I did attend all 5 NCAA Tournament games in 1977 and rushed the court at the Omni as time expired on that magical Monday evening almost 30 years ago. Yes, it was special to be at the games in Omaha, Oklahoma City, and Atlanta.
While the horizon of college hoops has dramatically changed since that time, it would be an exercise in frustration to compare this season's team and their slump to the Warriors "collapse" at the end of the '77 season. Likewise, comparing and contrasting coaches would also be futile.
Suffice it to say, all teams and their coaches are ultimately judged on their records and that is how it should be.
I was at the Omni in '77 as well. Still seems like yessterday. I remeber that whole weekend well!. But, you are right, you've got to judge a team by its results. BTW, I also remember that "collapse" in '77 with those 3 home games at the Arena. Very similar to this year with losses to quality teams as well.
It must have been quite a rush and it also explains what expectation set you come from. Understood completely.
I do find it interesting, however, watching fans over the years just rip the crap out of their coaches or not rip them based on certain things.
Bill Cowher was "not a good coach" until one day in January last year "he became one" apparently.
Jim Boeheim was not a good coach until April of 2003....if you read their message boards yesterday, he was again not a good coach but you read them tonight and apparently in the last 24 hours he became a great coach again.
Rick Pitino last year was a bad coach, most of this year was a bad coach, and now I read he is one of the best...I guess these guys are all taking magical elixirs.
The list is endless.
The point remains that we have 3 sophs, 1 freshman and 1 junior starting for a team that looks like it is heading to the NCAA tournament again this year and should be setup for another trip next year. It is competing at a very high level, a level we haven't competed at since the 1970's quite frankly.
The sure notion that someone even came up with a "Crean's gotta go" is really beyond any rational conversation. This is a guy that has been named for the IU job, UI job, Kentucky job, MSU job, etc, etc...that doesn't happen by accident.
I remember O'Neill saying something to some of us about how our fans can be so overbearing it's incredible. Unfortunately fans are like that at every school, but it really makes you wonder if he wasn't that far off.
We have it pretty darn good right now. sign me up for more 22 win+ seasons in the Big East, and the requisite NCAA bids that will come with that.