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Message: [QUOTE="Zelda Zonk, post: 4443618, member: 966"] The Benny Praise isn’t because he was really good. It’s just a relative thing. He was much better than he has been. And it was still only against Colgate. Just because Colgate dominated us doesn’t mean they were such an impressive opponent that it makes Benny’s performance something spectacular. Yes, we are young [Benatar!]. But the composition of the team is still JB’s responsibility. We didn’t portal. Our youth can’t be an excuse for suckage when the coach is the one who determined we didn’t need to portal. This is a perfect illustration of diminished expectations over a long span of time. The Pollyannas are either looking at one game and saying it was a problem of matchups or youth... or they’re looking at 45 years and saying we are nothing without JB. Neither perspective reflects the truth of what is actually happening to us, nor do they represent a way for us to be anything more than what we are seeing now. Those fans will still be finding ways to make themselves feel better when the trend continues further downward and we are winless in the conference. I’ve always said JB was not a great coach but has had a great career. And many people can’t reconcile that difference. We are seeing here that he isn’t doing anything different. The difference is that we always used to have more talent than our opponents. And we won because of that. That hasn’t been true for a while, and we have become exposed. The system was an inconsistent component of some of the success and a liability at other times. When we don’t have superior talent, that same system is a consistent liability. We are not likely to recover without great talent and great talent is unlikely to want to play for a lame duck, lazy coach that isn’t enjoying current success. We are going to have to hope that Weitzman can buy us a few impactful players to rejuvenate our image and jumpstart the dying legacy. History is nice, but it is far more short lived in the minds of outsiders. National relevance isn’t something we can take for granted just because we have had it for a few decades. The fact that we have a Dome—which looks spectacular in the exterior shots—makes it easier for us to recover and become relevant again, but JB isn’t going to be presiding when/if that happens. [/QUOTE]

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