The Atlanta Braves - Hello darkness my old friend

#30,081
#30,081
If you think back to 3-4 years ago and where this program was, compared to now, this season was still a success. Were they good enough to win it all? There's no definitive answer for that, but they were definitely good enough to be in that conversation. When you look back to where this program was when Barnes got here to where it is now, and you don't see success, maybe you need to adjust your expectations. And if you think that this season was the pinnacle and there's nowhere to go from here but down, again you need to adjust your expectations. They went from not in any discussion, other than being discussions involving impermissible benefits, barbecues, and NCAA trouble, to being in the discussion for the Final Four and the national championship. They did this with players that most big time programs didn't want. Barnes is getting higher ranked recruits coming in now to supplement who remains and/or replace who they'll be losing. This is a program on the rise and any non-objective person can see that.
 
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#30,083
#30,083
TBrown said:
I disagree that we weren’t in that class. There isn’t a team in the country we can’t play with. Maybe we had less margin of error, maybe not. That’s the debate point. The debate point isn’t whether we belonged in the conversation or not.
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Admiral, Grant, Bone and Lamonte are as good of a top 4 as anyone has left
 
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#30,084
#30,084
"Empty" is a good word for the year, but I'd still argue that this:

Regulator said:
If you think back to 3-4 years ago and where this program was, compared to now, this season was still a success.
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is the right perspective on it. This program was a tire fire. I've never been under any illusions that Barnes is one of the very elite coaches, but all we needed him to do was come in and re-establish the program and make it an attractive job again. Success success success. We may not be one of the blue bloods but by God we offer just about everything else.
 
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#30,085
#30,085
Vercingetorix said:
"Empty" is a good word for the year, but I'd still argue that this:



is the right perspective on it. This program was a tire fire. I've never been under any illusions that Barnes is one of the very elite coaches, but all we needed him to do was come in and re-establish the program and make it an attractive job again. Success success success. We may not be one of the blue bloods but by God we offer just about everything else.
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I mean, I get it. I think it was a good year and I understand the hole we were put in after Tyndall. I also agree that this group of players was really likeable so it just hurts more to come up short.

But let’s not make this something it isn’t. A good coach and good players got to the Sweet 16 in their fourth year together. That team was really fun, worked hard, and split the games vs. teams with similar talent/ranking.
 
#30,090
#30,090
Kingston Vol said:
I mean, I get it. I think it was a good year and I understand the hole we were put in after Tyndall. I also agree that this group of players was really likeable so it just hurts more to come up short.

But let’s not make this something it isn’t. A good coach and good players got to the Sweet 16 in their fourth year together. That team was really fun, worked hard, and split the games vs. teams with similar talent/ranking.
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Put that scenario on any mid major campus in the country and they’d be singing praises and talking about how great this season was, and they’d be correct. Being great at basketball isn’t a Tennessee birthright. It takes time to build a program, essentially from scratch.

Edit: More than just mid majors. Many fellow SEC members would trade places with Tennessee, as would most of the PAC 10, Big East, etc.
 
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#30,093
#30,093
Regulator said:
Put that scenario on any mid major campus in the country and they’d be singing praises and talking about how great this season was, and they’d be correct. Being great at basketball isn’t a Tennessee birthright. It takes time to build a program, essentially from scratch.

Edit: More than just mid majors. Many fellow SEC members would trade places with Tennessee, as would most of the PAC 10, Big East, etc.
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But this isn’t a mid major. I think this is the 2nd best job in the SEC.

I’m not trying to downplay the success we’ve had the last two years or saying I have any issue with continuing under Barnes.

I’m just saying that, when he was hired, we would all have agreed a realistic expectation would have been making the Sweet 16 in the 4th year. And maybe an SEC regular season title in the 3rd year would have been considered way ahead of schedule.
 
#30,094
#30,094
Kingston Vol said:
But this isn’t a mid major. I think this is the 2nd best job in the SEC.

I’m not trying to downplay the success we’ve had the last two years or saying I have any issue with continuing under Barnes.

I’m just saying that, when he was hired, we would all have agreed a realistic expectation would have been making the Sweet 16 in the 4th year. And maybe an SEC regular season title in the 3rd year would have been considered way ahead of schedule.
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Then you and I may be on the same page, but there are many that are poo-pooing this season as a failure and that's just not the case. I think the program is ahead of schedule, and on the rise.
 
#30,095
#30,095
Regulator said:
Then you and I may be on the same page, but there are many that are poo-pooing this season as a failure and that's just not the case. I think the program is ahead of schedule, and on the rise.
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We’re all just down in the dumps because 1) losing sucks when you’re really good and 2) we don’t know if we’ll like the next group of guys as much as we liked this one.

It sucks that that specific group’s window got slammed shut.
 
#30,099
#30,099
Kingston Vol said:
But this isn’t a mid major. I think this is the 2nd best job in the SEC.
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Maybe, but for various reasons it sure hasn’t played out that way when we’ve been hiring coaches for the last 25 years. This has never been a highly very sought out job. You can sometimes tell from Barnes’s comments that even he’s been surprised at what a good situation it is.
 
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