So as long as UT makes the NCAAT that is considered a successful season? Is that your stance? What do you consider a successful season?
I think a lot of this is generational. Those who lived thru the late DeVoe, Houston, O’Neill, Buzz years, many would appreciate making the tournament as it gives you a 1 in 64 chance to go on a roll. The alternative to making the tournament every year sucks, I can tell you that from experience.
Once we established ourselves as a program that routinely makes the NCAAT, I can see how it could be easy to want more. Those among our fans who were indoctrinated into Tennessee basketball in the early-mid 2000s likely feel like we should make the tournament with relative ease most every season. It is easy to get spoiled in that regard. Similarly, I grew up being introduced to Tennessee football in the mid-late 80s, and felt like 9 and 10-win seasons were my birthright. I didn’t realize, at the time, just how special the next 15 years would be and I took them for granted.
Right now, our baseline for success, in my mind, is making the NCAAT. Beyond that, it becomes a crapshoot. It’s why I refuse to entirely discount any and all success in the regular season. Conference championships, SECT championships, wins over top-5 teams…those are all accomplishments worth celebrating and remembering. Postseason failure (whatever that means from person to person) doesn’t wholly spoil otherwise successful seasons for me. In the end, it always ends in disappointment unless you win it all.
That being said, would I like to see us making more noise in the NCAAT now that we are making it there with more regularity? Absolutely.
