Here's my issue with OU men's basketball

Fair warning up front, this is pure rant.  Probably won't be organized or possibly even coherent, but this is just frustration overflowing and I need an outlet.  Maybe my point/headline should be addressed more specifically to the program in general because I think that is the crux of the problem.  So I'm just as aware as anyone who follows this team that for lack of a better word they pretty much suck.  Look, I hate to have to say that about any OU team but trying to call it anything else would just be dishonest.  They aren't as talented as some D-II teams, they had to take bodies just to fill out a roster with guys who would probably never earn a D-I scholarship at any other school, and on just about every night they will easily be out-talented by a significant margin.  All that said, WHO FREAKING CARES!!!!!!!!

I don't want to have to wake up the day after an OU basketball game, a 13-point loss, and read articles like this.  It's nothing personal against the guy who wrote it or the paper he works for.  I don't care if you have to try and sell papers (good luck with that), I don't care for your political correctness, I don't care if you're honesty prevents Jeff Capel from ever giving you a quote for the rest of your career.  Quit feeding us this b.s.  This team is awful.  This team is going to lose a ton of games.  Last night wasn't a sign of hope, it was just another loss.  Staying just close enough to give you the impression, perhaps more accurately the false hope, that we could win this game shouldn't be enough to make Sooner fans "hopeful."  And this is the point I'm trying to make, when we as fans start to accept games like last night as "good enough" as the writer tries to sell us on, then we're screwed.  When losing by 13 points is "ok" then this basketball program will never, ever be what some of us think it should be.

The state of this program as it is today should illicit vitriol in Sooner Nation.  I don't care that OU was/is/always will be a football school.  OU not being in the top 100 in the country for basketball is a joke and believe me if I weren't respectful of CC's cursing policy there would be a lot of other words I could use to describe it.  I'm mean I'm not crazy, this is still the University of Oklahoma right?  The program that has produced players like Mookie Blaylock, Stacey King, Hollis Price, Eduardo Najera, Ebi Ere, Kevin Bookout, Taj Gray, Aaron McGhee, Blake Griffin, among countless others.  The program that was a fixture in the NCAA tourney and always competed for the Big 8 title and was always competitive in the Big 12.  It's not like this second to football type program like Alabama or an Auburn (there is probably better examples) who's basketball program could not exist and nobody would really care.  This is not OU, or least it shouldn't be and yet presently it almost feels as if that could be the case not many people would really care.  This is a basketball program with a proud history and yeah sure it's always going to be 2nd place (at best) to football, but that sure as hell isn't reason enough to accept this suckitude.  I'm fully aware that this is almost assuredly a pointless effort on my part, it's obvious at most home games that most OU fans don't care about this basketball program (a generality to be sure, so if that's not you then cool that statement obviously doesn't apply to you).  But I just don't care any longer, I can't stand it that this program has been allowed to sink to this level.

I'm remember OU winning growing up as a kid, I remember OU playing KU in the championship game, I remember the great Billy Tubbs teams, and I remember the boring as hell to watch but at least they won games Kelvin Sampson teams, I definitely remember getting to see Blake Griffin in person and just how awesome that was.  And it's all those reasons that make me sick to see what this program has become and the apparent fact that people seem to be ready to accept it.

I'm just one guy and I am certainly not wealthy enough to matter in the eyes of OU, so I don't expect to make any kind of difference other than voicing my incredibly disappointed opinion.  I'm not saying you have to care, I'm not saying you have to be as upset as I am, and I'm definitely not saying I'm a better OU fan because I care and you might not.  I'm just saying this current men's basketball program is unacceptable.  It's embarrassing and something needs to be done about it.  I don't claim to have the solution, hell I think this team and program are WAY beyond some quick fix.  But something needs to be done and in a hurry because when the general consensus (which based on today's article appears to be the case) seems to be that OU fans should be happy that our Sooners "fought hard" against Baylor in a 13-point loss then it is a sad day for Sooner Nation in my opinion. 

Losing, no matter the sport and regardless of the opponent, or our perceived talent level (or lack thereof), or whatever, will never be "acceptable" to this OU fan.  Yes, I'm fully aware that every OU team isn't going to win every game they every play in.  And yes I'm quite confident there will be a day, likely more than just one I'm sure, where an OU team will be clearly outmatched compared to their opponent.  But despite all of that, I will ALWAYS be rooting for my Sooner to win and will ALWAYS be disappointed if it doesn't happen.  The day I stop caring about any OU team losing, I'll be as they say Sooner dead, and even then I'm pretty confident I'm still going to be pissed off my Sooners just lost.