Defend Your Faith.

I have been thinking a lot about my December 9 post to this blog.

Its title (Sadness Accrues, WKU beats BGSU. Faith tested) should tell you a lot.  To set the scene:  BG had fallen to 1-8 with a home loss to a very average WKU team.  (An effort in which we shot 30.6% from the field and only stayed in the game due to 29 Topper Turnovers.)

Our 1 win was actually against a non-D1 opponent, which makes us 0-8.   We had turrible loses to Howard and Niagara on our resume and we were among the bottom ten teams in the country in RPI and in numerous offensive categories.

My post consisted of 3 points:

• Our faith as fans was being tested.
• We were no better than we were when Dakich left.
• We appeared to be lost.

Now, to look back.

The first statement I am not sorry I talked about, since I stole the words right from Coach Orr's mouth.  Here is what he said after the WKU game.

"Sometimes the Lord lets you get in a place that stretches your faith."

And, I allowed as how that was true.

As I thought about the game last night, I certainly was having stretched faith as to where the program is. To date, this is a historically bad Bowling Green team, one of the worst in memory.

To this point, I think I'm with everyone--and if the Coach has his faith stretched, then it is reasonable for everyone to feel that way.  Maybe "one of the wost in memory" was a stretch, but I don't think we've had too many 8 game losing streaks.  Yes, we were young, but not THAT young, and we were healthy through the whole period.  (One quarter of D1 teams are younger than us).

I took it to a new level--my own level--from there

You just don't expect to be in this spot after four years with a Coach. Right now, we're no better than we were when Dakich left and we might be worse. I'm not trying to rip anyone....these things just seem apparent to me.

Now, in the light of events, this is clearly an incorrect statement. We are well ahead of where we were when Dakich left. That was a pretty strong statement--I mean, when Dakich left we were completely uncompetitive in the MAC, so to feel and say that in the 4th year of a new Coach's tenure we had not moved the needle off "E" even a little bit, that was tough.

Still, at 0/1 and 8, and with play as poor as it was, I'm not sorry I said it. At the moment that snapshot was taken, I still stand by its essential truth.  With Coach Orr having all his players, whatever we are is what we were designed to be.

Finally, on the appearing to be lost bit, I wrote this:

Coach also talked about trying to find our identity. I'd put it another way. We just look lost out there. The ball won't go in the basket. Guys get big minutes one game and limited to no meetings the next. Guys start, and then disappear. Someone has a good game, and then doesn't. Shot clocks run down and no one tries to create anything. Balls are passed to players who don't seem to expect it. We just look lost.

And I'm not sorry I wrote that either, because that was what I observed. In fact, I think with our recent success, it is important to remember just how poorly we were playing.

Now, there are people who will tell you that when you are a fan, you should have faith, blind faith, and always believe in your team, no matter what. I'm not sure that's how it really works. To care enough to be a fan is to care about what happens. It seems like the total faith route is a trip to apathy--it won't matter anymore whether the team is winning or not. Everything becomes an exhibition game.

No, fans have to care, and with that fatal step comes disillusion, disappointment, discontent, etc. Fans don't have to lose perspective, but if they care, losing will be disappointing.

I'm very interested in what I said at the end....

Anyway, it is a pretty discouraging time in the men's basketball program. Coach said several times that we will get there. I certainly hope so, because right now, this is a low point at the end of what has been a historic low period for our program. I'm going to have faith that this is going to turn around, and when the word faith is used here, it is truly being used in its full meaning. It means that you think things will turn around even when there is little to no visual evidence that it is or that it will.

And that was exactly how I felt...that there was no reason to think things would turn around, but I was going to choose to think they would. When I read it, I am not sure if I am completely convincing...it seems a little begrudging, and it may not be what was completely in my heart.

I see no contradiction, however, between what I wrote and cheering the team when they win. I never once ripped any player or Coach. Nor did I say anyone wasn't trying or had quit. Speaking only from results, I said that we were not getting the job done, and that is pretty hard to argue.

The team has made a huge turnaround, and I give all of them credit for persevering until they could turn it around. Not everyone would have done that. Lots of teams would have quit. So, for how they are playing and the road they took to get there, I salute them.