shockem wrote:the 1990's are what WSU fans refer to as "the dark days". We had lost Eddie Fogler, had a string of bad hires, crumbling facilities and support was starting to fade. This period was an anomoly in the history of WSU and will not be replicated. Our AD at the time, Jim Schaus, is the guy responsible for righting the ship and our support base contiunes to pump money into the program to retain coaches and continue to improve the facilties and resources for the athletic department. I just don't see WSU ever going through another decade of mid to lower conference finishes.
From the early 1950s to the mid-1960s WSU was a very good team in the best conference in the land. Several MVC teams won or competed in the finals of the NCAA or NIT tournament during that era (Cincinnati and Bradley had many great teams). During the Dave Stallworth period the Shockers were a dominant team. This era of Shocker basketball was coached by hall of famer Ralph Miller.
From 66-79 the Shockers were very mediocre. WSU was coached by Gary Thompson and Harry Miller.
From 1980-89 WSU was again a very good team year in and year out and without a losing record in any season. Coaches were Gene Smithson and Eddie Fogler.
The 1990s, the dark era, began with Mike Cohen for 3 years followed by Scott Thompson for 3 more. We had zero winning seasons. The last four years of the decade were highlighted by Randy Smithson coaching his first two teams to winning records (14-13 and 16-15) followed by two loosing seasons.
From 2000 forward has been well chronicled with the only losing seasons being Turgeon's first and Marshall's first.
For whatever reason (coaching), WSU has gone on longer cycles of winning (and loosing) then other teams in the league excluding UNI (who hasn't finished in the bottom half of the league in 12 years, but were not a good team in the 90s).
What does this all mean? I don't know. Have the games started yet?
