Megan Franklin, new UNI AD

[MVCBeat]

Come on. We expect a little more than "almost" at this point, right? We're here to get to the dance and make some noise. Calling results short of that "success" is just lowering the bar. Every time I hear about the "success" of the AJ Green era, I throw up a little. What a farce.

This is what happens when programs decline. The true believers start shifting the narrative and lowering the threshold of success. Just read around a little and you'll see it: Maybe the best player we've ever had never played in an NCAA Tournament game, but that's somehow not a failure. And yeah, maybe we finish somewhere around .500 most years, but we're building the program "the right way" with "high character" student-athletes. This talk happens when programs decline, and it's happening right here.

We've seen better. Don't accept less and call it success.

The original comment was "Jake also had an NBAPlayer fall into his lap and accomplish jack squat with him."

Two conference championships in three years doesn't seem like "jack squat" to me. If you think so, you should probably root for a different team.

And again, we may well have made the dance in 2020. We'll never know.

As a freshman he was the best player on a mediocre team that was seconds away from winning Arch Madness. His other two seasons he was the MVC POY and we won the league title. One of those seasons we were 25-6, had two P5 wins including one on the road against a top 25 NET team, had a top 50 NET and the tournament was cancelled. That is a pretty good freaking season. It is fair to say we underachieved in 21-22 after a rough noncon, but we won the Valley and he won POY again. Again, I agree that not making the tournament with AJ is a miss but it is simply false to say we accomplished "jack squat". Due to injury and COVID, his only chances were his freshman season, which was a tough ask of a true freshman and we were very close, and his senior season, which we admittedly underachieved but still won the league title. Our all-league center didn't really contribute due to COVID, our senior guard that was supposed to be his #2 scoring option had a rough year, and Born wasn't healthy in the first part of the year.

Should we have been dancing in 2022? Probably. But sometimes it just doesn't come together when you don't have a margin for error in a league like the Valley. Look at Indiana State this year. They had a hell of a team. but they lost a couple games they shouldn't have with one of their best players injured, lost a barnburner to Drake in the Arch Madness Championship game, and they didn't get included. Usually only one team from our league gets an invite. And it is probably the toughest league that has that problem. So the margin for error is tiny. I still believe the 19-20 team was one of the best we've ever had.

[ofpantherandman]

If you think so, you should probably root for a different team.

And again, we may well have made the dance in 2020. We'll never know.

If you think not making the tournament with an NBA player on the roster is ok, respectfully - maybe you belong on the cheer squad instead of in the stands. Demand better.

We got pasted by Drake our first game in the Valley tournament in 2020. There's no way we make the NCAA's if they'd have happened and anybody who thinks so also belongs on the cheer squad. Get real.

Again, all the things you list are nice, but they are consolation prizes. These are the things the marketing department comes up with to spin failure into success. Don't tell me you're happy going home with what's in the box when we both know you should have had the boat.

[nadf.]

If you think not making the tournament with an NBA player on the roster is ok, respectfully - maybe you belong on the cheer squad instead of in the stands. Demand better.

We got pasted by Drake our first game in the Valley tournament in 2020. There's no way we make the NCAA's if they'd have happened and anybody who thinks so also belongs on the cheer squad. Get real.

Again, all the things you list are nice, but they are consolation prizes. These are the things the marketing department comes up with to spin failure into success. Don't tell me you're happy going home with what's in the box when we both know you should have had the boat.

You're being really thick-headed with this NCAA tournament-or-bust mindset. Of course we're all disappointed by how long it's been, but to make the tournament in our league these days, you either have to (1) thread the needle for a whole season in a way that is nearly statistically impossible or (2) win 3 games in 3 days and be the one team that wins the conference tournament. It's not 2005 anymore. That 2020 team was much better than many of the NCAA tournament teams we've had in the past.

[BCPanther]

We got an at large with a 23-10 record in '05 and a 25-9 record in '06. Regardless of who we beat, we'd be an NIT bubble team with those same results in 2024.

That 2020 team was probably Jake's 3rd best team ('10, '15) but the way in which the NCAA moved the goal posts was going to kill it's tournament chances.

[UNIChippewa]

If you think not making the tournament with an NBA player on the roster is ok, respectfully - maybe you belong on the cheer squad instead of in the stands. Demand better.

We got pasted by Drake our first game in the Valley tournament in 2020. There's no way we make the NCAA's if they'd have happened and anybody who thinks so also belongs on the cheer squad. Get real.

Again, all the things you list are nice, but they are consolation prizes. These are the things the marketing department comes up with to spin failure into success. Don't tell me you're happy going home with what's in the box when we both know you should have had the boat.

Being an a$$ when sharing your opinion is not going to make other posters agree with that opinion. I honestly don't know why people can't understand that simple concept.

[Wxcpanther]

Being an a$$ when sharing your opinion is not going to make other posters agree with that opinion. I honestly don't know why people can't understand that simple concept.

If nothing else, it's just a miserable way to live. Imagine deciding for everyone else that we couldn't have at all enjoyed the last 8 years because there wasn't an NCAA tournament in there. That Loyola game to end the season was one of the craziest games I've ever experienced in person. I'd rather deal with the highs and lows as they come as opposed to just being constantly miserable until I finally hear UNI's name called on selection Sunday again (which IS coming)

[DownGoesKansas]

We got an at large with a 23-10 record in '05 and a 25-9 record in '06. Regardless of who we beat, we'd be an NIT bubble team with those same results in 2024.

That 2020 team was probably Jake's 3rd best team ('10, '15) but the way in which the NCAA moved the goal posts was going to kill it's tournament chances.

Right. I used to be NCAA or bust. But in this day an age it's not possible. Even with the resume.

Sole goal should be winning and staying healthy in non con. With home games.

Then winning regular season title. And hoping for Arch Madness luck

[ofpantherandman]

Being an a$$ when sharing your opinion is not going to make other posters agree with that opinion. I honestly don't know why people can't understand that simple concept.

I love that the guy I'm replying to says "go root for another team" and when I reply in a similar manner, I'm the one being an a$$.

The replies to my post only illustrate my points. The goalposts for success are moving every minute. Enjoy what you want, but don't tell me missing the tournament with AJ is "success."

[Wxcpanther]

I love that the guy I'm replying to says "go root for another team" and when I reply in a similar manner, I'm the one being an a$$.

The replies to my post only illustrate my points. The goalposts for success are moving every minute. Enjoy what you want, but don't tell me missing the tournament with AJ is "success."

The goalposts have moved because, frankly, the world of college sports have moved. College sports is not remotely similar to what it was nearly 2 decades ago when we got consecutive at large bids, and more specifically, neither is the NCAA tournament. It is significantly harder now to get in than it used to be. That's just reality. If you want to live in some warped sense of reality, by all means, but don't get bent out of shape when others think otherwise.

[UNIChippewa]

I love that the guy I'm replying to says "go root for another team" and when I reply in a similar manner, I'm the one being an a$$.

The replies to my post only illustrate my points. The goalposts for success are moving every minute. Enjoy what you want, but don't tell me missing the tournament with AJ is "success."

It's not just one sentence though. Your whole tone is rather aggressive and belligerent.

[Born-a-Panther]

If nothing else, it's just a miserable way to live. Imagine deciding for everyone else that we couldn't have at all enjoyed the last 8 years because there wasn't an NCAA tournament in there. That Loyola game to end the season was one of the craziest games I've ever experienced in person. I'd rather deal with the highs and lows as they come as opposed to just being constantly miserable until I finally hear UNI's name called on selection Sunday again (which IS coming)

One of my favorite pictures I've ever taken came at the end of that game as fans were rushing the court. My oldest son collapsed in his seat from exhaustion, and a stranger sitting behind him with her head in her hands -- just completely wiped out. The game was nuts but created such a good memory.

[SteinPizza]

It's not just one sentence though. Your whole tone is rather aggressive and belligerent.

Pot meet kettle? Several people here do that occasionally, myself included. It’s called having a passionate opinion, and his /her’s is legit, or at least VERY worthy of debate.

[MVCBeat]

If you think not making the tournament with an NBA player on the roster is ok, respectfully - maybe you belong on the cheer squad instead of in the stands. Demand better.

We got pasted by Drake our first game in the Valley tournament in 2020. There's no way we make the NCAA's if they'd have happened and anybody who thinks so also belongs on the cheer squad. Get real.

Again, all the things you list are nice, but they are consolation prizes. These are the things the marketing department comes up with to spin failure into success. Don't tell me you're happy going home with what's in the box when we both know you should have had the boat.

I am not going to say the 2020 team was a failure because they happened to have their worst game of the season at the worst possible time. They proved night in and night out they were one of the top 40 teams in the country that year. To say there was no chance they would have been included is false. They were right on the bubble as we entered that final weekend. You have no idea what would have happened. But even if they hadn't been included, like Indiana State this year, I think it is pretty clear that they deserved to be. The Valley gets the short end of the stick in these situations. That isn't our guys' fault.

So if we would have won the Arch Madness championship in 2019 would that have made that team better than the 2020 team? Would AJ's career have been a success? Because if a flukey call in the championship game featuring a blow .500 team is what makes the difference to you, I just don't know why you even watch college basketball before March.

[MVCBeat]

I love that the guy I'm replying to says "go root for another team" and when I reply in a similar manner, I'm the one being an a$$.

The replies to my post only illustrate my points. The goalposts for success are moving every minute. Enjoy what you want, but don't tell me missing the tournament with AJ is "success."

I said you should root for another team because if you want to be a fan of a team that is going to regularly have a shot at an at-large bid you should not root for a team in the MVC. If making the NCAA Tournament is the only thing that matters to you, if winning a league title is meaningless to you, you can't possibly have fun following an MVC team. I don't mean it as an insult. I am simply saying you're going to constantly be miserable as a Valley fan if that is the only thing that matters.

['70 Grad]

Back to the topic of the thread - so has there been a press conference? Did Dr. Megan "win" it?