Look CAS, I respect your opinion but you constantly compare the football program with the basketball program. Do yourself a favor and scale back your expectations. The NDSU MBB will never be at the competitive level the football program is at. You're probably thinking "that mentality is exactly the problem with NDSU's MBB program" but that "problem" is systemic. No one, from the fan base to the athletic department, supports the MBB program like we support the football program. I'm as guilty of this of anyone. What you have to realize is that you can't have the same expectations from the MBB team that you have from the football team. Does that mean we all should be happy with how things went with NDSU MBB program during the steady decline from the 2nd half of the '16/'17 season until the last few months of this season? Hell no. But if you expect any NDSU basketball team to be anywhere near the level of this Duke team, the prohibitive favorite to win the NCAA tournament, you're delusional. Even the most optimistic of us knew the only shot the Bison had to win this game was to play out of their minds and hope Duke played an absolute shit game. That's just the reality and it always will be with programs that are world apart like these two are.
Take a step back. Appreciate the fact that this team outperformed pretty much everyone's expectations this year. I'm sure you're thinking expectations are only low because of how much the program had slipped in the last 1.5 years before this one but I'll rebut by saying that this is a double edged sword in that expectations for next year are and should be that much higher. The momentum this program has is as good as it has been in the last 5 years. Let's all agree that we want to see more next year but I'd just ask that you appreciate what this team did accomplish this year. It's ok that they're not on the level of the football program but the fact is these guys have the ball rolling in the right direction and if that positive momentum continues into next year we'll all have plenty to cheer about next fall during football season and next winter during basketball season.