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God, that still makes me angry

What a crap Debbie downer post. Really, you wasted board space posting a bunch of negativity about a school you probably say you support. One of the worst and most negative threads I have ever seen in all my time on TKP.

How do ya'll think the secondary market will be for this?
Big markups?

Here's a brief story from the old days when I played soccer:

On my team we had a bunch of pretty good players, but no USMNT prospects. We played together really well and had the best coach I'd ever had. We also had one guy, let's call him Marcus (not his actual name), who had the worst prima donna attitude of anyone I'd ever met, and was a total jerk to everyone around him. Thought he was the king of the world and the best player in the league (D1 NCSL). He sat the bench a lot, had a bad attitude, coach didn't reward that kind of attitude.

One day at practice he gets particularly furious and starts fighting pretty much all of us, including coach. Jumps in his car and speeds away. As much as we all didn't really like him personally, he was a good player, one of us, and we were concerned that coach was going to cut him. We approached coach after practice about it and he told me something I'll never forget.

Later, we were playing in a State Cup game and we were down 0-1 at half. Other team had this ogre of a sweeper that we couldn't outrun, run around, or run through. He was far bigger, stronger, and faster than anyone we had. Our forwards were getting pushed around.

Coach beckons Marcus, tells him to go in and don't let that [redacted] push him around. Marcus goes in. A few minutes go by and Marcus (5'10") gets into a scuffle with ogre (6'4") like Godzilla vs King Kong. Ref breaks it up, gives yellow cards. Marcus is pissed. Marcus proceeds to school the hell out of this kid for the entire second half, pushes him around, scores, and gets an assist. 2-1 victory. The only thing that Marcus had on the guy was an attitude that he was never, ever going to let this kid get the better of him.

What did coach tell us at that practice after the fights?

"Listen," he told us, "I'm not going to cut Marcus. Every single team out there needs one guy like that. There are no teams that can handle having two guys like that".

I really like to think that stuff doesn't happen in college football. But two times where it felt like a phone call **COULD** have been made to the refs was the 2009 B12 championship when Texas got a second put back on the clock because the clock should stop when you throw away the ball as soon as it breaks the plane of out of bounds (lol what?)... And our 20 second review of the UNC overtime catch last year.

isn't that what they said about Petrino and Lebron?

Systematic cover-up of numerous criminal activities by Baylor and Waco police, including sexual assault.

Apparently he doesn't get an immediate scholarship, which leaves us with 3 scholarships to fill. At 6'8" he could be some help at center down the road.

It's probably because he doesn't have enough credits from JuCo that transferred over, so he only qualifies as a normal transfer (same as someone who transfers from another P5 school). There are special rules for JuCo transfers who have completed a certain number of transferrable credits prior to transferring.

In the future we'll make sure just to blow sunshine and rainbows up your ass.

When Buzz decided to coach at VT, he said he believed in the potential of the program. He also said it wouldn't be easy to achieve his goals. In two years VT has gone from last place in the ACC to the middle of the pack. So I'm still pretty optimistic about the future of the program. Buzz is only in year two of a complete makeover. Yes, it's hard to change the perception of an athletic program, for the reasons mentioned in the article. Success is the only factor that will change the perception.

Sure there aren't guarantees, but because VT hasn't made the tournament in two years, this is a failed experiment? I'd say that as long as VT is recruiting at this level and improving, the game is still on. I haven't seen any indication that Buzz Williams' skills or initiative are lacking. We are right to expect progress, and we've seen progress. VT beat UVa in basketball, made it to the middle of the ACC, and made it to the NIT tournament. That's progress. Sure, it's not the sweet sixteen, but look at where he started. While Buzz owes us progress, we owe him more than two years to get there. I even expect some setbacks along the way. it's a long way to the top if you want to rock and roll.

As far as Chew's motivations, once you stop believing what he actually said on the matter, any speculation is as valid as any other. One reason it's difficult to get to the top in college sports is that other teams are always going to try to buy your successful coaches. Oklahoma hired our baseball coach. North Carolina tried to hire Beamer. Texas A&M tried to hire Bud Foster. Texas A&M hired Chew. VT hired Fuente.

So no, I don't need sunshine and rainbows blown up my ass. But likewise, when I read a "sky is falling" every time there is a bit of bad news or speculation about the program, there's a chance I might weigh in with an alternate perspective. Don't get me wrong, the article brings up some good points. I just found it a bit on the "glass half empty" end of the spectrum.

I'm still betting on Buzz. Even against the long odds.

I think WVU fans still want to lynch him for how he left. Not sure he would be welcomed back.