TheCatInTheHat wrote: ↑Thu Jan 20, 2022 9:35 am We've got a road swing coming up that actually means something, so I hesitate to even raise the issue of the arrested development mud throwers, but we'll play them immediately afterward, so I guess I will. Can anybody even imagine an Arizona basketball fan putting up a billboard showing how lop-sided things are in the rivalry? No, because it goes without saying, like the sun rising in the east, and they're so pathetic, it would amount to damning ourselves with faint praise. That's also true in a number of other sports. But I detect younger brother desperate-for-attention tantrum behavior over our success in men's and women's hoops and the anticipation for baseball and softball. And nary a thought about ASU in that set of sports, which focuses much more on UCLA, Oregon, and Stanford. Obviously football's been our albatross, and the low-wage Cronkite interns who surf the web for click-bait just found a new billboard touting ASU's success at beating our 1-10 team. But, even with our current reduced circumstances, our football accomplishments in the Pac era (and who counts much before that?) are closer to theirs than they'd like to admit. Just don't worry about the specific name on a bowl and look at top ten finishes. And also ask how excited we've ever been at participating in the lower-tier bowls, particularly if we'd lose. Boy, Shreveport and El Paso sure were fun. Meanwhile, Fisch is killing it in recruiting, they're going on probation, and we're picked ahead of them for next season. So, congrats to them for extending the conversation on their disappointing season while we've turned the page. We'll press them into oblivion at McKale, their savior Hurley will be fired, and we'll win at everything that matters the rest of the school year. So yuck it up, fellas; I guess it's better than kicking the dog.
Exactly. I hope they are enjoying their streak now. Arizona state is a commuter school. Commuter schools don't have the structure, alumni base, or soul to be great in athletics. I'm sure its a fine school and if my hypothetical kids got financial aid to go there, its a discussion point. And hell if you're a golf prodigy the Mickelson practice complex is as good as it gets. But thats kind of it.
I love the "we are the football school" notion that they have. If you game out the modern histories, and Arizona has been meh for much of it, ASU averages about 1.3 more wins per season. Its hardly Ohio-State vs Minnesota. More like Illinois-Minnesota. 1996 was near 30 years ago. Arizona has played in both a conference championship game and a major bowl more recently almost in-spite of themselves.
One school is a community staple in a large college town/small city. The other is 4 concrete campuses surrounded by call centers. Tell me which one has more upside again?
They will start with a new hoops coach next season and while they should hire a builder from the WCC they will get it wrong. Then the football team goes on probation, Herm gets fired, and the 7 win juggernaut trips and falls on its face. At that point what will they do? Its a university run on hubris from Crow, to Anderson, to Edwards. There will be no self reflection, they will hire some iteration of Charlie Weis and win 5-7 games a year.
To sum it up, I LOVE the delusion. Whether its WP Carey vs Eller, the Cronkite school that has nothing to do with the Cronkite family or the football sleeping giant.
Arizona State will always be the school that your cousin from Chicago or New Jersey sends his "troubled" kid.
