That's probably the darkest titled Christmas carol that I know, but it is depressingly descriptive of the state of the program. I'll say first, as I have repeatedly, that LaVall Jordan seems like a good guy, and we all know that there are some very fine young men on the team even though there is not much talent by the standards of our program over the last fifteen years. They have actually exceeded my expectations so far, but that's not saying much -- at 4-9 the team is a win or two ahead of where I expected. By the end of the year, with the Horizon League being historically, remarkably bad, it's not impossible it could reach low double digits in wins. We might even end the year somewhere outside the 300s -- low, low major territory -- in the RPI and kenpom ratings.

But let's get some hard truths on the table.

Some might say that the team's woeful record was to be expected because this is a "rebuilding year." Well first of all, it didn't need to be. Imagine adding three high major quality starters to this team (not to mention at least one juco transfer big man now playing at another school). It was utter insanity for a mid-major program like ours to give up that precious opportunity. You can't do that at this level! Did the decision-botchers really not understand that our best players would leave when they abused the team with the the no-post-season decision and then massacred the coaching staff they came to play for? Actually, I suspect they did understand it. But they were so frightened by the prospect of a successful year under their nemesis Rob Jeter that they were willing to sacrifice any possibility of success.

So instead we don't have a rebuilding year -- we have undergone a complete teardown, to be followed by years of trying just to get the program back to where it already was. We have been put in a position where a team that won 20 games twice in the past three years (despite "sabotage") and went to the NCAA tournament only three years ago is now looking up at a miserably bad league. And the only hope we have to change that is to attract recruits to a reeling program playing in empty gyms (more on that later). Of course, those recruits that are the only chance for the program need to be obtained by recruiters with no track record in Wisconsin and then coached by a staff with very little experience. How does that plan sound?

And then there's the fan interest. Any of you few remaining readers who view this board or the old one have noticed the same thing. The walls are closing in. There is virtually no conversation. This exactly mirrors what is happening at the games. No one is going. Attendance, always a challenge in this city, has collapsed into a bad joke. We almost certainly have not seen actual attendance exceeding 600-700 people at any game this year. I have real doubts that we will see a legitimate crowd of 1,500 at a game this season, excepting possibly Valpo and GB -- when their fans will probably outnumber ours. All that work done over years (many more years than our recent AD's tenure, let me be clear) to secure the Arena? What's the point now? Our "crowds" could comfortably fit in the minimal bleachers at Baker Fieldhouse if it still stood. Is there still a gym floor at Engelmann? Maybe we could move there and set up a couple folding chairs. It would certainly be cheaper.

If someone had wanted to draw up a plan to destroy interest in our program, to make it more likely that the calls would begin to drop the program entirely or to move it back down to the dismal reaches of D2 or 3, could they have done it any better than what has actually happened? Our astonishingly inept administration not only banished our coaching staff, our best players, our radio voice and the legitimate prospect of a tournament year this year, in doing so they also alienated so many of us fans and boosters who refuse to abet their incompetence and venality by attending or supporting the program until they are gone. And the dismal present and (to put it kindly) uncertain future of our program are managing to alienate those few who remained. Who are now also voting with their feet. College sports is all about passion and emotion. Does any remain? The worst possible thing you can say about a program is that nobody cares. And we are getting there.

We are in the bleak midwinter, and I have grave doubts that we will ever again see a spring as long as the architects of our demise hold the power to stop it from coming -- something that appears to be their exact plan.

Happy Holidays