vivid_dude wrote:I invite anyone to substantively refute any of the things said in my lengthy post. Big points: don't personally attack the players. Is that unfair? Don't be so short-sighted. Is that unfair? Have some perspective. It feels quite lacking in many critiques.
Or, if you want to go a different direction, you can make it about one misused word (Jaybird). Be dishonest and say I disallow criticism of Creighton (Outlaw). Or do whatever it is Trifecta attempted to.
But, frankly, I hope no one else piles into the clown car with those three. There's room though!
Ok fine...I'll bite, then I'm moving on. You can call me a clown all you want but I'm pretty sure only one of us has ever been banned from this message board, and it's not me.
First, a reminder: game threads are typically used for discussion and reaction to a game as it's happening in real time. While there are, quite commonly, some hyperbolic and outlandish takes that doesn't mean that an on-the-spot observation or comment is always indicative of a definitive characterization of a player, coach, or our program. I'll not disagree that some on here take things too far with personal attacks.
Can you please have some perspective? Like most anything in this day and age, posters on this message board subscribe to this false dichotomy: sunshine pumpers that refuse to allow any criticism (valid or not) of Creighton's program, coaches, or players and the camp that thinks the sky is constantly falling. Two extremes without any consideration of balance or nuance. Look at a few of you baiting each other back and forth by not-so-subtly bringing politics into a basketball discussion. Great job. People are going to take issue with others trying to gatekeep their fandom. It doesn't excuse out-of-bounds takes, but people are allowed to have opinions even when they don't subscribe to what YOU believe. I feel like I've always been fairly balanced in calling it as I see it without drifting too far either way, but perhaps I'm mistaken if it elicited such a response from you.
Maybe I take issue with being lumped in with others (with pretty bad takes, particularly about Trey) when all I did was post reactions to what was happening at the moment. Kalk is soft was in reference to this one game. Sorry if I didn't say Kalk is playing very soft tonight but not always I guess? It was not me labeling him as a soft human, a soft player, or criticizing his effort or motivation. He was not going up strong when he had the ball, he was consistently being moved around by opposing players on the offensive glass especially, and playing as if he didn't have a massive physical advantage at his position.
Kalkbrenner is not intimidating in the least. Do you think UNLV's players were intimidated by him? The guy had 5 blocks and they kept going at him with some success. Most other teams would completely shy away from attacking him after getting swatted a couple of times. But UNLV's gameplan was to attack him and the fact that he was getting cooked a bit during certain stretches certainly emboldened them. Again, not an indictment on Kalk's career but an observation of that night -- however something that has occurred before. We all know that he can struggle with mobile, agile big men (Walker from UNL a prime example) but he's also gotten worked a few times by opposing post players who are unafraid to get into him and attack (Sanogo at times, Ballo from Zona).
There is no denying Kalk is instrumental to our defense and is a great defensive player. But a lot of his success is due to his size, the scheme that funnels players to him, and his ability to help or rotate at times (though we've seen opposing PGs abuse this in the past - Marquette comes to mind; not all his fault as some of that lands on Mac to adjust). Because of that, he's not the 1v1 defender many think him to be. Just like he'll never be the back-to-basket, isolation scorer in the post that some people desperately want him to be. It's just not in his skillset - doesn't mean he's an awful player.
vivid_dude wrote:And it's not irony at all. It's consistency. I can't stand the ignorant, emotionally undisciplined, what-have-you-done-for-me-today contingency of Husker fans in the exact same way those same type of Creighton fans bother me. It's not all Husker fans or all Creighton fans. It's just folks like you.
There are good fans and assholes in every fanbase. But you can't police fandom and attempt to be some paragon of consistency as a Jaysker. Sorry, you can't. You don't get to be a Husker football fan, one of the "greatest fans" - when in reality they are just as toxic online and unspecial as any other fanbase - while simultaneously shitting on UNL fans as goofy and using them as an example of a bad fan. Sorry, not the guy who goes into the off-topic board on a CREIGHTON forum to defend any negative comment about UNL. Isn't that oxymoronic?
I'm done. Rant over.
