young and inconsistent right now.

My goal for this year remains the same. WIN the WAC and WIN the WAC TOURNAMENT! Everything else right now is just preparing for that.[/

quote]


I believe that is the case that some are trying to make. That would have never been the goal just 6 years ago. The goal was to win the National Championship!

[champion110]

I believe that is the case that some are trying to make. That would have never been the goal just 6 years ago. The goal was to win the National Championship!

Yes, and that was MY goal 6 years ago, as well. It isn't right now, though. Read my entire post about rebuidling a program. We were building from scratch. In my opinion, the one thing we did not have (and many will argue this) is a big name to help recruit after Barmore left. Budke filled holes on a Barmore team to keep it afloat. After that Barmore talent was gone (all but 1), he left. We were left with a depleted talent pool. We could not recruit against the big programs anymore. That is why Spoon is SO SO valuable, in addition to her energy and her discipline. We signed some great talent this year. Now, we have to see what that talent can do to bring us back to the top.

I want a NC again - just like always. However, when starting from scratch, it is a difficult mountain. We can climb the mountain, but it takes time. We still have the name - young girls in high school STILL know the name. We are cutting it close with that, but we still have young girls that were bball fans growing up that know it. With Spoon, we just increased our name recognition again.

This is going to take time. One step at a time, but we will get there. I don't like it any more than any of you, but I DO know progress is being made.

If you just stop thinking about where we were and concentrate on where we are and what it will take to get to the top, this could be a LOT of fun!