i don't know who you are and know only vaguely where you live, but i want you to know, i love ya man, and love your love of the griz. i too know that feeling of counting down hours to griz games, driving through treacherous thick life-threatening fog (stockton and flagstaff) to see our heroes play, and in the pre-internet days, of pressing my ear of to a distant staticy radio broadcast (especially KLO in ogden), or making calls to the missoulian sports department to get the latest score. in the same way little kids instantly recognize other little kids, i know a fellow nut when i see one.
last night i had to attend an event in a remote town with my wife, and so didn't get the score till the game was over, and all the negative comments were posted right here. i felt a little like i did the night i was watching fox news after one of the debates, and their poll reported that mccain won, 88-12. or the many posts we've endured on e-griz over the years from wannabies telling us how they were going kick our butts in football. and frankly, despite all the happy talk about this year's team and all the glowing reports from the recruiting front (which i still feel have merit), and the full knowledge that, yes, teams can have an off night, or, yes, bad starts often make good ends, i am coming to grips this morning with several delusions, among them:
--we lost because our top two scorers didn't score, and our point guard couldn't penetrate. the truth is, mcgillis was a sixth man at best on a woeful oregon state team, hasquet has yet to live up to his freshman promise, and c/t may just be an average college point guard, at best.
--diving for loose balls may be admirable, but there is as yet not a shred of evidence that a tinkle-coached team can play defense. in this morning's local rag, mike montgomery gave a gloomy assessment of his first cal team, saying, in effect, my kids don't know the difference between TRYING to play good defense, and absolutely having the conviction you're going to shut the other guy down. no delusionist, mike, but i couldn't help reading that without thinking of our griz.
--for all our self-proclaimed athleticism this year, we still lack that big tough inside banger like we ran into last night, and that we haven't really had since kmaar. i've argued here before that as soon as football season is over, we need dan beaudin back on the team. we need a lot more muscle up front, because we're going to run into a lot of it this year, and i don't know if we're capable of dealing with it.
--finally, as much as i love tinks, love his history with the school, his recruiting ability, and the way he represents the university, there's yet no evidence that he's more than a .500 coach. i cut him some slack here, because unlike the football team, which plays at a lower level, the basketball team has to take on the country's best, as our pre-season schedule shows. i doubt our football team would have run up the gaudy record it has if they had to play some of the same schools the basketball team plays year in and year out--duke, colorado state, washington, fresno state. but despite that, the football program being what it is, the expectations at montana do not include a .500 team in any sport, and so far, that is the record tinks has turned it. i'd hoped this year would change that. i fully expected it from all the glowing posts i've read over the past two months. but i must say, on this morning, braced with a stiff cup of coffee, i have officially begun to shed my delusions about this year's team. if life without illusion is death, life with delusion is nothing but disappointment.
p.s. still, i love ya, man. and remember, hope remains the theme for this coming year.
last night i had to attend an event in a remote town with my wife, and so didn't get the score till the game was over, and all the negative comments were posted right here. i felt a little like i did the night i was watching fox news after one of the debates, and their poll reported that mccain won, 88-12. or the many posts we've endured on e-griz over the years from wannabies telling us how they were going kick our butts in football. and frankly, despite all the happy talk about this year's team and all the glowing reports from the recruiting front (which i still feel have merit), and the full knowledge that, yes, teams can have an off night, or, yes, bad starts often make good ends, i am coming to grips this morning with several delusions, among them:
--we lost because our top two scorers didn't score, and our point guard couldn't penetrate. the truth is, mcgillis was a sixth man at best on a woeful oregon state team, hasquet has yet to live up to his freshman promise, and c/t may just be an average college point guard, at best.
--diving for loose balls may be admirable, but there is as yet not a shred of evidence that a tinkle-coached team can play defense. in this morning's local rag, mike montgomery gave a gloomy assessment of his first cal team, saying, in effect, my kids don't know the difference between TRYING to play good defense, and absolutely having the conviction you're going to shut the other guy down. no delusionist, mike, but i couldn't help reading that without thinking of our griz.
--for all our self-proclaimed athleticism this year, we still lack that big tough inside banger like we ran into last night, and that we haven't really had since kmaar. i've argued here before that as soon as football season is over, we need dan beaudin back on the team. we need a lot more muscle up front, because we're going to run into a lot of it this year, and i don't know if we're capable of dealing with it.
--finally, as much as i love tinks, love his history with the school, his recruiting ability, and the way he represents the university, there's yet no evidence that he's more than a .500 coach. i cut him some slack here, because unlike the football team, which plays at a lower level, the basketball team has to take on the country's best, as our pre-season schedule shows. i doubt our football team would have run up the gaudy record it has if they had to play some of the same schools the basketball team plays year in and year out--duke, colorado state, washington, fresno state. but despite that, the football program being what it is, the expectations at montana do not include a .500 team in any sport, and so far, that is the record tinks has turned it. i'd hoped this year would change that. i fully expected it from all the glowing posts i've read over the past two months. but i must say, on this morning, braced with a stiff cup of coffee, i have officially begun to shed my delusions about this year's team. if life without illusion is death, life with delusion is nothing but disappointment.
p.s. still, i love ya, man. and remember, hope remains the theme for this coming year.
