lookin4awin said:
blackie said:
Robert Wilson said:
Danielsjackson114 said:
She was ran off. Don't listen to mod articles all the time
I really enjoy the explanation of why "it's really better that KMR left" because WBB loses money. That's a good one.
The reality in WBB is you're either playing at a final 4 / challenging for NC level / winning NCs, or nobody in the country knows who you are. All the marketing / front porch value of WBB is in being elite. Past that, it just doesn't matter. We went from elite to just doesn't matter.
Look at how much Texas Tech paid their softball players to get the publicity of running to the end of (and losing) the softball CWS. I'd posit that it makes sense to lose/invest a pretty good chunk of money on WBB if you're playing at a NC level, based on the marketing / brand impact / fan base and athletic department mojo etc. Remember what happened throughout the athletic dept as Mulkey started winning...
Unfortunately for Baylor WBB, Scott Drew won a national championship and took away some of the spotlight from KM.
Also, at this particular time, there were a surprising number of Baylor supporters who made vicious posts diminishing the value of having one of the most successful women's basketball programs in the nation. Posters were cruel. Armed with the men's championship team that everyone was so justly proud of, a number of posters came over to the women's side empowered to ridicule Mulkey and the lack of worth of her and her teams' accomplishments. Of course, these same posters were in love with Macho Mack and passionately defended anything he said or did because of the success of the men's programs-basketball and football. My how times change. He ain't here, left on abysmal terms, and Mulkey is still kickin' ass and takin names! She was totally underappreciated at the time.
I'll take your word for it, but I don't remember that being the case for most of the posters that had been loyal to the program for years. The angst with KM came after she walked and doing everything she could to take the best players with her from what I was told....yeah, was told....I don't think any of us know the real facts of any of this. I just know we all got dumped. But I still believe to this day that had it not been LSU, she would still be here, if she had not already retired.
I thought the fans should have at least deserved a public thank you for following and supporting her team, some of us from before the first championship, but I don't believe that ever occurred. Sure, be angry at the AD, but the fans that truly appreciated the team's accomplishments deserved better than they got. The fans who had supported her from day one had nothing to do with any of this. Just like CNC had nothing to do with it, but that didn't keep people from dumping on her before she had even coached a game. Just a completely fiasco all the way around.
