Take it from someone who's seen DePaul's fall from the 70s and 80s. Once you start sliding you better fight to the death for the results you once had and expected.
I've been one to point out that during Knight's tenure it wasn't just a straight line across in terms of 25-win seasons, which were much more impressive back then. It was mostly on a three- and four-year cycle to elite.
Now? We are 259-249 in the conference in the last 30 years. We've had single digit losses in a season only four times during that span.
People who are reasonably old, like 40 years old, have never seen what people only 10 years older, like me (OK, 11) saw and people 15-20 years older saw consistently. Now, it seems the majority of people are saying the tournament is good enough. As in, "Woody got us to the tournament two years in a row." He was 21-14 and 23-12 in those years.
That is awful. Yet, that's good to too many people.
The standard is the standard - until it's not. This is what the IU admin simply has not understood during their 30-year walk in the wilderness.
It's almost gone. The last 10 years? 192-135. 93-96 in the conference. It's such that a lot of people think that now we need patience in getting back to... what exactly?
No, we need urgency. Urgency to get back to standards and levels that, unfortunately, an ever-shrinking pool of supporters remember, aspire to and demand.
I don't think people really understand how far away we are and how long it's been. It's not a matter of, "We better fix this before we lose it". It's, "It's gone - and we need to get it back."
Woodson's not the answer. X isn't the missing piece. It's a little bit better version of Mike Davis. It's a little bit better version than Archie. We all know it. Not just because of the record but because of the basketball we see. The horrible IQ and lack of fundamentals consistently not corrected. Horrible scheme and philosophy. Idiot subbing patterns until the media calls get too loud. Idiot decision making in the auto-benchings, again, until the media calls get too loud. The roster totally devoid of any meaningful guards, point and shooting. Bad basketball. Bad roster. Meet the new guy. Same as the old guy.
It's bad. We know it's bad. Fix it. Now. Why wait? Wait for what? 19-13? 15-16? Is there a difference? Bad basketball. Bad roster. Meet the new guy. Same as the old guy.
