swimmer wrote:Happened upon this thread by accident and had to laugh.
We had the fortune of WSU joining our league and the misfortune of their online fan base coming with.
They walked into the AAC board all cocky they would win the conference and contend for a national title. In the OOC season, it was non-stop griping each time an AAC team didn't pull through. As if the newbie is the Grand Arbiter of the league's performance.
As they faltered in AAC play, no credit was given to AAC teams or step-up in competition. Every loss was either mired in controversial officiating or internal problems with the team independent of their opponents. They never lost an AAC game.
Then came the AAC tournament. Rob Gray committed the capital offense of shhh'ing them and they beat the dead horse of how much a "thug" he was. This is the same Rob Gray who took selfies with other schools fans, signed autographs, and had fun with Memphis fans even after a loss.
They completely trashed the board to the point it was untenable and the site's owner washed the AAC forum's hands of them, to the support of everyone. They had unlimited warnings until then. Every game thread turned into a flame war of some of their fans vs everyone. Of course, it was all a conspiracy against WSU if you ask them. Yeah, WSU of all schools headlined the hit list of the GT Admin. Right.
They did have a weird thing with the Big East. It wasn't UConn posting the most hate against the Big East. It wasn't Cincy. It was Wichita. How does that remotely make sense? Beats me.
Some of their fans' self-worth seemed rooted entirely on the backs of 18-22 year olds bouncing a ball. Coldblooded lived in insecurity over how the world perceived his Shockers. He'd incite others to invade holylandofhoops, mvcfans, etc. Why would we care? What a loser.
The silver lining was watching ShockerFever unravel with meltdowns that would give a 4 year old secondhand embarrassment. Other than that, good riddance.
So in other words, nothing has changed with their online fanbase whatsoever in their move to the AAC haha. Certainly don't miss that. I actually used to post on here a lot a decade or so ago (the Valleytalk days) when I was in school. We all used to root for each other then. Valley against the world. It was great. Then we stopped getting 3-4 bids....Crayton left....the league went into a recession.......and the fans of Wichita (who, remember, wasn't THAT good until Greggggg came along....in fact they kinda sucked in the 90s) slowly took over to the point where it just wasn't worth it to even bother coming on here anymore.
This year, it almost instantly returned back to the type of place it was a decade ago (other than the 3-4 bids haha) and I eventually came back. Losing Wichita probably isn't good for our league overall. But quite frankly, I don't miss 'em. It has been a lot more fun since they left.
Anyway, I am a fan of the AAC. I think it is a fun conference to follow. I like that it is kinda similar to what the MVC used to be back in the glory days with some very strong programs, some not so good ones, and a few bids to be had every year. Relevant, but you still have to earn it. Can't finish 11th and get a tourney bid. Your programs certainly have more tradition than ours did at the time.
