I wanted to take a quick moment, and a break from my baseball obsession, to comment about the OSU men's basketball team. Specifically I wanted to look at the news of the program's winning season this year (just the second in 22 years) that Andy highlighted in his recap here.
I know many are disappointed with how the season has panned out, BUT as much as I feel the pain I think we need to really look at the accomplishment of this winning season this year. I feel that this success and progress seems to have been lost on the overall fan base this season. I think there are a couple reasons for this:
1. There is a fan base that just is in it for the big stuff and this means making sure to see more of the "big ticket" games like the UO or UW ones. This base of fans is totally fine with me (it is as important of a fan base as the diehard fans), but will say this base does make it a bit difficult for the program to project out a long-term vision. As such things are lost like these important steps forward the program has been taking of late for they are seemingly small steps and not really seen as news worthy. A perfectly reasonable question becomes for this base of fans is that if other programs are winning why not ours? The problem for me here though is that the OSU program is one that has been so far down and in such a challenging transition that this question seems to become not applicable (at this time).
2) (This one I put myself into) I think it was too quick of a start in non-conference play and with the individual talent we seem to have I think people got a bit too focused on instant results this year. I know I did but in hindsight I think we jumped the gun for the team is young and it is the first full Robinson recruited team playing together as a team. Again as many of you know about me I like to more long-termish in my thinking and I see Robinson's points about this is a program that is building and it was so far down it will take a little time to get back up consistently.
So why this quick analysis? Mainly because I think most of us in Beaver Nation in either area (or those of us finding ourselves a bit in both) need to realize the hurdles this basketball program has to overcome, especially considering within our current mentality of instant success/gratification in our culture overall and especially heightened within sports. I truly believe this season is a very good step forward and is something we should celebrate. Yes I know it still is a disappointment this season (I'm sure the team would agree with us here too) and on top of it all it is not an easy pill to take after a very tough football season. Nevertheless this is a moment in time for OSU basketball where we should continue to support the program as it moves towards the future.
Go Beavs!
-rvm