[NU Sports] Northwestern State

[NEONRye at aol.com]

Is it just me, or does anyone else on the List get annoyed seeing that that  
well-known academic and athletic institution of higher learning, Northwestern  
State, located in Natchitoches, Louisiana, in the NCAA Brackets, while our  
obscure alma mater, lingers in the netherworld of college hoops?  As much  as I 
respect Bill Carmody and the way he seems to handle NU hoops, I think I  have 
reluctantly reached the conclusion that we need a change--perhaps in the  
nature of hiring a high-visibility former NBA player who wants to coach in  
college.  I look at BC's success with Al Skinner (whom I remember as a  teammate of 
"Dr. J." on the NETS) as perhaps a paradigm for the direction  NU may have to 
go.  We need a dramatic move to break the cycle of  consistency (i.e., never 
making the NCAA's) that is the sad hallmark of our  basketball program.  There 
is just no longer any excuse for our abjet  inability to show up--for at 
least one year--at the "Dance".  March Madness  to me is the frustration I feel at 
seeing one of my colleagues at work reveling  in his George Washington team's 
run this year.  Just once I want to see us  among the 64 teams that make it 
and to take off from work and go to a  "regional".  And when I see Seton Hall 
(whom I, along with President  Bienen, saw the 'Cats beat in their own house in 
NJ) make it, and then go  out with a whimper, it just adds to my frustration.
 
Paul Levinson