I have steered clear of the ongoing questioning of Gott’s capabilities, and the job he has done up to this point, but something inside me says that had we beaten Louisville and moved on to the Elite Eight and lost there, we would still be having the same conversation about Gott. College basketball has changed drastically since State won a National Championship. Hell, our conference has changed drastically since then. Gott is four for four getting us to the dance and moving to the S16 twice. Shoot, in the 21 years before Gott we went to the big dance a mere six times. None of the three coaches prior to Gott had a winning conference record in their tenures, and the conference is arguably much tougher and more demanding since 2013. Gott is 92-52 (.643) overall and 39-31 (.557) in conference. We were 125-209 in the conference under Robinson, Sendek and Lowe. Personally, I look at Mark Gottfried as a stunning success so far. For him to be successful with four very diverse teams says that the man can coach, and coach very well, thank you. Counting his 3 years at Murray State and 11 years at Alabama, Gott has taken a team to the big dance 11 times in 18 years and is 371-206 (.643) overall. That doesn’t suck. Yeah I know, we all want to win conference and National Championships, but our expectations should be tempered with reality. Only one of 16 wins the ACC Championship and only one of 68 wins the National Championship. The odds are what they are. With the right mix of players those goals are not out of the question with Gott steering the ship, and I wont be surprised when that mix of players is on deck and more goals are met.
