The House of Blue

I am somewhere between you and the "haters". Even though I don't pile on Coach Phillips, I still reserve the right to be critial of certain decisions and/or player preperation without surrendering my "fan status".

Message boards would sure be a boring place if we all "left Joker alone" and only spoke about the good things Coach Phillips and his staff do as you suggest.

Excellent post Bob!!

I don't know anyone who "hates" Joker. Bad choice of words.

I think you miss one thing Matt, there are people on this board who will rip you apart for any single negative thing you say about this program.

That leads to what you call negative topics staying open longer. It really doesn't have to be pumping or dooming, guys like Hop attack everything negative that is said.

It pisses me off to no end and makes me ready to drop my membership.

I have always thought of the UK fan-base was split, as well... Too many ONLY focus on BB success & give too little about the FB program. Your "Instigators & naysayers" that just want to start arguments as to what's wrong w/ every little thing, all the time...And TrueBlue Believers that just want respect and a level playing field in ALL our programs.

I wish someone would put together a telethon for the "BigBlueNation FB Improvement Fund"....Maybe get Coach Cal on board to help raise funds...(You know, If anyone could get the ball rollin'...Cal would be that man.) He's got the ability to call on everyone in the BBN to give what they could afford. A little from most - a lot from some...Maybe a little bit of corporate donations thrown in there as well...Wham bam & in no time flat, UK could do a major improvement w/o getting bonding approvals from Frankfort.

But that's a pipe dream, of course...Everyone is too busy bitching & complaining & fighting to REALLY fix anything. (Kinda like the politicians in DC!)

Matt - you classified the groups really well. And rob65 the only group Matt missed is the know it alls. The guy that sits at his computer and likes to argue and/or try to prove everyone else wrong and believes his opinion is the only one. Truly the only posters I have trouble with are the ones that come on here and do two things:
1) single out players and bash them beyond belief. These are student/athletes and not a one of them deserve to be thrown under the bus by their own fan base. If you don't believe in them than there is a proper way for constructive criticism. Posters forget these players are 18 - 22 year olds. And these players have feelings, friends and family and your comments can be very hurtful. Think twice before you post. Think first how it would make you feel if it was said about your, your son, grandson, nephew or friend before you hit the post button. It's that simple!
2) And the other posters that I take issue is with some have to beat a dead horse. They get onto something (and often its nothing more than being a copy cat of what someone else has already said) and they have to post it 5 times over and they also have to post it on every open forum possible. They are like a nasty virus trying to spread itself to see how many they can get to agree with them.
We are all entitled to our opinions and sometimes the respectful thing to do is agree to disagree.

Great response Matt! Thank you!

It boils down to the fact that no matter where you go you're going to run into stupid people. For awhile you can tolerate them and you try to be nice and see things from their perspective but then it gets to the point where it becomes obvious that they want you to be as miserable as they are. Thats when things get a little ugly. All you can do is just hope like hell they are proven wrong. But in the end that really doesn't matter because they're already wrong. We all know who these people are. I'm certainly not including people who are critical of the way things are going. I think we are all more than a little concerned about the direction of the program. Its just that most of the time a guy feels the need to take up for his beloved program. Coaches come and go. Obviously Joker is a little different simply because he's one of ours. If you truly love this program then you know the challenges that this program faces. And it sure would be nice to see the hometown boy lead us to accomplish great things. If it happens it happens. If it don't it won't. On to the next one. Those who are spiteful and bitter will remain spiteful and bitter regardless. The rest of us will continue to do what we've always done support the program and the coach in place.

I'll also add that luckily we have a rating system in place on this site. So its obvious who the stupid people are.

He didn't call you out personally no need in attacking someone. If you want to make a complaint about the rating system do so, but don't attack other posters.

what rating system? I had to post just to see how bad mine was.

I'm as negative toward joker as anyone as a coach. As a person I have no problem what so ever. I just want a better program and if that makes me a dummy than so be it. I can also say those who keep rooting for average is enabling the program and that's not very smart either. At the end of the day we're all wanting the same thing. Some think joker can get it done others don't differing opinions on how we get there doesn't make anyone smarter than anyone else.