Bob Marlin

[anhil8tor]

I am most disappointed by the windfall of excuses and spin. Here are the facts:

1 NCAA appearance in 9 years (2 in 20+)
1 conference tourney appearance in 10+ years
Losing record against top 200 RPI
AWFUL home schedules for a decade
Apathy at an all time high

Can’t spin that. Can’t excuse that. Can’t promote that.

Inexcusable. Maggard is on the clock now.

[ManAboutTown]

You can’t talk about basketball being the number two money generating sport in the hierarchy. The pot of gold is at the end of the rainbow in MBB. If you never get to the end, you don’t get paid...

Basketball has the POTENTIAL to be the number 2 money maker here, but we haven’t reached that potential nearly enough in the last 25 years..

Think about that. TWENTY FIVE YEARS. We’ve graduated 20+ classes of potential fans and donors while basketball has been mired in irrelevance. Is it a wonder why apathy is so high and the social club rules the roost?

[Turbine]

You can’t talk about basketball being the number two money generating sport in the hierarchy. The pot of gold is at the end of the rainbow in MBB. If you never get to the end, you don’t get paid...

Basketball has the POTENTIAL to be the number 2 money maker here, but we haven’t reached that potential nearly enough in the last 25 years..

Think about that. TWENTY FIVE YEARS. We’ve graduated 20+ classes of potential fans and donors while basketball has been mired in irrelevance. Is it a wonder why apathy is so high and the social club rules the roost?

That unattained pot of gold reference is a great analogy.

[ULvictory]

You can’t talk about basketball being the number two money generating sport in the hierarchy. The pot of gold is at the end of the rainbow in MBB. If you never get to the end, you don’t get paid...

Basketball has the POTENTIAL to be the number 2 money maker here, but we haven’t reached that potential nearly enough in the last 25 years..

Think about that. TWENTY FIVE YEARS. We’ve graduated 20+ classes of potential fans and donors while basketball has been mired in irrelevance. Is it a wonder why apathy is so high and the social club rules the roost?

But that’s the problem. When your fanbase reaches a point of apathy while the basketball diehard fans make every excuse in the book to promote mediocrity, that’s what happens. The product becomes stale. That’s why we have what we have today. That’s why basketball is behind baseball in money raised. That’s why the personal seat donation amounts in basketball are lower than softball, a Title ix sport of all things. If people can’t see that apathy with that, then there’s nothing more to say.

[ManAboutTown]

But that’s the problem. When your fanbase reaches a point of apathy while the basketball diehard fans make every excuse in the book to promote mediocrity, that’s what happens. The product becomes stale. That’s why we have what we have today. That’s why basketball is behind baseball in money raised. That’s why the personal seat donation amounts in basketball are lower than softball, a Title ix sport of all things. If people can’t see that apathy with that, then there’s nothing more to say.

I think we need to take a page from the liberal playbook and tweak the narrative on this. “Mediocrity” seems to be a term that the local media have latched on to. They use it to throw it back in the fanbase’s face, and it’s become a little bit of a weapon for them.

Let’s call it what it is. It’s not good enough. These results, over the course of a LARGE SAMPLE SIZE, are flat out not good enough. It’s actually worse than mediocrity.

[ULvictory]

I think we need to take a page from the liberal playbook and tweak the narrative on this. “Mediocrity” seems to be a term that the local media have latched on to. They use it to throw it back in the fanbase’s face, and it’s become a little bit of a weapon for them.

Let’s call it what it is. It’s not good enough. These results, over the course of a LARGE SAMPLE SIZE, are flat out not good enough. It’s actually worse than mediocrity.

Well it’s definitely subpar for what we are paying.

[VObserver]

Well it’s definitely subpar for what we are paying.

It used to be subpar for what I was paying, but not any more. I spent less than $100 total on basketball this year. It might be worth almost that much. I went from 4 season tickets at center court to 2, then to none. That is where I am staying until UL makes a commitment to quality basketball.

[CajunRebel]

You can’t talk about basketball being the number two money generating sport in the hierarchy. The pot of gold is at the end of the rainbow in MBB. If you never get to the end, you don’t get paid...

Basketball has the POTENTIAL to be the number 2 money maker here, but we haven’t reached that potential nearly enough in the last 25 years..

Think about that. TWENTY FIVE YEARS. We’ve graduated 20+ classes of potential fans and donors while basketball has been mired in irrelevance. Is it a wonder why apathy is so high and the social club rules the roost?

Basketball will never be #2 because it can’t generate revenue like baseball can. Baseball gets revenue from suites, premium seating, and 200 yards of advertisements along the outfield wall. For basketball, almost all of that revenue goes to the Cajundome.

But uh, what exactly is the athletic department doing to make basketball a top mid-major? How can you expect our basketball program to achieve like a top mid-major when we don’t fund it like a mid-major? How can you expect us to generate buzz when we don’t market the program at all until after football season ends? I like Maggard, but it is abundantly clear that all the money and manpower is being put towards football.

If you want to know why the Sun Belt has gone from a decent basketball conference in the 90’s to a terrible one today, it is because every Sun Belt school has collectively decided football matters more.

[ULvictory]

Basketball will never be #2 because it can’t generate revenue like baseball can. Baseball gets revenue from suites, premium seating, and 200 yards of advertisements along the outfield wall. For basketball, almost all of that revenue goes to the Cajundome.

But uh, what exactly is the athletic department doing to make basketball a top mid-major? How can you expect our basketball program to achieve like a top mid-major when we don’t fund it like a mid-major? How can you expect us to generate buzz when we don’t market the program at all until after football season ends? I like Maggard, but it is abundantly clear that all the money and manpower is being put towards football.

If you want to know why the Sun Belt has gone from a decent basketball conference in the 90’s to a terrible one today, it is because every Sun Belt school has collectively decided football matters more.

Basketball can't generate revenue like baseball because Robe goes out and fund raises. Basketball just started to really fund raise recently. I doubt the Cajundome takes any money from the Rebounder's Club. Correct me if I'm wrong there.

As far as making basketball a top mid-major, we have the highest paid coach in the league. There's other schools out there that don't promote the sport until football season is done, but that doesn't mean the basketball team can't win early on. Our product is stale. Period. It has nothing to do with promotion. Yes, it can help to push for giveaways and whatnot. But people pay for the product on the court. If it's not attractive, people won't go.

As for the conference, it got worse when we lost both Middle Tennessee and Western Kentucky. But at the same time, Georgia State has come in and dominated the conference. They beat two SEC teams this year alone. We haven't beaten an SEC team since 2002.

All of this is true. But in no way should it hinder where we could/should be right now compared to our reality of where we currently are.

[Duckster]

Agree there's a major concentration to 'fix' football, which includes the stadium. Maybe we only have resources to fix one big thing at a time? Right now it's all things football. Still, it's ashamed MBB is at best the 3rd best program in SBC based upon results of the past 5 years. If we were the standard, we'd be dominating the conference year to year. Georgia St. is closest thing to the 'standard' in SBC until someone else knocks them off their perch for good. Coach Marlin doesn't seem up to doing that based upon results.

[VObserver]

Agree there's a major concentration to 'fix' football, which includes the stadium. Maybe we only have resources to fix one big thing at a time? Right now it's all things football. Still, it's ashamed MBB is at best the 3rd best program in SBC based upon results of the past 5 years. If we were the standard, we'd be dominating the conference year to year. Georgia St. is closest thing to the 'standard' in SBC until someone else knocks them off their perch for good. Coach Marlin doesn't seem up to doing that based upon results.

We are paying him at a level to do that. He can't cut it. It is time to thank him and cut our losses.

[ManAboutTown]

Basketball will never be #2 because it can’t generate revenue like baseball can. Baseball gets revenue from suites, premium seating, and 200 yards of advertisements along the outfield wall. For basketball, almost all of that revenue goes to the Cajundome.

But uh, what exactly is the athletic department doing to make basketball a top mid-major? How can you expect our basketball program to achieve like a top mid-major when we don’t fund it like a mid-major? How can you expect us to generate buzz when we don’t market the program at all until after football season ends? I like Maggard, but it is abundantly clear that all the money and manpower is being put towards football.

If you want to know why the Sun Belt has gone from a decent basketball conference in the 90’s to a terrible one today, it is because every Sun Belt school has collectively decided football matters more.

Or is it because the schools that took basketball seriously moved on to better conferences? Hmm....