BC vs. Oklahoma State Debate

At first glance the title to my Rant may seem odd.  BC and Oklahoma State have very little in common and as far as my memory goes I can't remember a time the two schools played against each other in any athletic competition.  However, watching the Baylor-Oklahoma State basketball game last night made me wonder would I currently like being an Oklahoma State/Baylor basketball fan or a BC fan?

Going into last night's game both Baylor and Oklahoma State were fighting for their tournament lives.  Both performed very strong in their non conference schedules but both have struggled immensely in Big 12 play.  I will take Baylor out of the discussion for now since they won the game last night, even though they did their very best to literally throw away the game as time expired in regulation.  With last night's loss Oklahoma State dropped their 7th straight game and their record dropped to 16-10 (a record I'm sure any BC fan would dream of at this point). The Cowboys now will most likely have to make a deep run the Big 12 Tournament to have any shot at making the Big Dance, which must be extremely frustrating to Pokes fans given the team's hot start.  It also doesn't help that their best player Marcus Smart has been suspended for the past 3 games for shoving a Texas Tech fan and whose play has coincided with the team's decline.

Being a BC fan this year has been beyond frustrating.  The team has literally lost a game in every which possible way and it has come to the point where I don't expect the team to win any more games this season.  Would I want Oklahoma State's 16-10 record right now? Of course.  I would do anything to have a winning record but I think the one positive for BC fans right now is I think it's now a given that Head Coach Steve Donahue will not be back next year and as a result BC can look towards moving the program in a different direction with a different coach.  Had BC had a winning record and floundered towards the end of the season like Oklahoma State is currently doing there is a good chance Athletic Director Brad Bates would retain Donahue for one more year and only delay the inevitable.  As much as I would like to have had Donahue succeed at BC, he has shown he can't recruit ACC level talent and the decline of the defense in particular has been staggering.

Now that BC is at 6-19 (soon to be 6-20 and 2-11 in ACC play after facing #1  ranked Syracuse tomorrow) I like knowing that there will be some serious changes regarding the basketball program coming this off season.  Had BC been a fringe tournament team, with a good chance of making the NIT like an Oklahoma State, there is a good chance the team would just be stuck in neutral without much momentum going forward.  It is for these reasons I tell my fellow Eagle fans that is currently better to be a BC fan than an Oklahoma State one.