I started this board 18/19 years ago, it has been my regular home, my daily obsession really. I'm a kid from the Convention Center days, and was too poor out of high school to attend the 87-91 hey days but finally could afford starting in the late 90's. And when a friend re-introduced to me to UNLV. I was hooked.
I was so enamored I could've probably told you the players class schedules. I just fell in love with the game all over again, and renewed my appreciation for my alma mater.
Hope is such a powerful emotion...it can carry you when nothing else can. Belief in a better time...that all the time spent will result in some kind of payoff.
UNLV was an incredible basketball program. Something incredibly unique and new to the basketball world. We were the new kids on the block. Brash, loud and unapologetic. I always loved that feeling of being "hated" by other programs, whether it was jealousy or whatever. But through all that we had an identity at UNLV.
In sports how you win is less important than how you lose, in my opinion. Losses are inevitable and they make the wins than much sweeter. Somewhere during the Dave Rice era forward the tone of the basketball program changed where losses became easier, maybe more acceptable. We created a culture of excuses inside of a school that has arguably the best resources on the west coast.
We churn out four and five star talent, NBA first rounders, all of them who inextricably underachieve after they leave UNLV (sans McCaw). Each year at the end of the season we point to to the next crop of kids arriving at our door and say "just wait till these kids suit up", and we re-make the roster with the new additions because the experienced college ones we just spent a year or two training simply couldn't make the cut. We hang our hopes on the unknown, because what we know doesn't fit our hopes and dreams. Next year. Always next year. Coach just needs HIS kids. Coach just needs time. Kids just need more reps. Chemistry just needs to get better. We just need better shooters. We just need a good five-star low-post player. We just need a local pipeline of talent from Findlay or BG. We just need an on-campus practice facility. We just need a new coach. New kids. On and on and on.
We have tried everything to change this program that can be changed. Maybe if no one comes, no one cares and the expectations are rock bottom, we can we finally overachieve. 8th place in the MW is above average and we'll be happy with what we get.
As I get older, I try to live each day and grab the greatest joy I can from each day. It's the wisdom that comes from getting older. I chose not to attend last nights game (or several others this season)...for the simple reason that I no longer feel joy when I attend UNLV basketball games. The drive there is familiar, the pre-game radio show and the walk around the arena, it's all too familiar. GOD I loved UNLV basketball games. Summers lasted forever and Halloween couldn't come soon enough because the season tip off was just days away. But things have changed.
For a few games this season I saw a glimmer of something I hadn't seen in a long time...pride. It's really the one single emotion I can boil my fanaticism into that makes sense. I watch UNLV basketball to see the pride that our team plays with. When I hand my money to the university I expect my team to play with pride, win or lose. I expect the weight of our history and greatness to weigh on these kids every night as a reminder of what UNLV stands for. Losing is not an option and if you do lose, you do with pride. Too often these last few years, we've decided that having pride in your product is optional. Under Kruger, Bayno, heck even sleepy Spoonhour, I felt like the kids always had pride.
And like a broken relationship that has run its course, I feel like my love has faded and it's time to pour my energy elsewhere. If this sounds melodramatic, I suppose it is. When a group of men I don't even know can bounce a ball around a wooden court and make me scream, laugh, and cry tears of joy from time to time and even tears of sadness, you bet it's dramatic and I feel the loss today of something I've loved for years. This has nothing to do with the UNR loss and everything to do with UNLV.
I can feel numb anytime I want, but I don't want to feel numb when I watch my favorite team. I choose basketball because it's simple...it's cathartic and it's more importantly fun. I want to scream and yell and jump on the couch during road games, yet somewhere it just stopped. I just don't care, because maybe they just don't care.
I saw kids from schools this season play us, from places I don't even know where they hail from, with twice the pride we played with. When kids from places like Fresno, Reno or Albuquerque can muster more with less, over and over and over, you begin to question your own sanity. I'm simply choosing to do something else that I enjoy.
So, I'm passing on the baton to the next person with hope. Maybe they'll find joy where I simply don't anymore. Academically, UNLV is on it's way to amazing things and I'll continue to support where i can. Athletically, my simple hope is that football takes off with the new stadium and the right leadership is in place to make great choices.
Nearly twenty years is a long time to spend in one place. Thank you guys for giving me a place to enjoy for so long, especially you Joe. We don't always see eye to eye, but there's no bigger fan I've ever met and I have incredible respect for your work on this site. Be well guys and gals.
I was so enamored I could've probably told you the players class schedules. I just fell in love with the game all over again, and renewed my appreciation for my alma mater.
Hope is such a powerful emotion...it can carry you when nothing else can. Belief in a better time...that all the time spent will result in some kind of payoff.
UNLV was an incredible basketball program. Something incredibly unique and new to the basketball world. We were the new kids on the block. Brash, loud and unapologetic. I always loved that feeling of being "hated" by other programs, whether it was jealousy or whatever. But through all that we had an identity at UNLV.
In sports how you win is less important than how you lose, in my opinion. Losses are inevitable and they make the wins than much sweeter. Somewhere during the Dave Rice era forward the tone of the basketball program changed where losses became easier, maybe more acceptable. We created a culture of excuses inside of a school that has arguably the best resources on the west coast.
We churn out four and five star talent, NBA first rounders, all of them who inextricably underachieve after they leave UNLV (sans McCaw). Each year at the end of the season we point to to the next crop of kids arriving at our door and say "just wait till these kids suit up", and we re-make the roster with the new additions because the experienced college ones we just spent a year or two training simply couldn't make the cut. We hang our hopes on the unknown, because what we know doesn't fit our hopes and dreams. Next year. Always next year. Coach just needs HIS kids. Coach just needs time. Kids just need more reps. Chemistry just needs to get better. We just need better shooters. We just need a good five-star low-post player. We just need a local pipeline of talent from Findlay or BG. We just need an on-campus practice facility. We just need a new coach. New kids. On and on and on.
We have tried everything to change this program that can be changed. Maybe if no one comes, no one cares and the expectations are rock bottom, we can we finally overachieve. 8th place in the MW is above average and we'll be happy with what we get.
As I get older, I try to live each day and grab the greatest joy I can from each day. It's the wisdom that comes from getting older. I chose not to attend last nights game (or several others this season)...for the simple reason that I no longer feel joy when I attend UNLV basketball games. The drive there is familiar, the pre-game radio show and the walk around the arena, it's all too familiar. GOD I loved UNLV basketball games. Summers lasted forever and Halloween couldn't come soon enough because the season tip off was just days away. But things have changed.
For a few games this season I saw a glimmer of something I hadn't seen in a long time...pride. It's really the one single emotion I can boil my fanaticism into that makes sense. I watch UNLV basketball to see the pride that our team plays with. When I hand my money to the university I expect my team to play with pride, win or lose. I expect the weight of our history and greatness to weigh on these kids every night as a reminder of what UNLV stands for. Losing is not an option and if you do lose, you do with pride. Too often these last few years, we've decided that having pride in your product is optional. Under Kruger, Bayno, heck even sleepy Spoonhour, I felt like the kids always had pride.
And like a broken relationship that has run its course, I feel like my love has faded and it's time to pour my energy elsewhere. If this sounds melodramatic, I suppose it is. When a group of men I don't even know can bounce a ball around a wooden court and make me scream, laugh, and cry tears of joy from time to time and even tears of sadness, you bet it's dramatic and I feel the loss today of something I've loved for years. This has nothing to do with the UNR loss and everything to do with UNLV.
I can feel numb anytime I want, but I don't want to feel numb when I watch my favorite team. I choose basketball because it's simple...it's cathartic and it's more importantly fun. I want to scream and yell and jump on the couch during road games, yet somewhere it just stopped. I just don't care, because maybe they just don't care.
I saw kids from schools this season play us, from places I don't even know where they hail from, with twice the pride we played with. When kids from places like Fresno, Reno or Albuquerque can muster more with less, over and over and over, you begin to question your own sanity. I'm simply choosing to do something else that I enjoy.
So, I'm passing on the baton to the next person with hope. Maybe they'll find joy where I simply don't anymore. Academically, UNLV is on it's way to amazing things and I'll continue to support where i can. Athletically, my simple hope is that football takes off with the new stadium and the right leadership is in place to make great choices.
Nearly twenty years is a long time to spend in one place. Thank you guys for giving me a place to enjoy for so long, especially you Joe. We don't always see eye to eye, but there's no bigger fan I've ever met and I have incredible respect for your work on this site. Be well guys and gals.
