MBB G13 Final: Louisiana 73, SLU 72

[Cajunsmike]

I won't discuss the details of the discussion, but we did not discuss the subject of donors picking up the cost. He did state that the funds are better spent in other areas when discussing minor tournaments.

Understand not discussing details of conversation here as some things are said in confidence. I often keep some things that I hear private as well.

[TheRealZeebart]

There are 22 pages of post because we don’t agree. Of all the teams UL currently has MBB is easily a top quartile performer. Only baseball and softball are more successful. I am not happy with the current situation either, but MBB is not hurting our brand or taking funds away from our mediocre football team. Probably the craziest thing said here is we should pay our coach less than ULM and concentrate on softball. Softball!!!! A sport no one but us and 20 other schools give a ____ about.
If you want to complain about wasted resources look to softball.

Mike come on man... We have gotten rid of coaches for mediocre performances recently, we just keep rewarding this guy. Why?

Z

[ULvictory]

One team in the league wins it every year. Winning three straight games is a crap shoot. That is why so many different teams win it. I tend to agree with Zephyr in that winning the regular season championship or being in the Top 3 consistently is more reflective of a healthy program. What has changed is the abiltiy to get to the NIT or NCAA without the league title is virtually impossible.

Winning the regular season championship will always be an accomplishment. But in the broader picture, does it really push the program forward if we can’t make the dance? I know there’s bad teams out there who make the dance by getting hot at the right time, but give me a team with a winning record and a tournament berth any day of the week. The national exposure we get tops anything else we accomplish.

[Cajunfanatico]

Did you see the audit posted? Did you see my report by the NCAA? How do you know what money it generates in profit if you don't know the expenses?

http://www.ncaa.org/sites/default/fi...l_20180123.pdf

Zeph, I know something about profits and losses. I also know what's reported by the university and by the NCAA can be very convoluted, to say the least. Coaches salaries? Well, those in La are reported only to the level that Louisiana law allows, everything else is covered by RCAF donations, yada yada yada.

Not sure exactly your point with your comments above. Perhaps you're even agreeing with me.

As it relates to my comments about the sale of baseball and softball season tickets, or any season ticket sales for any sport at the university, know the number, know the value, and one can at least make some sense of a revenue stream to the university from those respective sports.

That's all I was saying.

[Cajunsmike]

Mike come on man... We have gotten rid of coaches for mediocre performances recently, we just keep rewarding this guy. Why?

Z

We have not gotten rid of coaches that have been the Coach of the Year in both the state and league the previous season. That does not happen anywhere other than for cause. Now giving an extension is a different matter. Understandable some wanted to wait until after this season to make that decision. You would have to ask Dr. Maggard why he decided to do it in October rather than March. I have asked if anyone has had that conversation and no one has responded.

[Cajunsmike]

Winning the regular season championship will always be an accomplishment. But in the broader picture, does it really push the program forward if we can’t make the dance? I know there’s bad teams out there who make the dance by getting hot at the right time, but give me a team with a winning record and a tournament berth any day of the week. The national exposure we get tops anything else we accomplish.

Agreed and that is why it is the main goal. Stated several times by people in the program. My point was in regards to judging the program on an overall basis. No argument it is better to win the tournament. You still have to produce a quality team in order to do that. Rare for a team not playing well going into the tournament to win it.

[zephyr]

Zeph, I know something about profits and losses. I also know what's reported by the university and by the NCAA can be very convoluted, to say the least. Coaches salaries? Well, those in La are reported only to the level that Louisiana law allows, everything else is covered by RCAF donations, yada yada yada.

Not sure exactly your point with your comments above. Perhaps you're even agreeing with me.

As it relates to my comments about the sale of baseball and softball season tickets, or any season ticket sales for any sport at the university, know the number, know the value, and one can at least make some sense of a revenue stream to the university from those respective sports.

That's all I was saying.

I agree. It just sounded like you and others before you were assuming that we had to make money from a program that sells 4,000 tickets although you likely aren't aware of the overall expenses of the sport. I just know that the spring sports traditionally across the board cost their university much more money than basketball. I'd rather not keep getting into this though.

[zephyr]

Winning the regular season championship will always be an accomplishment. But in the broader picture, does it really push the program forward if we can’t make the dance? I know there’s bad teams out there who make the dance by getting hot at the right time, but give me a team with a winning record and a tournament berth any day of the week. The national exposure we get tops anything else we accomplish.

I have debated this often, particularly last year. I believe that our program needs to breed a consistent winner. We have been all over the place for the past 30 years or more. Good season here terrible the next. People often ask, which would you prefer out of the two scenarios you suggested. I don't think there necessarily has to be a distinction between them or you have to choose one or the other.

I think we need to build a program from the ground up. We need to define our successes by winning conference titles. Believe it or not, this gets the attention of players. They want to play for winning programs. My thought on this is that once you are building a consistent winner, you will be in a better position to win your conference tournament and go to the dance. At the least, if you win conference like we did last year, you at least get to the NIT.

By doing this, we are hopeful that recruiting is consistently strong and we are naturally setting high expectations from our current and future players that we are expected to win titles. Like I said, you do that and you are naturally in a better position to make the NCAA.

[Cajunfanatico]

I agree. It just sounded like you and others before you were assuming that we had to make money from a program that sells 4,000 tickets although you likely aren't aware of the overall expenses of the sport. I just know that the spring sports traditionally across the board cost their university much more money than basketball. I'd rather not keep getting into this though.

Zeph, simple decisions such as how to apply administrative costs to the different programs under the athletic department's umbrella could greatly affect the "profitability" of each. And as has been stated here repeatedly, there aren't but a handful of programs in the entire country that actually make a profit at the end of the fiscal year in athletics.

You may not want to keep getting into this, but I am actually beginning to really wonder how the different sports stack up against one another on the single line item issue of revenues generated via season ticket sales. Wouldn't you like to know that number? Can't be too hard to figure out.

Football
Men's basketball
Women's basketball
Baseball
Softball

Number of season tickets sold for each, value of each season ticket sold.

I guess my reason for wanting to know is that the final number is a real indicator of fan support for each. We fans can't control how much it costs to send the baseball team to a 3 day tournament in California, but we can decide if we wish to shell out XYZ for the season in one lump sum payment.

[zephyr]

Zeph, simple decisions such as how to apply administrative costs to the different programs under the athletic department's umbrella could greatly affect the "profitability" of each. And as has been stated here repeatedly, there aren't but a handful of programs in the entire country that actually make a profit at the end of the fiscal year in athletics.

You may not want to keep getting into this, but I am actually beginning to really wonder how the different sports stack up against one another on the single line item issue of revenues generated via season ticket sales. Wouldn't you like to know that number? Can't be too hard to figure out.

Football
Men's basketball
Women's basketball
Baseball
Softball

Number of season tickets sold for each, value of each season ticket sold.

I guess my reason for wanting to know is that the final number is a real indicator of fan support for each. We fans can't control how much it costs to send the baseball team to a 3 day tournament in California, but we can decide if we wish to shell out XYZ for the season in one lump sum payment.

Did you look up the report I attached? Its from the NCAA and gives median averages across all sports. This is what I was going by. see below. Page 26. If you are referencing UL, the audit that is released every year doesn't really get into this so there is no specific info there that I've noticed.

http://www.ncaa.org/sites/default/fi...l_20180123.pdf

[Cajunfanatico]

I recall over the years our basketball program occassionally signing, "Mr. Basketball of the state of Florida", or "Mr. Basketball of the state of Alabama".

When was the last time we did such a thing? Anyone know? Or should I not bother asking because things have changed too much?

[CajunT]

I recall over the years our basketball program occassionally signing, "Mr. Basketball of the state of Florida", or "Mr. Basketball of the state of Alabama".

When was the last time we did such a thing? Anyone know? Or should I not bother asking because things have changed too much?

Andrew Toney and George Almonds. Was not Kevin Broooks Mr. Basketball his senior year?