Perspective?

Hello Followers.  Hope you had a great weekend of March Madness.

As I watched a slew of basketball this weekend, my brain quickly became filled with a host of tidbits for today’s write up.

For instance, when I heard that UCLA was a ridiculous 11-0 this year when leading by double digits, I thought I might write about what that says about our tendency to blow double digit leads.

Then, when I watched Washington blow a game that they were in control of for 36 minutes, I thought I’d write a bit about how I thought Lorenzo blew it by not calling a time out with the ball, down one, with 12 seconds left.

But ultimately, when I stumbled upon a post by Sir Vincent Grippi from last week (which I missed because I was out of town), my take on everything changed.

So, if you want to check out my change in worldview re: Cougar Hoops, then read on…

Followers, in some ways it seems like yesterday when I received an e-mail from SeanHawk inviting me to join something called a “Blog.”   While I can’t remember the EXACT date of that invite, I do know that it came prior to the 2004 football season. 

At that point, the Cougs were coming off a third straight ten win season, a third straight finish in the AP Top 10, and a solid dismantling of a young Vince Young and the Texas Longhorns in the Holiday Bowl.

So, coming into that year, I was really excited about the return of Josh Swogger (who I thought showed great moxy in leading us to late season thrashings of ASU and UCLA when Kegel went down the year prior).  But even more than that, I thought that the future of Cougar Football was out of sight. 

After all, in addition to our performance on the field, we had just secured the first top 25 recruiting class in recent memory.  And so, even though I predicted another return to the Holiday Bowl that year, I knew that even if the 2004 season was a dissapointment, BETTER times and days for Cougar Football were ahead of us.

Of course, it turned out that the reverse was true: the better days were behind us. 

Following a couple of late second comebacks @ New Mexico and Arizona, the 2004 Cougar football team wasn’t quite able to put it together: After  a comeback against Stanford fell JUST short, we learned that Swogger was out of the season.  And, as fate would have it, Swogger would not start another game as a Cougar quarterback…

Of course, we all know how things played out from there:  In 2005, one of the best Cougar offenses we’ve ever seen couldn’t complete a big drive when they needed it.  As a result, the 2005 team went from 3-0 to 4-7–with the lone win coming against a bad Washington team on the last game of the season. 

Then, in 2006, following a whooping of UCLA in the Rose Bowl, the Cougs were 6-3, ranked 25th in the Country, and back on track for a return to Regional and/or National Prominence.

Unfortunately for us, Jason Hill and Michael Bumpus were injured the following week; and we lost the next three games to finish 6-6 and home for the holidays.  And we’ve never really sniffed mediocrity since.

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Of course, the point of all of this is that it is all too easy to think that better days are ahead.  I mean, we’ve seen it with the Mariners who won 116 games and haven’t made it to the post-season since.  We saw it with the Seahawks who looked like a perennial Superbowl contender, but never realized that potential following the loss of Steve Hutchinson.  And, we saw it with the Sonics, who, in 2005,  looked like they were on their way to a return to prominence following a thriling 6 game series against the San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference Semi-Finals.  A few months later, Nate was the coach of the Trailblazers, Bob Weiss and Bob Hill were unable to do squat with the returning group, and a few years later, the Supes were altogether gone from the NW sports landscape.

And so, when I read that DeAngelo Casto is now contemplating a jump to the Pros for financial reasons, it all just hit me.  With the potential loss of both Klay AND Casto in the offseason, this really could be the end of our run. Because, if those two do not return for their senior seasons, then next year’s team is a bonafide doormat.  And barring some unforseen developments on a variety of fronts, it seems difficult to imagine how we might return to the days of EXPECTING our lads to contend for major post-season play any time in the near future. 

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So, as we head into tonight’s game, the table is set on a variety of fronts.  To play for our first BIG TIME championship in basketball since 1989 (we made the Pac-10 tourney championship game), this team simply has to beat Clay Bennett State at home, Northwestern at home, and the Wichita State-College of Charleston winner.  And given the relative ease of that task, it becomes all too easy to get really uptight about what a golden opportunity is in front of us.

At the same time, that expectation carries with it the danger of looking past the moment, and within, the real prospect of enjoying what could very well be the final moments of relevance of Cougar Hoops.

Simply put, with a loss tonight and potentially Wednesday, you have to wonder whether  Klay or Casto will have enough confidence in the program to return.  After all, their decision to return for their senior year would appear dependent on the prospect of getting the type of attention and exposure associated with a deep run in the NCAA tournament.  And, were we to lose to teams who finished in the bottom half of their conferences AT HOME to end year, one would have to wonder whether or not Klay and Casto would be willing to put-off their needs and/or dreams for another long year–especially for a team and/or program that has yet to prove that it can consistently beat the type of teams (mid-level) you need to beat in order to (a) Make the NCAA tournament; and (b) Gain the type of NCAA seed that helps teams advance.

Therefore, count me in as a fan who will do EVERYTHING I can to enjoy tonight’s game: National television, Round of 16 in a National tournament, the chance to play for a trip to Madison Square Garden at home in two days–all things that make College Basketball exciting.

So, enjoy it Coug fans.  Because win or lose, this very well could be the end of a run which has seen us play in the post-season for 4 out of the last 5 years.

Enjoy it.

Enjoy it.