We aren’t fighting and clawing to get back to Final Fours or Sweet 16s even. We are fighting to get back to being a tournament participant. Winthrop can do it. UNCW can do it. Hell, App even did it.
We won four NCAA tournament games over a 20 year period. We were good enough and super fun to watch but let’s not kid ourselves that we were world beaters either. That type of success is absolutely still attainable. Just not for us, with our current leadership in place.
A stat that I always remember which in my mind marked a peak for our program since the 77 final four team. From 1998 - 2001 we made it to the second round of the NCAA tournament 3 out of 4 years. During that 4 year span there were only 7 teams to do this.
When that happened I thought we would be in the playoffs every year forever. I thought we’d arrived and would never miss out again.
Now I feel like we’ll never get back and we probably won’t.
I completely agree with your comment. Can you explain why you think the decision makers think it is going well? How are they defining success? What are their goals and objectives for our university?
Was that a key reason that Hill fired Biff? It automatically gave him a 2 year extension? Was it that one of them had to go? I’m not sure Biff would not have been a great candidate for an AD position based on the work he did at Michigan, his business savvy, and strong network.
Yeah because the guy that pissed off a bunch of donors and influential people in Charlotte and didn’t understand state laws or ncaa regs would be great as an AD.
Just let it go. Biff is where he belongs which is far away from our university.
No one is taking those schools. Tulane has no fans, USF sucks at everything, and Memphis plays in two rental facilities and has the academic prowess of Mitchell community college.
Of course not but it’s going to be the best g5 league more often than not. Add in Memphis and it gets even better.
I’m not really sold on Tulane or USF being consistently successful going forward, but they are investing the most along with Memphis and that’s what the pac needs.
Why do I think they think it’s going well:
To put it simply, Mike just got an extension. This university cares a lot about title 9, and our women’s and Olympic sports are succeeding.
How are they defining success:
I think their two most important measures of success are academic performance rating and ticket sales. And regardless of how bad football is, we are selling tickets. I also think it’s important to them to stay in compliance with title 9 at all costs.
What are their goals and objectives:
I think they want athletics to exist and be an avenue for our university to be peers with other R1 and AAU universities. It’s like the entire fraternity got a pair of duck boots. We gotta get our duck boots too.
I don’t see any evidence that our university is invested in having success in hoops or men’s basketball, including the time period of Jeff Mullens, Melvin Watkins, and Bobby Lutz. We had success in spite of a lot of the same issues we see today.
Having a ton of sports… competing at the AAC level, spending tens of millions a year and raising hundreds of millions collectively for facilities is just a gigantic waste of money if we aren’t going to be competitive. There is nothing pretty or “cool” or copacetic about constantly being an embarrassment in the only two sports mainstream people pay attention to.
We don’t have brand name duck boots. We have Walmart knockoffs that we’re paying Nordstrom prices for.
ALL ON THE BACKS OF THE STUDENTS. AGAIN FOR THOSE IN THE BACK. ALL ON THE BACKS OF STUDENTS… MANY OF WHOM WILL SPEND DECADES PAYING OFF STUDENT LOANS THAT INCLUDED THESE FEES. ITS AN ABSOLUTE TRAVESTY.
