One shot that changes the next 5 years

[roundmound]

This isn't the most well written thing but I think my point comes across.

I've been thinking about this since UW beat Ill yesterday. Two years ago Washington sucked, bad. They were comming off numerous losing seasons in a row, including the previous year where they missed the Pac10 tourny. They had lost their first 5 conf games, and were on their way to another loss. They were losing by 16 at Oregon ST. when Nate Robinson pretty much singlehandidly brought them back. He ended up hitting a miracle fadeaway three from the corner at the buzzer that sent the game to OT which UW won. They ended up finishing the season winning 12 of the last 14 and got a bid to the dance. Last year they ended up with a 1 seed, this year they are in the s16 again.

Basically what I am getting at is this, if Nate doesn't make the shot, they lose that game and miss the Tournament. Nate probably would not have given up football(he was the starting safety). They would have had zero momentum from the previous year resulting in them most likely having another lackluster season, which would have resulted in Lorenzo being fired. The team would be in as bad of shape as they were five years ago.

Looking ahead to the future they have one of the top 5 recruiting classes in the nation combined with a growing local fanbase which will get even stronger if the Sonics move. I look forward to them becoming a permanent national power as they start to control west coast recruiting.

All their future success is the result of one three pointer. Aren't sports crazy sometimes?

[MyTurn2Raise]

For Illinois, it was 2 shots by Nick Smith of all people on 02/03/04 that saved Illinois from going back into the oblivion of being a marginal top25 team every year. Illinois went 63-4 in the next 67 games. At the time, the boys were 13-5 overall and 4-3 in the big ten with 2 really bad conference losses already (home to Purdue after Booker was inelgible and at Northwestern). Weber had yet to be accepted. Many (Most?) Illini fans were still in mourning over Bill Self leaving town. Illinois had fallen from an elite 8, big ten champion squad (preseason #1 in many publications) in 00-01 to a sweet 16, big ten champion squad to a second round embarrassing exit. The question was where would the spiral end? But, Nick Smith's two shots put Illinois on its current trajectory.

[nirfdog]

[ QUOTE ]
This isn't the most well written thing but I think my point comes across.

I've been thinking about this since UW beat Ill yesterday. Two years ago Washington sucked, bad. They were comming off numerous losing seasons in a row, including the previous year where they missed the Pac10 tourny. They had lost their first 5 conf games, and were on their way to another loss. They were losing by 16 at Oregon ST. when Nate Robinson pretty much singlehandidly brought them back. He ended up hitting a miracle fadeaway three from the corner at the buzzer that sent the game to OT which UW won. They ended up finishing the season winning 12 of the last 14 and got a bid to the dance. Last year they ended up with a 1 seed, this year they are in the s16 again.

Basically what I am getting at is this, if Nate doesn't make the shot, they lose that game and miss the Tournament. Nate probably would not have given up football(he was the starting safety). They would have had zero momentum from the previous year resulting in them most likely having another lackluster season, which would have resulted in Lorenzo being fired. The team would be in as bad of shape as they were five years ago.

Looking ahead to the future they have one of the top 5 recruiting classes in the nation combined with a growing local fanbase which will get even stronger if the Sonics move. I look forward to them becoming a permanent national power as they start to control west coast recruiting.

All their future success is the result of one three pointer. Aren't sports crazy sometimes?

[/ QUOTE ]

And could you imagine how good they would be this year if Martell hadn't gone pro?