The Board

I sense that it's picking back up now.

As for the lull that occurred, I also subscribe to the "perfect storm" theory put forth by others in this thread...and might add another wrinkle or two to it.

First, there was the old board itself going down, which probably caused some to give up or stroll elsewhere. We tried our best to keep people informed of the temp board and oncoming new board (which Dave, to his credit, was feverishly working on in his "spare" time!), by responding to email queries, tapping Corpus's RCC list, etc.

Add to that a rather vanilla non-conference schedule, and games that, to be honest, weren't all that entertaining or illuminating. The Michigan State game was a big one, as a pseudo-season kickoff, but that's when the board had gone down... Even if the old board had been up during the ensuing non-conference games, I'm not so sure it would've started hopping until after the holidays--again, given the state of competition and the fact that nothing super-revealing occurred during that time.

Another factor that I seriously think we shouldn't discount is that the Board has a lot of KC area users, or displaced KC area types (like myself), and many if not all of them went through a NINE-month baseball ride with the Royals that consumed a ton of their sports attention and zapped a lot of their mental and emotional energy as fans. I would add to that that the season literally played on (through the final game of the World Series) into November. In fact, the final game 5 victory occurred a scant 3+ weeks from THANKSGIVING. Add on to that the ensuing week-long civic celebration, culminating in the downtown victory parade and largest public gathering in KC metro history...and I think many of those fans (myself included) needed to exhale a bit. Normally, with the advent of Late Night, the enthusiasm for the upcoming season begins to kick in, and by November you can start getting kind of stoked. But because of the glorious success of the Royals, and the impact of that on the gazillion KU fans who likewise love and follow the Royals, that caused some distractions.

We also now have the "distraction" (fun, exhilarating, but still a distraction) of the Chiefs, for many of those same fans. Obviously not all of the folks on this board fall in that category (I know Senex is a Pats fan, as one example), but I do think the shoe fits for many. There are only so many hours in the day, so many games one can watch, articles one can read, posts one can make, when he/she is tracking several successful and exciting teams and experiences at one time. All the more so when you factor in that those people have actual lives to lead--work, kids, health, and so on. Speaking just for me, I know that Nov-Dec involved a huge commitment of time to my venture work, and my son is now involved in year-round travel hoops--which makes me long for those days of old when he would only practice once a week and play one game per weekend.

Bottom line: I think we had a multi-layered confluence (or perfect storm) of factors that contributed to make the board get off to a slower start. Some past contributors may still be trying to find their way, or are temporarily lulled by other sites. But the volume and energy level has started to pick back up, and hopefully it will only continue to do so. Speaking just for me, as someone who has been on here for what now seems like 2-3 decades, I wouldn't be whole without the RCB and the community. The members make it what it is, and for me it's like a virtual family. Or maybe it's more like a tribe (since that's what sports fans with a shared team identity tend to be like!), but whatever you want to call it, I love it. And yes, need it. So thanks to all of you for participating (just from my little corner of this Board), and thanks on steroids to Sir Dave for working his can off to ensure that it remains up and running, including in its new incarnation. Here's to it serving as a harbinger of a "rejuvenation" of sorts for KU hoops this season--namely, a successful pursuit of the holy grail...meaning, of course, another national championship!

Rock Chalk...