Actually my dad went to JMU so that was always and still is fun for me. However, you always claimed you wanted those games, yet we played a non conference schedule almost exclusively of rather local teams. How did that help for attendance especially for non students? It didnt. People don't care if the teams playing are local or not. They will show up for decent basketball and winners. The fact we had such a good attendance against a good NU team and they delivered, can go a long way into showing the students how fun games can be and the type of influence they can have on a game. Students are not going to games just because a buddy from high school went to school x. You are giving way too much credit to our fans for looking at deep into which teams are playing.

And suggesting turning the basketball games into a circus show is absolutely ridiculous. It is a basketball game and that game should ALWAYS be the focus of why we want people there. I don't want a crowd of a bunch of drunk people who are only there for free items or a concert or the wacky waveable inflatable arm tube man. I want fans there who like basketball and are there to support the basketball team and will cheer and hoot and holler in support for them, win or lose.

This team has potential we have all seen it, except bmf, we are fighting consistency right now. With a full roster its time to start seeing what we are dealing with. We literally are in our first year of recruiting. Making judgements based on that is absurd. He did a darn good job getting players in year 1 on a super short cycle (Kurk, Kari, Isabelle, Harper etc). Unfortunately the gem he found got homesick, but to act like he has done a poor job is disingenuous. Show some patience and lets see where we head from here. Right now it looks promising. Team is improving and wins are starting to happen. Wouldn't want you to miss the progress as you focus on Ashley Howard.

(01-28-2018 06:57 PM)bmf25 Wrote:  

(01-28-2018 12:10 AM)Water Boy Wrote:  The CAA is currently the 12th ranked conference in the country. This is not far off from where it was before the defections. The top teams are lower than they were some years, but currently there are 3 top 100 RPI teams and two more at 104 and 107.

Measuring success by conference RPI rank is misleading and deceptive. Conference RPI rank is an absolutely useless stat, which can be manipulated by losing to elite programs on the road. A more accurate measurement of conference success is amount of bids in the NCAA tournament. In 2017, the amount of money each conference earned per NCAA Tournament tv appearance was $1,711,784.

Without quality basketball programs, the CAA will continue to be an automatic qualifier punching bag conference.

Conference RPI can be manipulated by losing to elite programs on the road, but that doesn't provide evidence of what conferences are doing it more than others. Going by money may be more meaningful than Conference RPI since the Conference RPI doesn't pay money, but there are reasons I like the Conference RPI better:

1. At-large bids only evaluate the top teams. A one bid conference could be clearly better than a two bid conference if you counted all the teams equally.

2. At-large bids are human opinion, as you experienced when you lost the CAA Final to VCU.

3. 8 to 10 out of 32 conferences are likely to get at-large bids. If you divided Americans into 32 economic groups with equal amounts of people, the 11th richest group is much better off than the poorest group. Treating all one bid conferences the same is like treating the 11th richest group and the poorest group the same.

(01-28-2018 08:27 PM)fredsavage Wrote:  what students want to watch lafayette bucknell and lehigh?

In the CAA you are rivals with Delaware and have teams in or near big cities in the northeast or New England in Towson, Hofstra, and Northeastern. No matter what conference you play in, you won't be rivals with every team in it. You would be overmatched in the Atlantic 10. Would you want to go to the America East where your nearest opponents would be Maryland-Baltimore County and Binghamton? For some schools, there's no such thing as the perfect conference.

(01-28-2018 09:35 PM)bmf25 Wrote:  

(01-28-2018 08:27 PM)fredsavage Wrote:  what students want to watch lafayette bucknell and lehigh?

Maybe students have friends that went to Bucknell, Lafayette, or Lehigh? Transform the games into a festival with food trucks and activities.

Take the attention off the product on the court.

president AT drexel DOT edu
sports AT drexel DOT edu

Fry and Zillmers' emails. Tell them you have the $1 million to buy ourselves out of the CAA and that you're willing to also fund the buyout on Spiker's contract and that you won Powerball or Mega Millions and are ready to help start up a football program to make us more attractive to the PL. Won't change anything with regards to student attendance as opponent and record rank lowest on influences for student attendance at sporting events.

(01-28-2018 06:57 PM)bmf25 Wrote:  

(01-28-2018 12:10 AM)Water Boy Wrote:  The CAA is currently the 12th ranked conference in the country. This is not far off from where it was before the defections. The top teams are lower than they were some years, but currently there are 3 top 100 RPI teams and two more at 104 and 107.

Measuring success by conference RPI rank is misleading and deceptive. Conference RPI rank is an absolutely useless stat, which can be manipulated by losing to elite programs on the road. A more accurate measurement of conference success is amount of bids in the NCAA tournament. In 2017, the amount of money each conference earned per NCAA Tournament tv appearance was $1,711,784.

Without quality basketball programs, the CAA will continue to be an automatic qualifier punching bag conference.



2017 NCAA Tournament Money Earned by Conference
CONFERENCE TOTAL PAYOUT
CONFERENCE TOTAL PAYOUT
ACC $30,812,112.00
SEC $27,388,544.00
Big 12 $25,676,760.00
Big Ten $25,676,760.00
Pac-12 $23,964,976.00
Big East $22,253,192.00
WCC $11,982,488.00
A10 $6,847,136.00
American $5,135,352.00
Big West $3,423,568.00
CUSA $3,423,568.00
MVC $3,423,568.00
NEC $3,423,568.00
America East $1,711,784.00
Atlantic Sun $1,711,784.00
Big Sky $1,711,784.00
Big South $1,711,784.00
CAA $1,711,784.00
Horizon $1,711,784.00
Ivy $1,711,784.00
MAAC $1,711,784.00
MAC $1,711,784.00
MEAC $1,711,784.00
MWC $1,711,784.00
OVC $1,711,784.00
Patriot $1,711,784.00
Sun Belt $1,711,784.00
Southern Conf. $1,711,784.00
Summit $1,711,784.00
SWAC $1,711,784.00
WAC $1,711,784.00
Slnd $1,711,784.00

(01-28-2018 12:10 AM)Water Boy Wrote:  What do you suggest we do other than hire the unproven Ashley Howard?

Spiker has already proven he can't recruit at Drexel. Ashley Howard has experience at LaSalle, Drexel, and Villanova. He played at Drexel, fits the Philadelphia culture, and has an amazing network in the city. Howard also has experience coaching on a National Championship team.

(01-28-2018 12:10 AM)Water Boy Wrote:  Have we lost to same bad teams from bad conferences, yes. We are inconsistent whether due to all the injuries and lack of continuity of the guys available or just ineptitude, but I happy to have us in the CAA as opposed to the #27 Patriot League that you advocated for.

Developing a few rivalries against Bucknell, Lafayette, and Lehigh might ignite some passion in the program. Drexel struggles to garner an attendance over 600, the basketball program has a lack or rivalries and absolutely no identity or culture.

What students want to watch Elon, Charleston, JMU, and UNCW? I don't know anyone that attended these schools.

That money is based on teams winning NCAA games. The CAA hasn’t won one since JMU’s play-in game win in 2013. That will change sometime. A team will find a way to win a game and the whole conference will benefit.

UNCW doesn’t have a lot of students from your area, but you’d be surprised how many Elon, Charleston and James Madison kids are from the Philly area. Elon and Charleston host admissions events every time they come up there.

Btw for the season we are 3-3 versus the top 100 RPI (1-1 against the top 50). Hardly a team that is just a write off as to being bad with no hope. There have been many seasons where we did not have that many games against top teams, even in good years of the CAA. Our conference is not as bad as you think it is.

I think everybody has become troll bait and has given bmf exactly what he wants...an unnecessary debate over stuff we have no control over. He keeps rehashing the same stuff for years, yet hasn't stepped foot in the DAC in that same amount of time.

Evan and SCTV, you guys provide some great information and statistics and you are welcome here anytime. But if you haven't noticed, bmf and his new sidekick who used to star on the Wonder Years, has been trolling the Drexel boards for over 10 years now, with complete and utter nonsense. I don't think that anybody needs to defend Drexel Basketball, the coaches, the AD, or the CAA. It's obvious that he (they) are just here to start trouble. If bmf really cared about making a difference, he would take DrachenFire's advice and bring make a million dollar donation to the university. Then maybe the President will listen.

While some of his points may be valid, we all know that we have absolutely no control of who coaches the team, or what conference they play in. All we can do is root for the Dragons and enjoy the ride.

Nobody is happy about the collapse of the men’s program, and I can assure you that many former Zoners are spitballing ways to turn things around amongst ourselves since the department/school seem indifferent.

Your PL infatuation remains crazy seeing as how you constantly rail against our academic metrics and financial situation, when the Patriot is second to the Ivy in terms of academics and we’d waste money moving from one 1 bid conference to another in which the money in would be divided more so than where we are. Nothing in your fantasy makes any sense, other than your belief that students would prefer watching us play Colgate or Holy Cross over Elon or WM.

(01-29-2018 03:25 PM)bmf25 Wrote:  Trolling? Drexel hasn't won a conference championship in 22 years! The program has lost to Division-2 schools, and we can't pay students to attend a basketball game. Has the athletic department transformed into North Korea? Are we all supposed to be apathetic like JB, and be impressed by the collapse of the men's basketball program.

I don't think anyone is happy with how the team is currently doing, but the improvement from rock bottom is clear, and there's no easy path to restoring excitement to the program. There are so many factors working against the program that the fact they even experienced the success they did is impressive. But unless you have some way to directly impact the inner workings of the athletic department, J.B. is right; being along for the ride is all we can do.

From my perspective, the fact that Drexel is even in the CAA in the first place is an accomplishment for the program; it's not a multi-bid conference but few mid-major conferences are (hell, even the A10 might only get one bid), and on the scale of mid-major conferences it's one of the better ones. It's a decent place for a program like Drexel, which faces so many problems due to the inherent nature of the university, to be in, especially since it gives good competition to the other sponsored varsity sports.

My baseline for expectations of Drexel MMB is this: .500 record or top 200 KenPom, and avoiding the bottom third of the conference. After bottoming out under Bruiser it was always going to be a process to return to that point, and the program appears to be on its way to doing so, perhaps by next year. I can already guess that you (or someone else) may slam me for having low expectations; maybe I do, but I prefer to have a low baseline for expectations and watch the program exceed them on occasion, than to have a high baseline for expectations and watch the program rarely, if ever, meet them.