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Historically Competitive - What Does it Mean?

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ManhassetDeac

Dshamal Schoetz
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If someone has already done this then I apologize, but I saw a few people ask the question what historically competitive means quantitatively and I thought I'd give it a shot. When Wellman gives such ambiguious, qualitative measures, it beomces difficult to hold our coaches accountable for results. Here is my attempt:

In the 21 seasons since Bob Staak and before Jeff [Redacted] (1990-2010) Wake averaged each season a .648 winning percentage overall and a .540 winning percentage in the ACC. Over that time we've had some great years and some real mediocre ones, but I consider the 21-year average as something close to "historically competitive".

If we take a 31-game season with 18 ACC games (tournament not included) and use these derived %s, historically competitive should mean going forward: 20-11 overall and 10-8 in conference.

I don't think we're anywhere near that.
 
Let's be honest here. It doesn't really mean anything. It's an intentionally vague term only meant to allow Wellman to continue to spin things as he chooses.
 
wfumike02 said:
Let's be honest here. It doesn't really mean anything. It's an intentionally vague term only meant to allow Wellman to continue to spin things as he chooses.
Click to expand...

Yup. It means no matter what, Wellman can say we are where we need to be, regardless of outcomes. It gives him all the flexibility in the world to spin blowout losses and choke jobs due to terrible coaching.
 
it means nothing there is no meaning there is no anything everything is a construct
 
From a Feb 1960 article about Bones McKinney in Life Magazine:

People go to Wake Forest basketball games to see a winning team perform. For the same price, they get Bones McKinney, the coach with his own private volcano. Once the game starts, the bench can’t hold him. The climactic moment arrives when Mr. Bones erupts dramatically from the sideline, looking like a dead ringer for Ichabod Crane.
 
CHillDeac said:
From a Feb 1960 article about Bones McKinney in Life Magazine:

People go to Wake Forest basketball games to see a winning team perform. For the same price, they get Bones McKinney, the coach with his own private volcano. Once the game starts, the bench can’t hold him. The climactic moment arrives when Mr. Bones erupts dramatically from the sideline, looking like a dead ringer for Ichabod Crane.
Click to expand...

True story: My parents, who were from the Northeast - were living in New Mexico and had decided to relocate again. They could either go back to my mom's town in New Jersey or come to Winston-Salem, where my dad had a job offer. My parents knew nothing about W-S or North Carolina. My mom saw that very article and based on that she thought the area would be nice and they moved here. I was born four years later. They had no idea I'd go to Wake and become obsessed with the basketball team. Funny how one little article can completely change your life.
 
2012 was the 50th anniversary of the last time Wake Forest was in the Final Four. So many WF fans have a skewed idea of what "historically competitive" means.
 
It means the same thing as "culture." It means [Redacted] is Wake's coach.
 
Historically, Wake's athletic programs are the worst in the ACC overall. The bottom. While men's basketball has enjoyed a more moderate amount of success over the years it is no pinnacle of excellence. For Wake's athletic director to say that his goal is to achieve "historical competitiveness" is to abandon all aspirations to excellence. I've always thought that someday Wake could transcend its historical obscurity and become a successful, winning sports program. Wellman's rhetoric nullifies those hopes.

The term is not meaningless, it is code for "we do not believe Wake can become a winning school under our rigid culture requirements, and we only hope to remain as competitive as our sports history suggests."
 
Merriam-Webster says this means we will be inclined, desiring, or suited to compete in accordance with or with respect to history.
 
CHillDeac said:
Bones erupts dramatically from the sideline, looking like a dead ringer for Ichabod Crane.
Click to expand...

ichabod+crane.jpg
940x.jpg
 
Historically competitive = being able to compete with our 1936 team
 
Now, my story begins in 19-dickety-two. We had to say "dickety"
'cause that Wellman had stolen our word "twenty". I chased that
rascal to get it back, but gave up after dickety-six miles
 
Wellman's increasingly embarrassing effort to schedule a season of cupcakes to make us appear competitive has failed as well. Ain't no RPI weak enough to make the Bzzled-one look like a coach. Hell, Colorado couldn't do it. How do you like paying premium prices for those season tickets now? Only going to get worse.
 
It's an attempt to justify lowered expectations, make losing acceptable. It's a loser mentality and should have no place in Wake basketball.
 
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