Will we ever learn????!?!?

I had bittersweet feelings this weekend after hearing about the Jackets getting killed--absolutely embarrassed--by Dook and then looking at the ACC standings afterwards and thinking about where I had us picked to finish.

Yeah, I predicted a Duke loss (as I incorrectly did for most of the other games as well) since I had us finishing with a maximum of four wins (2 ACC victories) at the beginning of the season. Here's my favorite quote from Bryan on the comment page after I wrote about why we'd lose:

"Walt, you are wrong. Dead Wrong. Roof's defenses as a coach (not player) leaked like [a] sieve. Add to that the talent gap between Duke and Tech, and the Jakets (sic) roll, 24-3. Don't be confused by the fact that Duke hung with Tennessee for a half. Tennessee was playing Duke between a 4 OT road win and a trip to Coral Gables to play Miami. The combination of a letdown game and a look ahead game. The Vols woke up at halftime and blew Dukies out."

The problem with that post is that Bryan is RIGHT if you believed that the Jackets had elevated their game to be a team that wins the games they are supposed to. I don't think that Tennessee is a great team, but they're one of those teams that can have a bad day and win. We couldn't hold Duke to 17 points or less even though they don't have a passing game and we're supposedly a running defense to reckon with? We deserved to lose.

Moreover, we've been drawn into this illusion that Ball is actually a seasoned QB who might be immune to the 3 INT bad game that he had on Saturday. All of this adds up to discussions about how the Jackets will get into the Gator Bowl that we/I participated in...so I guess it's time to pick up the pieces and look forward to a more motivated team against UNC and then a competitive team against UVA. Strangely, the Jackets are still in this, particularly if they win their next two games to end up 5-3 in the ACC!

I was hanging out with my friends in Atlanta after a bad Tech hoops loss in 1991 or so, and we had an interesting discussion about whether or not it was better to go to the Tournament every year and occasionally make the sweet 16 or to win the big one every 20 years and endure mediocrity after big names leave. I lobbied for the former, while others thought that without that magical championship (that we don't have in hoops) the fight is pointless. So I understand the vitriole that is surely spewing forth on other pages, but we're a young team so we should again ratchet down the expectations as I've tried to do in (most of) my postings and be happy that we are still positioned well to go to a bowl with some good performances in a year we were never given a chance. Isn't it fun to be talking about football in November despite the grim predictions at the outset of the season? Beats the heck out of talk of rebuilding....