There are a lot of whiners everywhere, central Illinois is not the different then most places...
if you see it that way, then I honor your perspective...
but I offer as examples, the fine fans of long-suffering Drake, Evansville, Indiana State, and even Big Ten's Northwestern and Iowa...who simply DO NOT bitc*h anywhere near as much during their down years as we see in Peoria...
and, hey...with many of those schools, they've had it way, way worse than we have had for decades and for way, way longer dry spells..
BUT one more excellent example..check Western Kentucky..
--their program is a
lot like ours - long, fine tradition, good success, recent outstanding post-season success - four 20-win seasons in a row...a recent NBA draft pick...and yet a ton of fine, experienced players were returning...(Slaughter, Pettigrew..)
--they recently went with a new coach - he wasn't everyone's pick and he rode the success of the players he inherited to a 25 win season last year...
--then just as expectations were really, really high this year, they've lost several home games, can't seem to beat anyone with an RPI better than 200, have an RPI themselves of almost 200!!
have slipped to being a .500 ball club, mired deep in a relatively weak conference, have barely beaten anyone on the road, and are really tailing off - having lost 7 of their last nine, with the only wins being over Troy and New Orleans, terrible teams that aren't even likely to both have D-I programs in the near future..and they've even lost to teams whose RPI is well over 200.
Trust me - if this was here in Central IL, we'd be hearing a whole lot of discontent and grumbling, and we'd have certainly had a few columns in the local paper ripping into the players and coach and there'd be calls for making big-time changes.....and that's probably an understatement---
Instead-- and in REALLY STARK contrast to what we see and have come to expect here...
They have a really fine, active message board and there is not even one single negative thread or a thread calling out the coach or players...
it's 100% supportive of their guys...and it has been all season as I have visited it frequently throughout the year...
they do rip on refs, some of the crummy fans, and a few of the other teams in the conference, but it is so, so different that you'd think you were reading the message board of a team that's 24-3 instead of a team that's at .500 like we are...
also, go to the Bowling Green Daily News, their main local paper, and I challenge you to find any column or report that is either critical or negative..
no, they have what I'd love to see us have...a fine, objective, fair, and civil press and tremendous, non-complaining fans...