That loss to Marshmello left me disappointed for a long time. But in the 1990 run under Penders, the whole thing was exhilarating. I went to Dallas to see us beat the higher seeded Xavier (fabulous game - the one with the extended Blanks finger role) then lose to Piggy by 3. Even with as much as I hated Pig at the time, that loss still did not hurt as much as Syracuse. I felt really good about the whole thing. Maybe it was as simple as the bias of lowered expectations? They were higher with Barnes so the early tourney losses hurt more. With Penders, we knew we were going to lose so it never hurt as much. (And, of course, with Lemons, there were zero expectations, so anything was gravy, lol). I think it's one of those things that however you want to look at it is however you are going look at it. These days, I feel like I have forsaken my dream that the Longhorns could become a national power in BBall. I used to think we could. Not anymore.
I used to think UT could play for a national championship in basketball also. However like yourself, now I feel it is impossible. Unless the canvass of college basketball changes completely, I am happy that Texas will never play for the National Championship because I do not wish for my school to ever wade into that cesspool.
Maybe the fact that I was covering the team more than I was watching as a fan was part of it. (I still watched plenty of games as a fan during that stretch, but my first intro to the program was more on the press box side.) They were definitely entertaining to watch. But as I mentioned, the program was not going to the upper echelon with Penders. And so yes, the games were fun, but there was an underlying frustration. I wanted to see a team that at least could compete on a championship level - that wasn't going to wet itself every time it played Louisville or Carolina (although we did get one win against a Carolina team that was a little down at the time.) And I credit Penders for making me feel like we could do better than a "round of 32" program. I'm not sure I've ever had more fun than I had in San Antonio watching the two games we won to make the Final Four. I don't care that we didn't score 90 points in either of them. Winning big games is fun for me.
It is stinky. I keep reading AAU-level corruption has already bled into the 7-on-7 world. Hope it gets squashed before it takes hold.
Ohhh wait, you're right. I was thinking of Dexter Cambridge. So in other words, NONE of Penders' players lasted more than three years in the NBA.
