My take on this season has been that it has felt like a hangover all year long. It's like when you were in college and had one of the greatest nights in your life (2010-2011 season), and woke up the next day and said to yourself, we are probably never going to match THAT again (2011-2012 season). You can feel it in the crowd on a night-to-night basis. Last year, Butler-Hancock was rocking night in and night out whether it was Sacramento State in town or Montana. It didn't matter. The fans were there in full force. I've attended four games this season, and the loudest I've heard Butler-Hancock get is only a small fraction of last year's noise in that building.
If last season was like the epic Friday night/best night of our lives then this year is the Saturday night immediately following where you just stay in. There is also the factor of the inexperience on this team. I don't doubt for one minute that these freshmen and sophomores on our roster can duplicate what was done almost a year ago at some point down the road. But frankly, this year's roster is basically a glorified JUCO program. We have the leader in Proctor as a senior, but other than that we are literally filled with freshmen and sophomore talent. Sure, they are fun to watch but they also have a ways to go in learning how to win on this level in a mental capacity.
I recently spoke to one of my friends who is a recent alum of UNC. We talked about how difficult it is for a mid-major program to be a conference champion contender year in and year out. That is why I have respect for Tinkle at Montana and Rahe at Weber State. It is so difficult to recruit talent that will come into your program right away and give you valuable minutes, but those guys are able to do that and those programs never really have "bad" years. UNC is on the path of getting a couple good classes every four years, having them grow together and hopefully reaching the goal of winning the Big Sky Tournament once in their careers. If you were to tell me that Northern Colorado will be Big Sky champions once in every 4 or 5 years, I would willingly accept that.
Last year, this university and program reached the mountain top. This year, we have taken a harsh fall back into the valley. But it's the climb back up that keeps me excited for what lies ahead here in Greeley.
