(05-28-2013, 07:40 AM)wbbfan link Wrote:I don't envy Muir, but I think it's time to have a very serious discussion with Marquess and challenge whether he's still the right man for the job. I have had season tickets for the last thirteen years and worked crazy schedules in order to attend as many home games as possible in years past. Now I am retired, and can come to all the games easily, but don't always. It's been a hugely frustrating season in the stands. So much talent on the field and such wildly varying results. It seemed like we saw more fundamental errors, as if the players were not always able to keep their heads in the game. The pitching behind Appel was perhaps not as strong as in prior years, but many games we just didn't seem to be able to put together any offense.
Rusty Filter, the pitching coach, who came in three years ago, was rumored to be a possible successor to Marquess, but I don't think he's done much with the program.Â
I strongly hope we see some changes! I'd like to enjoy going to Sunken Diamond again.
wbbfan could not have said it any better. Given that ASU made it to post-season and we did not, it's not unreasonable to assume that, had we swept UCLA, we might have switched places with ASU, our low RPI [which would have, presumably, been a little higher] notwithstanding. Nevertheless, with arguably everything on the line, we lose 6-4 in a game where 3 of UCLA's runs came by way of walk, wild pitch, and [at least set up by] a horrendous throwing error from 3d base [along with two other errors]. And this wasn't the first game this season that was lost [or, in some cases, very nearly lost] by bonehead plays that, "in the good old days" would have been unthinkable. It did, indeed, seem like various players [not including Appel] too often appeared to simply space out. I don't think the "old" Marquess would have tolerated that.
It's been a LONG time since 1987 and 1988. In the interim we climbed the mountain a number of times, only to fall just short [sometimes in heartbreaking fashion]. Now, more recently, we more and more often aren't even getting on the trail, as it were.
And, just to voice some disquiet I've been feeling recently, I'm wondering whether, in watching the present of the baseball team, we are getting a glimpse of the future of the women's basketball program? It seems to me that programs that are very successful but just don't quite get to the top [i.e., the National Championship] several times in a row get to the point where they do that for a while, but then begin slip back, as recruits go elsewhere [see, e.g., another current thread re wbb recruiting], and other teams [and coaches] become the hot items. Pretty soon "doing really well" becomes okay for the program, and, at that point, a National Championship almost becomes a pipedream. They don't turn into horrible programs [for the most part], but they are no longer legitimate National Champion candidates. The programs who are able to maintain that status over decades are the ones that find a way to win the whole thing at least every few years.
Unfortunately, in a few more years it will be a LONG time since 1990 and 1992, as well.Â
Several weeks back I posted a question asking whether people thought Tara or Shaw had a better chance of winning a National Championship first. As I recall, most people went with Tara. I'm inclined to lean toward Shaw.
