Tough Loss

[memphisVUalum]

Why are you on this forum then? It is clearly titled "Vandymania", which implies heavy fandom. Since you don't like complaints or deep dives (and hadn't bothered to watch enough games that you didn't have any idea who the starting point guard is) what is your presence here for except to complain about the complaining? And for your complaints about my deep dives you write a soliloquys complaining about my style of posting. Why not just go on youtube and watch the highlights and be blissfully unaware of any problems others might have with the program?

Your presence here makes no sense to me - you don't appear to care much about the team and don't like people complaining/analyzing the team but have do critique the complaints. Would you rather we all just post "tough loss - but i'm sure the players tried their best and the coaches are doing everything they possibly can - better luck next game!" You are also of course free to not read what I post or disagree with what I said, but you have done neither. And BTW, I'm don't want the coach to get fired - that would set the program back another couple of seasons and we've been set back enough. But I'm also observant to understand that what he is doing right now isn't going to work this season. Just because your interests diverge from others doesn't make yours correct and if you criticize those interests don't be surprised by pushback.

I did not say my views are more correct than anyone else's! You are the one who thinks that every thought that diverges from yours needs silencing and you accuse people of basically being stupid and shallow if they don't salute your comments.

My "presence on this board" and the point of the group name is not for you to decide. I don't care whether you "make sense of it" -- the second I started posting again recently after a fairly long absence due to workload, you were already trying to drive me out with some of the sorts of snide comments you made in reply about how everyone is more an expert than me. I had a friend from Georgia who left this group once after being insulted a few times years ago -- he had even made recordings for people and was still treated poorly. He is who introduced me to this page long ago.

I've been a member just as long as you. Look at our arrival dates. I'm not interested in what you think about my presence, and it's not the team I don't care about; it's some of the reactions to the team. I am interested in the team, not personal attacks on members, players, coaches etc., and would rather you didn't take everything I say to anyone as though it's about you personally like happened recently in a thread where I was not referencing you.

I did watch the games since you've started a tangent on that accusation up again, and I was one single day in one single thread confused by a single confusing sentence you had typed, as I showed you by quoting your ambiguous wording that I misread, but you keep trying to find ways to insult me again and again over the same one moment weeks ago you obsessively keep returning to where I misread something you had written about a player who I thought you were saying was backing the other due to your wording -- it is not because I had not watched the games. I was carelessly responding while multi-tasking one night, chiming in on that (not even arguing with you in any way) rather than checking to see carefully what you meant and then you nitpicked me like a schoolmarm because you didn't realize you had said something ambiguous. I was literally working on something else at the same time I was typing and you have been picking at me over the one remark weeks ago repeatedly like I was being graded for a final exam.

Even though I was overworked and doing other things, I took the time to come in here because I do care about the team and didn't know I was going to have to get snapped at over any mistaken moment. Apparently you think people who "don't care about the team" would take the time to come in here and subject themselves to your nitpicking, but that's unfair and ridiculous.

Your accusation that I don't care about the team just because I don't trash players and coaches is really outrageous. What a slimy cheap shot. I'm "not a good fan" because I said I was not attacking a coach in a particular thread or because I didn't understand something ambiguous you typed.

I already answered WHY I am here. I stated, "I just like to occasionally be around people who support the same team." Especially during games if I am not too busy offline to watch with others online.

I did not say I don't like any complaints or "deep dives." You said that. You called me names like shallow, and complained that you have more "depth," but I was not who said I don't like depth. I don't think the petty things you are griping about are as deep as you do; we have a difference of opinion. Too bad if you don't like my presence. If there's a block button you are welcome to use it.

Heavy fandom does not mean being a churlish, spiteful, nitpicking pedant professing to be the Expert of the page and trying to kick out anyone you don't like. I go to the page looking for general conversation about a game and I'll remember that responding to you is going to set off a grenade.

I did NOT say I don't like "deep dives." I don't have to agree with your point of view however. What you expect is everyone to salute every time you post a criticism.

I wish your focus on me as "bad fan" or someone who is a threat to your critiques would some time have a rest so I can focus on the rest of the board instead of always having you thinking every comment I make revolves around you like when I spoke to someone else the other day. I am tired of coming in to yet another condescending, personal profiling and attacks by you about me, which you then deny doing.

I would rather focus on the team and not have to respond to your chewing me out every time I go in here. I am already getting to where I don't look forward to opening this page mainly because of having you ready to go on the attack if I dare breathe in here without myself adding a load of complaints about the coach to be a "good fan" like you or adhering to your notions of what the forum's name means.

I said at the end of my note which you did not notice that it is not surprising that people would conduct postmortems after each game because they wouldn't have anything to talk about between games otherwise. I understand that is what has to happen whether it's my favorite thing or not. I GET IT that it needs to be that way. Have a good week.

[memphisVUalum]

This is a fan base that just a few years ago was delighted to get rid of a coach because a succession of early round NCAA tournament losses was intolerable.
Jason94 and I were both accused of being crappy fans, "settling for mediocrity" for pointing out that CKS had been more successful than the average college basketball coach, and there was a greater than 50% chance the next coach would do worse. Because obviously no real fan could ever tolerate the lack of deep NCAA runs.

Now here we are with a losing record in the pre-conference season, with three bad losses to teams outside the top 100, hoping we can get wins over Alabama A&M and SELA to avoid going into SEC play below .500
You say this is a rebuilding year? After all, we lost an all time great VU player to the NBA after last year's peak success, marked by going three rounds deep into the NIT. Certainly we can't expect to stay at that crowning level of glory forever - a let down and rebuilding year was certainly in store.
So, for our rebuilding process, we have our highly touted recruits, the landing of whom is considered one of our coach's great accomplishments, sitting on the bench watching career journeymen role players get all the back court minutes. So apparently this is what we're building for next season: to see the same team minus Robbins. Because Shelby, Dia, Dory, and Lewis aren't gaining a lot of experience sitting on the bench.

Under these circumstances it would be a very unusual to visit a fan board and not find at least a wee bit of discontentment being expressed.

Although you're not addressing me, I wanted to mention I was not one of the people who tried to get CKS run out. I am someone who has felt that CKS did better than many; he even gave UK the biggest whipping they ever sustained from a Vanderbilt team. I disagreed with those complaining about his Baldwin interaction, which Baldwin himself defended. I was thinking that it's always the same thing endlessly of people griping no matter what a coach does.

But you're implying that some of the ones griping about Stackhouse were not among those trying to get rid of CKS back in the day. I generally remember people also complaining about CJF in football too because there were upper tier SEC teams he did not beat, so for me it's at times tiresome to listen to the griping because I remember past coaches that was done with like Franklin and Stallings. I've even seen message threads in VU message boards where Corbin is pounded on when we don't win. I have other things to do than comment each time anyone gripes however: I expect it and especially during a game when people are stressing out I expect people to say any number of things as an understandable human reaction while worrying if we will be able to pull a win out.