Bob Bueckers timely social media post should come as a reminder to all of us that players and their friends and family members are acutely aware of criticism in print, TV and social media platforms, even including the BY. I urge everyone here on the BY to consider what you write as if you were writing about your own child before posting. If it's not something you would be comfortable posting about your own child, in the words of Herm Edwards, "Don't hit send."
It was interesting reading some of the posts after the Oregon game. Just 48 hours earlier, most of us were in a semi-state of euphoria after our girls soundly defeated Xavier. Even though they were a vastly inferior team. Everything was right with the world, we were all feeling good about ourselves, the players and life was good. The sun was out and the birds were singing.
Then like the late Dinah Washington sang in a song released way back in 1959 - "What a difference a day makes." Dark clouds reappeared. A dark and ominous pall descended over the team and UConn Nation. Over the course of two hours yesterday evening, folks changed their outlook and attitude, about Geno, the team and individual players. We assigned blame and pointed fingers.
All of us are frustrated and disappointed with the current state of affairs of the program. Some of us (Tonyc - I love you man
) remain eternal optimists, still holding out hope while others have all but thrown in the towel.
During the summer months, we (UConn Nation) were excited about the unbridled potential of our team, and boldly predicted how many games we would lose on our way to the championship. With the talent we had, there was no way we would be denied our 12th championship, rightfully taking back what is ours. Then, like little Red Riding Hood, we got "jacked" on the way to grandma's house. Things began to fall apart, the wheels came off the wagon, two players left the program, the injury bug hit us hard, and the COVID-19 Caronavirus reared its ugly head once again disrupting the start of our season. What could go wrong did go wrong.
It's hard to deny what we saw take place yesterday in Eugene. It is what it is. Now the question is can this team turn their fortunes around in time for the tournament? This is the first time since I've been following the program (since 2008) that I feel nothing is guaranteed. The thought of UConn losing in the first week of the tournament was absurd. Those games were deem as nothing more than "warm-up" games for the following week. A top seed is completely out of the question.
We can't think that way now. So far, we've lost to two unranked teams (Georgia Tech & Oregon) with more to come. I must admit that many of the posts I read were spot on and fairly accurate in their assessment of the game, and current state of the team. It's hard to deny the truth. We all saw the same thing yesterday, and it broke our hearts. But as you suggest, when we compose a thought or concern that is "less than flattering", we must remember that we're talking about a young 18-22 year old young ladies that are under a lot of pressure to perform and trying to do the very best they can, not to mention that they are somebody's daughter. So, your "
Don't press send" suggestion is timely, and not bad advice. A friendly reminder never hurts.
