Here's why it's Okay.

[Adios]

You're not a Yankee fan. No way in hell are you a Yankee fan. Yankee fans would understand exactly what I'm saying. They expect an apologey fromownership when they fail to make it to the World Series.Not the playoffs...the World Series. They expect to win. Every year. No excuses. So would Giant fans. Giants win the Super Bowl this year then start 1-3 they will be calling for Coughlin's head by Columbus Day. Here's a guy who has a record as good as Bill Parcell had if he wins Sunday, and if they start 1-3, the fans will be calling for his head. I can believe you're a Knicks fan, though. They just want to be seen...

Maybe you folks can go root for Rebecca Lobo's St Mary's Elementary School2nd grade girls team. Winning isn't a priority there. UCONN fans should expect their team to be good and when it is not, they should be very unhappy. Last year is last year.

Did you know the NY (baseball) Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers predate the Baltimore Orioles, I mean Hilltoppers, er, I mean Yankees by around 20 years?? Goes to show how much of a bunch of band-wagoners so many fans are. We had season tickets for the Patriots in their worst season ever, 1990. Games did not sell out. Now band-wagoners have taken over.

 

[freescooter]

Did you know the NY (baseball) Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers predate the Baltimore Orioles, I mean Hilltoppers, er, I mean Yankees by around 20 years?? Goes to show how much of a bunch of band-wagoners so many fans are. We had season tickets for the Patriots in their worst season ever, 1990. Games did not sell out. Now band-wagoners have taken over.

You want to talk bandwagon jumpers, I saw the Patriots play the Buffalo Bills at Alumni Stadium at BC and saw them play the NY Titans/ Jets at Fenway Park. You guys are all bandwagon jumpers in my book!

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

Is there room on this board for the sentiment that I'm just sad and frustrated that what I've been watching hasn't been fun, inspiring, exciting, entertaining and such?

Without a sense of disloyalty or enmity, I start to question whether organizing my calendar around watching such games is as good a use of my time as other alternatives. Being previously committed last Sunday kept me from seeing the Notre Dame game, and I felt better afterward than I did after the Georgetown game. Where's the mystery in that?

Then again, the Giants season has been ideal for me, in that the mid-season doldrums gave me free reign to hike in the woods and do other things with my Sundays until I came back for 5 consecutive do-or-die wins (and counting), in a way, that's kind of like last year's Big East-NCAA miracle. My attention and hopes are focused on Sunday, and I'll feel well-fed indeed no matter the outcome.

After the Super Bowl, my wishing-and-hoping energy will shift to a team with top-drawer talent that has not yet translated that talent into a pattern of passionate play and corresponding victories. Like many who have posted, I still think it *could* happen. Like many who have posted, I'm unhappy that it seems like such a longshot. I don't hate the players, the coaches, or the program. It states the obvious to say that the NCAA hasn't been exemplary, though it must be acknowledged that it's not like they haven't been given anything to work with.

I'd like to watch some good basketball games, but if need be, I can find joy elsewhere. In my 50th year of Husky-watching, I don't think that's such a bad place to be.

 

[tykurez]

I don't agree at all. We have not had success since 2006 when we lost in the elite 8. In 2007 and 2010 we did not make the tournament, those are disappointments, in 2009 we made a final four and in 2011 we won a championship. In 2008 we lost in the first round of the tournament, i consider that a draw. That gives us 2/5 successes, 2/5 disappointments and 1/5 being a draw. We're a mediocre program at best from this point on.

Now look at it if we lose in the first round of the NIT this year, 2/6 successes, 3/6 disappointments, 1/6 draw. Scary to think but we aren't the elite team we were from 90-2006.

This was sarcasm, right?

Top 5 funniest things I've ever seen written on this site that aren't Fishy's posts.

 

[61cygni]

You guys have ceased talking about bandwagon fans, and are now just talking about being old.

 

[BarkingDog]

You're not a Yankee fan. No way in hell are you a Yankee fan. Yankee fans would understand exactly what I'm saying. They expect an apologey fromownership when they fail to make it to the World Series.Not the playoffs...the World Series. They expect to win. Every year. No excuses. So would Giant fans. Giants win the Super Bowl this year then start 1-3 they will be calling for Coughlin's head by Columbus Day. Here's a guy who has a record as good as Bill Parcell had if he wins Sunday, and if they start 1-3, the fans will be calling for his head. I can believe you're a Knicks fan, though. They just want to be seen...

Maybe you folks can go root for Rebecca Lobo's St Mary's Elementary School2nd grade girls team. Winning isn't a priority there. UCONN fans should expect their team to be good and when it is not, they should be very unhappy. Last year is last year.

Of course I want the Yankees to win every world series, but if I expect them to win every year i'd be awfully dissapointed most years. What I expect is the Yankees to spend a lot of money, to win 90-95 games, beat the Red Sox at least half the time and make the playoffs. I've come to expect those things. After that, it's a crapshoot who wins in October. Why make myself, as you say, "very unhappy"?

Maybe I'm not like most NY fans.

Foe example, I love Tom Coughlin. Just this past fall I was defending him from another giants fan who wanted him fired. He's the fan you have in mind. But I look pretty good right now.

What I expect from 18 and 20 year olds at UConn is that they play hard, learn the game from a great coach, get better and represent the university. Do I want them to win every game? Of course. But if I expect it, I'd be mental.

 

[60'sfan]

if we didn't have this much talent then sure, let's take a year off and let them develop. but this is the rare type of team with championship caliber talent, and they are wasting it.

i think that is what bugs most people. if everyone was playing hard and smart and we were still losing, then i could accept that. when they waste away their talent by making the same stupid mistakes and not playing as a team, it can be very tough to stomach as a fan.

i think the point is that as fans, we all REALLY care. when it seems like the team doesn't care as much as we do, then we understandably get pissed.

This is a very talented team but it is also a very young team. They are essentially all sophomores and freshman with one junior. Typically, players do not reach their potential until they are juniors under Jim Calhoun. Consider Richard Hamilton, Ray Allen, Caron Butler, Emeka Okafor and Kemba Walker. I wish they developed faster but I'm sure his system is complex and takes time to learn. We don't get quick results but we do get National Championships.

I am completely disgusted watching them play but Calhoun will turn them around. He always does. Perhaps a side benefit will be that Drummond and Lamb come back for another year. Now that would be a team!

 

[Danzz]

if we didn't have this much talent then sure, let's take a year off and let them develop. but this is the rare type of team with championship caliber talent, and they are wasting it.

i think that is what bugs most people. if everyone was playing hard and smart and we were still losing, then i could accept that. when they waste away their talent by making the same stupid mistakes and not playing as a team, it can be very tough to stomach as a fan.

i think the point is that as fans, we all REALLY care. when it seems like the team doesn't care as much as we do, then we understandably get pissed.

This team doesn't have championship caliber talent and neither did last years team minus Kemba. Oh wait, this is last years championship team minus kemba.
We are a lot better than we have played but to expect this team to win another NCC without Kemba is unrealistic. This year we are seeing just how great Kemba was.

 

[mets1090]

This is a very talented team but it is also a very young team. They are essentially all sophomores and freshman with one junior. Typically, players do not reach their potential until they are juniors under Jim Calhoun. Consider Richard Hamilton, Ray Allen, Caron Butler, Emeka Okafor and Kemba Walker. I wish they developed faster but I'm sure his system is complex and takes time to learn. We don't get quick results but we do get National Championships.

I am completely disgusted watching them play but Calhoun will turn them around. He always does. Perhaps a side benefit will be that Drummond and Lamb come back for another year. Now that would be a team!

Butler did not play his Junior year.

 

[Prezidint]

Is there room on this board for the sentiment that I'm just sad and frustrated that what I've been watching hasn't been fun, inspiring, exciting, entertaining and such?

There is with me, but the problem for many, Hans, will be that your perspective is of one who views his relationship with the UConn program as a one way street.
In other words, your post will be construed as conflating the Basketball program with 2 and 1/2 men or bocci; when you tire of it, when it gets uninteresting, when Charlie is gone, you just turn it off.
I think most fans view it as a bit of a two way street - you take, and you give.
And given that you seem old enough to be Blaney's uncle, the only way you can give other than monetarily would be to "support" the team.
Which means, among other things, defend them against the juveniles who attack their character, and, more on point, watch and cheer, even when it's painful.
You were never promised a rose garden.
BTW - not necessarily my opinion, but that's how I think many will view your fanship.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

There is with me, but the problem for many, Hans, will be that your perspective is of one who views his relationship with the UConn program as a one way street.
In other words, your post will be construed as conflating the Basketball program with 2 and 1/2 men or bocci; when you tire of it, when it gets uninteresting, when Charlie is gone, you just turn it off.
I think most fans view it as a bit of a two way street - you take, and you give.
And given that you seem old enough to be Blaney's uncle, the only way you can give other than monetarily would be to "support" the team.
Which means, among other things, defend them against the juveniles who attack their character, and, more on point, watch and cheer, even when it's painful.
You were never promised a rose garden.
BTW - not necessarily my opinion, but that's how I think many will view your fanship.

OK by me.

UConn basketball is still "my favorite waste of time*." I come to The Boneyard for a wide range of emotions and get lots of laughs. Parking my butt on a couch during game time? Different story, given the ticking clock and better alternatives. I actually just took a look to see where I've been instead of watching this year:

• Maine - Meeting created schedule conflict.
• UNC-Asheville - Chose against disrupting Thanksgiving with heroic measures to watch on an obscure channel.
• UCF - A day-after-Thanksgiving Wiffleball game morphed into Pepe's pizza and "Moneyball" with fun friends.
• Fairfield - Missed the second half (well, didn't watch it) because I was out caroling with a bunch of guys.
• Tennessee - Shoveled the driveway at sunset in order to get to an HD broadcast of The Met's "Enchanted Island" with a lovely date.
• Notre Dame - NYC conference that allowed me to meet dear colleagues from up and down the Eastern seaboard.
• Seton Hall (today) - I'll probably head over to my sister's house to watch the game after a morning meeting and before Westport's Chowdafest where I'll eat well and too much, and help out with an event that raises funds for the CT Food Bank.

The list above isn't quite bocci or a network sitcom, but recent play suggest that I could be opt for another trip to the opera or a walk in the woods with good company. And it's only fitting that that a non-profit Board meeting that will keep me away from the March 3rd game, given that my parents met at Pitt.

The guy who said we'd devolved to talking about how old we are is horrifyingly right.

*M. Crenshaw