03-15-2016, 11:56 PM
Jacketree,
Respectfully, you're missing the context again. When Mike took over, the consensus opinion was that it was "impossible" to build a winning program at Stanford. That was essentially the message that Dr. Tom delivered as he let the door hit him in the ass as he left and it was the plain reality of Stanford basketball throughout my childhood.
So, when Mike took us to the tournament in 1989, that was the first time to the tournament since....1942. Using a climbing analogy, in the prior 46 years, we were generally not even in Nepal. Dr. Tom got us briefly to Kathmandu, but Mike dragged the entire program up to base camp and set up tents, allowing us to make repeated assaults on the summit during his entire tenure. And thanks to the Lopi, we stayed at base camp through the Johnson era. I mean, in '89, people in the stands were in tears after the SC game when everyone knew that a 24-5 team wasn't going to get shut out of the NCAA's no matter what happened in the Conference Tournament. And these were the low-keyed "forever" fans from Palo Alto who dutifully sat through decades of misery and happily appreciated Mike Bratz, and Brian Welch, and Rich Kelley while we were getting repeatedly destroyed by UCLA, USC, and Oregon State.
In 1986, just the idea that anyone would even vaguely consider putting us in the tournament was like a marijuana induced dream sequence.
Dawkins, in contrast, arrived on campus after 22 years of success with an entire generation of kids growing up thinking that Stanford meant competitive, NCAA tournament quality basketball. After eight years, base camp has largely been destroyed, and we've fled down the mountain.
Whoever takes over might still be in Nepal, but the trek back from Kathmandu isn't going to be easy.
Respectfully, you're missing the context again. When Mike took over, the consensus opinion was that it was "impossible" to build a winning program at Stanford. That was essentially the message that Dr. Tom delivered as he let the door hit him in the ass as he left and it was the plain reality of Stanford basketball throughout my childhood.
So, when Mike took us to the tournament in 1989, that was the first time to the tournament since....1942. Using a climbing analogy, in the prior 46 years, we were generally not even in Nepal. Dr. Tom got us briefly to Kathmandu, but Mike dragged the entire program up to base camp and set up tents, allowing us to make repeated assaults on the summit during his entire tenure. And thanks to the Lopi, we stayed at base camp through the Johnson era. I mean, in '89, people in the stands were in tears after the SC game when everyone knew that a 24-5 team wasn't going to get shut out of the NCAA's no matter what happened in the Conference Tournament. And these were the low-keyed "forever" fans from Palo Alto who dutifully sat through decades of misery and happily appreciated Mike Bratz, and Brian Welch, and Rich Kelley while we were getting repeatedly destroyed by UCLA, USC, and Oregon State.
In 1986, just the idea that anyone would even vaguely consider putting us in the tournament was like a marijuana induced dream sequence.
Dawkins, in contrast, arrived on campus after 22 years of success with an entire generation of kids growing up thinking that Stanford meant competitive, NCAA tournament quality basketball. After eight years, base camp has largely been destroyed, and we've fled down the mountain.
Whoever takes over might still be in Nepal, but the trek back from Kathmandu isn't going to be easy.