PSU-Illinois
- Thread starter SmellyCat
- Start date
As a KU fan myself (though with no ties other than geographical/childhood), I never had a problem with Roy, but I guess I could see, when you lay it out, why some would dislike him. Him leaving for North Carolina, and all the multi-year agony behind it, is not unlike Gary Barnett ultimately going to Colorado. I forgive Barnett (but then again...1995 = life-time pass).
As for Coach K, sure, I can respect the winning - he's certainly on the Mount Rushmore of college coaches - but they had too many players that were just hard to root for for whatever reason (except Grant Hill, who always seemed to get a pass), and by the time they started having really cool players, they were all one-and-dones and generations of hatred had built up). My first NU regular-season game I attended as a freshman was against Coach K, Laettner, Hurley, etc., and I'm sure any mild hatred I had for those guys due to eliminating KU years earlier was cemented that night.
Didn't Roy oversee the team during the years his student athletes were getting credit for classes that didn't exist?
Since Coach K was brought up, here is some stuff I can come up with right away...
He was a Bobby Knight disciple and was just as demanding and opinionated as Knight, but was smart enough to avoid having that be his public persona. Some would call it hypocrisy.
He taught every Duke player how to flop and they did it ALL the time. Many of his players also played dirty.
He was so self-absorbed that he couldn't stand it when he lost games to Rick Pitino and other flawed people, so he totally compromised the academic standards of Duke and jumped into the "one and done" concept with both feet.
The national media fawned over him and he seemed to encourage it.
Duke got favorable draws in the NCAA tournament year after year, so the favoritism was pretty blatant.
On the plus side, he did a lot of charity work, but when you are making tons of cash, that can be viewed as building an image... but you have to assume he was trying to help.
The difference between how people view Bobby Knight and Coach K has always annoyed me, because they were very similar.
He was a Bobby Knight disciple and was just as demanding and opinionated as Knight, but was smart enough to avoid having that be his public persona. Some would call it hypocrisy.
He taught every Duke player how to flop and they did it ALL the time. Many of his players also played dirty.
He was so self-absorbed that he couldn't stand it when he lost games to Rick Pitino and other flawed people, so he totally compromised the academic standards of Duke and jumped into the "one and done" concept with both feet.
The national media fawned over him and he seemed to encourage it.
Duke got favorable draws in the NCAA tournament year after year, so the favoritism was pretty blatant.
On the plus side, he did a lot of charity work, but when you are making tons of cash, that can be viewed as building an image... but you have to assume he was trying to help.
The difference between how people view Bobby Knight and Coach K has always annoyed me, because they were very similar.
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Jessie Jackson (I am not making a political statement here, I am not saying I am a fan or a non-fan. But I love this sentiment of his)... In the mid 80s there was talk about how drugs should be legalized, because the "war on drugs" was failing. Jackson had a great statement (again, this post of mine is NOT political just sharing a sentence of his) But Jackson said this great phrase about the war on drugs
"You don't win a war by giving up".
If Nance and Young had stayed to build a new, more powerful Northwestern, wow. Respect. Why the heck should any of us be rooting for them? They abandoned us. I don't care they graduated. They obviously had another year. Spend it with us. Stay and help us. Win at Northwestern. Wear the purple, Duke? Carolina? Seriously?
It's like rooting for a wife who left you.
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I don't root for Miller Kopp.
"It's like rooting for a wife who left you" - the only person in that situation was Chris Collins.
From my perspective Young was mis-used by his coach and had every right to leave, given that he had graduated from NU and was seeking to bolster his academic credentials and play for a better program. How can you blame him for that? He's not playing in the NBA.
Nance is less obvious because he wasn't mistreated by his coach, (other than getting beat up playing the 5), but at least he played a lot and the coach ran plays for him all the time. He left on good terms, thinking (wrongly) that the NBA might want him. Because he graduated, I still root(ed) for him.
I know I'm not persuading you, Euro, but in your comparison, you need to specify the wife who left you after years of neglect.
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