First of all, please know that I respect the heck out of everything that I've stripped out in replying to this post. I haven't ignored whatever's omitted. I agree, am favorably impressed, or don't substantially disagree with any of the missing pieces.
Also,I do know some of your back story, overall POV, integrity, and caring from reading your posts both here and a 'related' forum where I agree with your impassioned expression much more often than not.
Yep, that's clear as a bell and well put. I can see how and why you and others might feel that way.
Elements of his coaching style, temperament, decision-making, clock-management, in-game adjustments, and more have been widely identified as objectionable, troublesome, suboptimal, beyond current capability, beyond hope, and more.
I appreciate that you've identified your list, and know that some it intersects with that of other fans, and that other fans have some additions, subtraction, and differences.
All coaches - especially those who are highly-paid, highly-visible, and in high-profile programs - are examined and assessed this way. Endlessly.
Even with a couple typos that create a bit of uncertainty in me, I think I get what you're saying.
As to you & some others who feel like you do, I don't think you are less of a fan, and certainly not when you express yourself this way.
But I'm also certain that there are look-alike/sound-alike comments coming from posters who are NOT friendly to the program, and that goes well beyond some are not as loyal as you & those like you. Such posters reasonably concern me.
To my last point, I add that I am neither blind toward faults nor choosing to ignore them, which are the only two possibilities you've offered.
If you want me to accept that you are no less loyal a fan than I am, then it's not unreasonable for me to want you to accept that my not speaking up as you do does not necessarily mean that I am blind or choosing to ignore.
AND, if I would argue that some posters are acting in bad faith against UConn's interests, you preserve your right to believe that some posters are blind to faults or choosing to ignore them.
Those previous two paragraphs are intended to establish fair and firm footing for both of us.
I appreciate that you draw distinction between a person and the institution that has hired him and is represented by him. I particularly appreciate that you draw additional distinction between a person and his behaviors, which in this case you have labeled "antics."
I speak only for myself here in saying that some of my comments can indeed be read as disparaging, but certainly not all of them. Some are even meant to be disparaging, but those are reserved for select posters who have already demonstrated repeated bad faith, or are so self-certain/overreaching that they surely shouldn't be surprised when somebody questions them, highlights their blind spots, or otherwise seeks to slow their roll.
Some comments might be disparaging or not, depending on who is reading them.
Lots of things in your post and my response remain open to debate, and varieties of opinion, tonal preferences, framing, perspective, motivating forces, and so on.
I don't play as nicely with bot-like trolls, the chronically obnoxious, and those who seem inflexible, stubborn, petulant, emotionally, immature, grandiose, power-grabbing, chaos-making, antagonistic, and such. In this age of anonymity, false representation, ambiguous agency, and outsize rewards, competing forces have ever more motivation & tools to compete unethically. It's very different world from when my dad first invited me to join him 60 years ago travel on a school night along pre-Interstate roads to a cold & distant place that confused me by sounding like UConn, then walk from parking lot through steam rising up from underground tunnels and into a cavernous building with a dirt floor.
Nietzsche said, "Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster."
I think of that when I read the most caustic posts about the head coach who will be with this team every single remaining game this season (and probably beyond, but that's another matter), and hear him described as flawed, myopic, immature, & stubborn by people whose very words & style strike me as flawed, myopic, immature, and stubborn.
Awareness and allowance of one without seeing how it mirrors the other, and with seemingly little consideration of how it emboldens and metaphorically 'gives comfort to the enemy' is what animates my push back. I want the coaches, the players, and the fans all engaged in healthy growth.
Until I got down to my previous sentence, it didn't occur to me that last night I witnessed another round of something aligned with this 'everybody growing' vision. The crazily injured, ill, and mourning UConn WBB team defeated historical super-rival Tennessee for its 12th consecutive victory and continued further down its own portion of the path to a third double Championship season. May this Forum's team follow suit: coaches, players, and fans.
