One of the more optimistic takes on future AAC hoops I’ve seen:
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A basketball conference that gets an at large bid? I didn’t know that’s a thing. Glad we are in one of those conferences soon.
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Here’s the interview if you missed it:
Also an interview with Gaber:
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Green Jacket is now $1750, it was $1500.
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Aresco interviewed on Finebaum Show (Paul Finebaum is a huge jerk BTW). Aresco said all the new AAC schools are committed to paying their coaches and improving their facilities.
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I know there were some concerns over ECU maybe trying to block our addition, but Hill said in his interview that they were a big time advocate for us. Should be very grateful to them.
I am excited to see how that relationship plays out in the coming years. Having a meaningful in-state rival has the ability to energize both programs.
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Sounds like ESPN had a lot of say in this. ESPN is now invested in our success. That is a very good thing.
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Man…last night was embarrassing. It showed just how far behind we still are from a football standpoint which is different from other sports, especially basketball. The sheer number of players, the quality depth needed, the size and speed needed, the development of cohesion needed, the recruiting needed, facilities needed, the coaching needed, etc. It’s such a process.
Normally…a team that makes a jump from FCS to FBS or from a lesser conference to a more competitive conference does so because there is so much sustained success that they are already well prepared for the jump in competition because they are essentially already at that level (see App St when they made the jump).
We never had that. We jumped from FCS to FBS without ever playing a down with a new coach and new facilities and new players all more prepared to begin at the bottom of FCS level competition. So we were thrown into FBS without being ready and I feel we are only now starting to get competitive at CUSA level football. We’re not dominating we’re just reaching a level of competitiveness…and yet we are being asked to move up again!!!
A great problem to have but it’s so much harder than this process normally is. Because we are not dominating and prepared and ready to jump…we are jumping to another level before we have had a chance to adjust to the previous level.
I am excited but in football I now understand that need to be patient (after seeing the adjustment period from FCS to FBS). And I know we don’t like to be patient…but football is just a different animal.
We find ourselves AGAIN in a position that we have been recruiting CUSA level recruits and now need to start stacking the cupboard with AAC level recruits (which will take years). We need to catch up on facilities (expansion) which will help with recruiting better athletes and better depth…but again that will take years. Then when we get the recruits and the depth here…it will take years to develop depth and cohesion and implement whatever system we may need to adjust to and implement for AAC level competition.
We’re gonna be behind for a while…I hope we all can understand that…but that’s football.
Baseball, softball, soccer…all olympic sports and especially basketball are not the same. They CAN be turned up quick (due to lesser roster size, lesser dependency on depth and less complexity) like baseball and softball and volleyball have already done.
This move can be successful quickly with the olympic sports and Ron needs to start doing his part. If basketball can jump in and make a mark for us in the conference it will be easier to be patient to wait on football to catch up. But if Ron sh!ts the bed again this year we need to go hard after someone legit that can get the hoops program AAC ready ASAP.
This move can be HUGE for us for all sports but basketball and football will need to carry the mail. However, I am just trying to be honest with the realization that Football will take 4-5yrs just to catch up so my focus & expectation is now more for Hoops to get rolling quick as our best chance to make our mark in the AAC out of the gate!
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I am worried that we don’t seem to be improving in Football. I don’t think this staff as it is now can win in the AAC. I hope I am wrong.
They have improved…from FCS level to cellar dwellar CUSA to bowl appearance to competing for 1st place in the division halfway thru the season. THat is all progress albeit slow and deliberate. But again…with football it just takes time to build it all.
However, you are correct about the staff…this staff as it is now can NOT win in the AAC. Alot needs to happen with recruits, the coaching, the depth and the system to win in the AAC. Even best case scenerio will take 4-5 years to get it all to that point IMO.
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Yup - football has always been the long play with all of this. I rarely get too upset with losses for all the reasons you listed. We are just now, in the last few years, been hitting CUSA level classes and as you mention thats asking a lot to compete for a few years at the AAC level with those kids. I do hope though the AAC announcement now gives us a couple good recruiting cycles where we can leverage the conference rep for some higher level recruits that can cut their teeth in CUSA and be soph/juniors when we roll into AAC.
As for facilities - I am not terribly worried about that. We do have a really large stadium in the city we can use if we absolutely have to. I hope though it doesn’t come to that. Maybe in the short term we can put the temps back in with Maryland coming next season.
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I hope we never play a game at BofA stadium or Tepper’s desired dome unless it is a bowl game. Don’t pull some B.S. move that since we told have enough seats we have to play Chapel Hill Uptown in 2025.
Agree - just saying we have that in our back pocket.
Can the expansion be completed by 2025?
God, it better be. Ideally, imo, it should be expanded by the time we start in the AAC (estimated 2023).
*I second that I hope we never play in BOA unless it’s a bowl. If we expand anywhere north of 30k, we should be set for any team that comes to play at JRS. Wake Forest has <32k and they play all those teams UNC, State, etc. We’ll be fine.
As pleased as I was with the conference move, it’s only half of the move.
Now it sounds like the goalposts are already being moved again.
Typical.
What you mean? Don’t you want us to win in Football un front of 30k fans… this board has gotten very confusing to follow these days, and since everyone is either avoiding or got kicked out of the shoutbox who knows what anyone really thinks.
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Where did you have the goal posts…winning an AAC title in 2-3yrs?? If so…then yeah…move your goal posts.
And with this move…I don’t think goal posts have been set at all yet.
A realistic goal for a move to the AAC would be 4-5yrs to be near the top half of the AAC. That’s just reality. It takes more than a coach or a good recruit or 2 and a happy thought and wishing it to happen…to do that in football.
If it’s so easy…I’m sure you can find dozens of examples otherwise of schools that jumped conferences and won titles in less than 5 years. App St is one…but they had been successful at football at their prior ranks for over a decade (And winning the SunBelt isn’t exactly the same as winning the AAC). We have barely fielded a team for a decade. Even if you can find another 2 or 3…which I doubt you can…that’s still extraordinarily rare.
We could hire Dabo or Saban and they could bring in 4 star recruits by the bucket full and it’d still take several years to reach the top of the AAC.
Moving goal posts is a hilarious statement.
However…for basketball I am not of the same mindset. It can be done quickly and MUST be done quickly in basketball. No excuses there.
I don’t know. I think joey freshwater showed if you have that kind of reputation and can land those kinds of recruits you can do it your first year of the job. but those kind of coaches with those kind of reputations are rarely on the job search for our kind of school I wouldn’t sweat too much about that.
anyway I would just like a strong winning season from the staff and some improvements in recruiting before 2023. that way I don’t have to worry that this team is going to go 0-12 in complete blowouts in our first year of the american.
although even then my biggest concern is still basketball. that absolutely needs to get fixed as soon as possible. we cannot stay a bottom feeder of the american in basketball for too long
Can you explain what you mean?