A little perspective is needed

[Herman Hickman]

That Mercer team may beat Duke 1 or 2 times out of 10. Your argument holds no validity.

That Mercer team, on a truly neutral court, beats Duke most of the time. Seven seniors with quality outside shooting and a decent inside presence will take out a team with one great player, a few quality shooters, and no inside game more often than not.

Bertelkamp saw this before the game and called the "upset."

They may have been a 14 seed. But as a team, they were superior to Duke. They were so much better than that Duke squad that they were able to win comfortably in what was in essence a home game for the Blue Devils.

Put that game outside North Carolina and Mercer beats them even worse.

Good teams beat average teams overly-reliant on one superstar. That is what happened in that game.

My thoughts from January where there would be no way in hell this team would make the tourney at their current state.

So how can you say Martin is doing what was expected of him in making the Sweet 16 when you didn't even expect this program to make the tournament?

If your agenda is to view everything with orange colored glasses in a simpleton fashion, so be it. We shall disagree.

My agenda is to see Tennessee athletics win on the fields of play and off of them under the direction of quality leaders and teachers. Those coaches have to prove themselves. No doubt about it. But they also have to be given the opportunity to prove themselves compared to the level of expectation of their program at the time they are coaching. We have a level of expectation for Coach Jones and Coach Serrano based on the level of experience and talent in their arsenal. Same goes for Coach Martin.

If you didn't anticipate Tennessee making the tournament this year, as you have admitted above, then you can't turn around and claim Coach Martin has done as expected when you yourself viewed him as toast before the year even began.

Your expectations have been met and surpassed by Coach Martin and his program. You should be pleased instead of lusting for Bruce Pearl like a tween-age boy who has just discovered dad's Playboy collection.

 

[volgr]

That Mercer team, on a truly neutral court, beats Duke most of the time.

We'll agree to disagree. I think you are dead wrong on that.

So how can you say Martin is doing what was expected of him in making the Sweet 16 when you didn't even expect this program to make the tournament?

I expected this team to make a tourney run before the season, as most did. However, after seeing the underachievement and poor losses I didn't expect them to make the tourney at that point in the season.

Your expectations have been met and surpassed by Coach Martin and his program. You should be pleased instead of lusting for Bruce Pearl like a tween-age boy who has just discovered dad's Playboy collection.

In the 3 years Coach Martin has been here, I wouldn't say my expectations have been met nor exceeded.

 

[whobethis16]

We'll agree to disagree. I think you are dead wrong on that.



I expected this team to make a tourney run before the season, as most did. However, after seeing the underachievement and poor losses I didn't expect them to make the tourney at that point in the season.



In the 3 years Coach Martin has been here, I wouldn't say my expectations have been met nor exceeded.

And we're back to the instant gratification issue I brought up, because you're too blinded to see that Martin has met or exceeded expectations according to numerous unbiased sources.

 

[whobethis16]

We'll agree to disagree. I think you are dead wrong on that.



I expected this team to make a tourney run before the season, as most did. However, after seeing the underachievement and poor losses I didn't expect them to make the tourney at that point in the season.



In the 3 years Coach Martin has been here, I wouldn't say my expectations have been met nor exceeded.

They've made a run, which according to you was expected, but you claim they haven't met your expectations. Then you say midseason you did not expect them to make thw tournament, but they did, yet they didn't exceed those expectations. Sheesh, your attempt at logic is hard to follow.