Thank you Gwmayhem. The GW administration has to make a strong statement of investment and support (money) to show that it cares about a winning men's basketball program.  We have not seen that commitment from the admistration under the Knapp and LeBlanc.

There was a great article about Loyola's addition to the A-10 at On3 (How Loyola Chicago prepared for its first year in the A-10 - On3).  Loyola's AD mentioned how they went to Gonzaga after the final four run to hear how to capitalize on their success (GW should've done this after 2006).  The key takeaway is that there must be "institutional alignment."

The value of institutional alignment
Before the A-10 evaluated Loyola Chicago based on its institutional fit, the university needed its internal institutional alignment.

In the summer of 2018, after the Ramblers made the Final Four, Watson, President Jo Ann Rooney, Senior Vice President for Administrative Services Tom Kelly and then-Chair of Loyola Chicago’s Board of Trustees Bob Parkinson traveled to Gonzaga to learn how the former mid-major men’s basketball program became one of the best in the sport. The group spent time with Gonzaga’s AD and president.

“Obviously, aspirational,” Watson said, laughing. “We’ve got a long way to go to get where Gonzaga is but that was our intent.”

The Loyola Chicago contingent certainly wasn’t the first — and likely not the last — to fly to Spokane to try to learn from Gonzaga’s roughly 30-year climb to prominence. However, Watson said Loyola Chicago was the first school to bring stakeholders who held those four specific roles.

“A lot of people want to talk to Gonzaga,” Watson said. “‘What’s the secret sauce?’ Or, ‘What’s the one thing?’ But nobody had ever done what we had done.”

Watson remembers repeatedly hearing the phrase “institutional alignment” when the Loyola Chicago leaders visited Gonzaga. Gonzaga’s president and AD “spoke the same language,” Watson said.

Amid changes at the presidential level and within the Board of Trustees, Watson believes that alignment will continue to exist at Loyola Chicago. Like Watson learned from his trip to Gonzaga, there’s not one single key to success.

“The success that we’ve experienced goes back 15 years,” he said, “when our former president, Father [Mike] Garanzini, he had a plan to invest in athletics.”

The Odom thing doesn't surprise me one bit because GW has not had institutional alignment ever since Omargate.

We're basically the Oakland A's of the A10.  We've had some success and even gotten close to being a top tier team in the conference.  But we've done it on a bare bones budget, with inadequate facilities, and without any ability to sustain success for more than a couple of years because our leadership does not speak with one voice when it comes to athletics.  

Clearly UMass and URI got into institutional alignment given the resources expended to improve their programs in the offseason.  Meanwhile, it took GW weeks to lock in the coach everyone thought was getting the job on day 1 and the only improvement we've seen so far is a one-way NetJets flight.
 

Last edited by GW0509 (8/31/2022 11:33 am)

As an easy point of comparison (thanks to CC), I can point to what sparked the University of Miami to begin investing more money into athletics. If anyone hasn’t seen the clip, Kirk Herbstreit called out the UM administration regarding athletics (based on an article written by the Miami Herald’s Barry Jackson, who is excellent). Obviously GW will never get called out by someone on college gameday, but the idea kinda stands where there needs to be some sort of public callout by an influential media member that singles out the administration in an embarrassing manner. We are not the university of Miami in terms of athletics and never will be, but to an extent I believe something along those lines must happen for GW to begin taking athletics serious again.

Sorry if this results in a double post.

“The Odom thing doesn't surprise me one bit because GW has not had institutional alignment ever since Omargate.”

This rings so true UNLESS the current situation reflects intuitional alignment where MBB gets lip service while championships in gymnastics and softball fulfill the Athletic Department’s mission?

Sigh! When will I learn that it’s actions not words that count.

FredD wrote:

Sorry if this results in a double post.

“The Odom thing doesn't surprise me one bit because GW has not had institutional alignment ever since Omargate.”

This rings so true UNLESS the current situation reflects intuitional alignment where MBB gets lip service while championships in gymnastics and softball fulfill the Athletic Department’s mission?

Sigh! When will I learn that it’s actions not words that count.

I happen to have gotten great enjoyment and pride from the championships in gymnastics and softball while lamenting the shortcomings in volleyball and men's basketball. Those student-athletes work just as hard and represent the best of the university as well as all the other athletes at GW.  As for support for sports and athletes, I happened across this section of a March 16, 1972 article by Dave Simmons in The Hatchet entitled "After College -- Dilemma of GW Athletes" 

"How do the senior players feel about the scholarship program here? Robbie Spagnolo, who spent three years at the University of Miami before transferring here last fall after UM dropped basketball, says there is no comparison between the two schools. Whereas Miami gave its players first class treatment, GW treats its athletes 'as though we owe them. Individual athletes don't matter here.'

Spagnolo cites as an instance where the athletic director balked at paying an $80 medical bill for an ankle injury he incurred early in the season. Other small hassles that never came up at Miami were things like insufficient meal money in New York City, and the bus breaking down on a New Jersey highway.

Though he rates the athletic program here as small time compared to Miami's, he says the GW coaching staff is far superior to the one he left behind. He also considered GW a much better school academically.

Spagnolo, a speech and communications major, will be graduating next January due to a loss in credits while transferring. He plans to go into radio or television work, but as for help from the athletic department in landing a job, he is 'not counting on it. They've never offered help yet, so I don't expect it.'

Robbie has no regrets about the move in which GW granted him a partial scholarship - tuition and books. 'I got the deal I wanted.' However, he claims 'GW got the bargain' because they never would have finished 11-14 without him."

Not all players cited in the article were as sour as Spagnolo but the GW situation rings familiar even as the school has done better since those days when Bob Faris was the AD.  The athletic landscape they compete in has changed and grown even more. But GW is still GW. Athletics will just not be the end all, be all at the school. The problem is that coaches are held to a higher standard and fans hold a higher expectation for success than are reasonable given the financial resources provided. All kinds of solutions - chartered flights, stacked academic/athletic scholarships, lowered admissions standards, practice facilities, lower conference affiliation etc. Surely there must be a well-healed somebody out there who likes sports, isn't a moral asshole and has a soft spot for the old alma mater or that of their child or the school that housed the hospital that saved their life. Until that person pops up or the Board concerns itself enough to improve the situation beyond worrying about whether we continue to get mislabeled as the Colonels because of our nickname or mistakenly called Georgetown because they're better known, then our situation won't change. Don't have to like it. But get used to it.

Last edited by Poog (9/01/2022 10:29 am)

Poog wrote:

FredD wrote:

Sorry if this results in a double post.

“The Odom thing doesn't surprise me one bit because GW has not had institutional alignment ever since Omargate.”

This rings so true UNLESS the current situation reflects intuitional alignment where MBB gets lip service while championships in gymnastics and softball fulfill the Athletic Department’s mission?

Sigh! When will I learn that it’s actions not words that count.

I happen to have gotten great enjoyment and pride from the championships in gymnastics and softball while lamenting the shortcomings in volleyball and men's basketball. Those student-athletes work just as hard and represent the best of the university as well as all the other athletes at GW.  As for support for sports and athletes, I happened across this section of a March 16, 1972 article by Dave Simmons in The Hatchet entitled "After College -- Dilemma of GW Athletes" 

"How do the senior players feel about the scholarship program here? Robbie Spagnolo, who spent three years at the University of Miami before transferring here last fall after UM dropped basketball, says there is no comparison between the two schools. Whereas Miami gave its players first class treatment, GW treats its athletes 'as though we owe them. Individual athletes don't matter here.'

Spagnolo cites as an instance where the athletic director balked at paying an $80 medical bill for an ankle injury he incurred early in the season. Other small hassles that never came up at Miami were things like insufficient meal money in New York City, and the bus breaking down on a New Jersey highway.

Though he rates the athletic program here as small time compared to Miami's, he says the GW coaching staff is far superior to the one he left behind. He also considered GW a much better school academically.

Spagnolo, a speech and communications major, will be graduating next January due to a loss in credits while transferring. He plans to go into radio or television work, but as for help from the athletic department in landing a job, he is 'not counting on it. They've never offered help yet, so I don't expect it.'

Robbie has no regrets about the move in which GW granted him a partial scholarship - tuition and books. 'I got the deal I wanted.' However, he claims 'GW got the bargain' because they never would have finished 11-14 without him."

Not all players cited in the article were as sour as Spagnolo but the GW situation rings familiar even as the school has done better since those days when Bob Faris was the AD.  The athletic landscape they compete in has changed and grown even more. But GW is still GW. Athletics will just not be the end all, be all at the school. The problem is that coaches are held to a higher standard and fans hold a higher expectation for success than are reasonable given the financial resources provided. All kinds of solutions - chartered flights, stacked academic/athletic scholarships, lowered admissions standards, practice facilities, lower conference affiliation etc. Surely there must be a well-healed somebody out there who likes sports, isn't a moral asshole and has a soft spot for the old alma mater or that of their child or the school that housed the hospital that saved their life. Until that person pops up or the Board concerns itself enough to improve the situation beyond worrying about whether we continue to get mislabeled as the Colonels because of our nickname or mistakenly called Georgetown because they're better known, then our situation won't change. Don't have to like it. But get used to it.

Rather than direct my question at 1 person. Does anyone think they are executing their plan and that its the pandemic related disruption and LeBlanc's departure that has them wobbling?

I stand by this point. In the past GW could build a winner in Men’s Basketball. They had a puncher's chance. If I give up on those expectations I’ll give up my tickets eventually bc once I’m retired the tickets and club dues will be serious money. And that will suck.

Last edited by FredD (9/02/2022 8:27 am)