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9/05/2022 6:05 pm  #21


Re: This should make everyone happy

GWRising wrote:

Wrighton said the quiet part out loud. Wrighton is very careful and does not shoot from the hip. He said what he said because he knows what the thought process is that is coming to a head. If you think he is close to the only one who thinks this (Board and Administration) you would be fooling yourself. I've told you for a long time that this day is coming. Absent a resurrection of men's basketball program to a level where we are competing for and playing in NCAA tournaments on a fairly regular basis in the next 3-5 years, I would be stunned if GW didn't pull the plug on the current situation and either drop down conferences (think Patriot) or drop down divisions (like Hartford). The economics don't make sense and GW is realizing virtually no one attends GW because they want a school with D1 athletics (save the athletes themselves). You can be angry, depressed or disbelieving about it but the writing has been on the wall for at least 5+ years now. 

Exactly!! If anyone thinks he doesn’t reflect the prevailing attitudes of the Board and Administrative Leaders they are nuts. No way he would say this casually off the cuff..

I’d like the Post to do a deep look at what the pandemic did to the finances and endowment at GW. I don’t trust the administration unequivocally; however, I’d be an idiot not to think a drop could be somewhat justifiable. It certainly looks like it has a lot more support than competing with even George Mason. Never mind VCU, Dayton, Davidson, St. Louis.

 

9/06/2022 10:55 am  #22


Re: This should make everyone happy

Even if Wrighton's remarks had some truth to them, the problem with articulating them is that he is in a leadership position (even if temporarily) and to an undecided Board Member or someone else of influence to hear these remarks tends to have the potential to tip the scales.

As for reactions, some of you are very pragmatic about all of this and that's certainly your prerogative.  However, if you visit this site with any regularity, I can't understand how you wouldn't feel outraged by what's been going on.  And let's face it.  This was not at issue under Jarvis, Penders, Hobbs or Lonergan.  We won the NIT one minute, reading about a largely ex-players revolt the next, and then watching our former athletic director's behavior soon thereafter.  I'd say about the worst thing we can let happen is to see the actions and behavior of this former athletic director linger to the point where it has essentially torn down this program.   

 

9/06/2022 11:40 am  #23


Re: This should make everyone happy

To recap, in the past 5 years since the NIT, our head coach was fired under false pretenses because of a vindictive sex predator in the administration, we've had three head coaches under an AD who is completely inexperienced, are renaming the team, and now are thinking about effectively ending the program, against an academic backdrop of being completely unranked nationally. Quite the trajectory. Proud alum here.
 

 

9/06/2022 11:48 am  #24


Re: This should make everyone happy

Gwmayhem - Again, I think Wrighton knew exactly what he was doing. I don't think he was trying to tip the scales. I believe the scales have either tipped or in the process of tipping. Maybe they are trying to make him the fall guy (interim President) so that the next guy can come in with a clean slate. I have no idea but I don't think this was a coincidence.

I am only pragmatic because I've learned over the past 6 years or so that GW does whatever the f*ck it wants regardless of what is either right or what is supported by alumni and donors. No need to recite all the instances as they are numerous and well known. As the old expression goes, "this is not your father's Oldsmobile" and in this case the older version was mostly far superior to the new one. I almost walked over the Diaz-JC termination after a lot of soul searching. They go to the Patriot League or D3, I won't even waste time writing posts about it here and I won't even let the door hit me on the way out. How's that for pragmatism? :-)
 

 

9/06/2022 12:04 pm  #25


Re: This should make everyone happy

Gwmayhem wrote:

This was not at issue under Jarvis, Penders, Hobbs or Lonergan.  

Huh? Richie Parker (Jarvis), The Penders Crap (Penders), the phony high schools (KH) and the Title IX office cowtowing to the coach/AD in detriment to the affected students (ML), have ALL contributed to questions being raised about the value of maintaining DI athletics at the University.
I like GW being a DI school, but this has been a slow drip that has been going on for a long time.

 

9/06/2022 2:02 pm  #26


Re: This should make everyone happy

Huh?
"Title IX office cowtowing to the coach/AD in detriment to the affected students"

ML was cleared by Title IX Office based after little Napoleon (Nero) caused a false complaint a year before leading his team to an D-1 NIT National Championship, the last GW will ever see.

Title IX Office never got to investigate Nero because he finagled a $1.6 million payout from our incompetent administration after sexually preying on undergrad and grad students at GW.

The list of bad decisions goes on and on and covers decades. This is why we can't compete anymore athletically and academically with the top schools.

Wrighton is just stating the obvious.

 

 

9/06/2022 2:10 pm  #27


Re: This should make everyone happy

I don't read too much into his comments about D3.  He is an interim President, and he appears to view GW as striving to be a Wash U, Emory or NYU etc, and they don't have big time sports programs.  

I have always thought that GW should either invest the $ into athletics and take it seriously, or throw in the towel on it.  There is no sense in having a program that diehard fans know will finish in the bottom half of the conference every year, before the season starts.  

Maybe the next President will put a priority on GW athletics, but frankly I am at the point where I no longer count on that happening.  It's just been a slide for too many years, and Covid hit and changed a lot, and I don't see what will give the program some lift at this point.

I agree with Wrighton on the transfer situation too.  Yes, we have benefitied from transfers coming in, but it now it is feeling like any GW freshman sensation is in the transfer portal following the season.  The BCS schools are now looking at schools like GW as a farm system.  So I feel like he could be right that it will be harder for GW to make a big run because we are not likely to have a team full of seniors like Pops, Hall, Omar etc because in this day and age, those guys leave. 
 

Last edited by Deleo (9/06/2022 2:11 pm)

 

9/06/2022 3:32 pm  #28


Re: This should make everyone happy

GW Alum Abroad wrote:

Gwmayhem wrote:

This was not at issue under Jarvis, Penders, Hobbs or Lonergan.  

Huh? Richie Parker (Jarvis), The Penders Crap (Penders), the phony high schools (KH) and the Title IX office cowtowing to the coach/AD in detriment to the affected students (ML), have ALL contributed to questions being raised about the value of maintaining DI athletics at the University.
I like GW being a DI school, but this has been a slow drip that has been going on for a long time.

While there is no disputing that these various scandals or situations did take place, was there ever any discussion about GW dropping to a lower conference or moving to D3 as a result of any of these instances?  If so, I believe I missed those conversations.  

 

9/06/2022 4:17 pm  #29


Re: This should make everyone happy

I’m shocked at how many people want to literally give up and end the program because we had 6 bad years (I realize it’s only 2 or 3 posters, but why would you even visit this site in the off-season if you’ve given up?)

 

9/06/2022 4:41 pm  #30


Re: This should make everyone happy

FQ, am not sure anyone WANTS to give up.  I'm pretty confident we all want the same thing.  What we're seeing though are that there are some who can either better understand or see the merits in giving up from a financial perspective.  For the record, while I can intellectually understand this, I am emotionally dead set against this.

 

9/06/2022 7:38 pm  #31


Re: This should make everyone happy

New coach, upgrading facilities, new hires, etc...doesnt sould to me like a program that is throwing in the towel.

 

9/06/2022 7:49 pm  #32


Re: This should make everyone happy

Gwmayhem wrote:

GW Alum Abroad wrote:

Gwmayhem wrote:

This was not at issue under Jarvis, Penders, Hobbs or Lonergan.  

Huh? Richie Parker (Jarvis), The Penders Crap (Penders), the phony high schools (KH) and the Title IX office cowtowing to the coach/AD in detriment to the affected students (ML), have ALL contributed to questions being raised about the value of maintaining DI athletics at the University.
I like GW being a DI school, but this has been a slow drip that has been going on for a long time.

While there is no disputing that these various scandals or situations did take place, was there ever any discussion about GW dropping to a lower conference or moving to D3 as a result of any of these instances?  If so, I believe I missed those conversations.  

Yes, particularly the Richie Parker and phony high school issues generated a great deal of grumbling, especially from the Faculty Senate. These were also the two incidents where the administration put its foot squarely in its mouth with public statements (at least the Penders Crap led to a "clean out your desk by the end of business today" type of adminstrative response, imagine if the school had gone the San Diego St or LSU or Penn St route on that one).
 

 

9/06/2022 10:26 pm  #33


Re: This should make everyone happy

Free Quebec wrote:

I’m shocked at how many people want to literally give up and end the program because we had 6 bad years (I realize it’s only 2 or 3 posters, but why would you even visit this site in the off-season if you’ve given up?)

Sounds like the president wants to give up

 

9/07/2022 6:19 am  #34


Re: This should make everyone happy

Skittles wrote:

Free Quebec wrote:

I’m shocked at how many people want to literally give up and end the program because we had 6 bad years (I realize it’s only 2 or 3 posters, but why would you even visit this site in the off-season if you’ve given up?)

Sounds like the president wants to give up

Right Skittles! What we this band of (your adjective here) is immaterial even if one of us could make a T Boone Pickens like contribution. What would make a difference is if we had UAB like school spirit when their football program was ended.

Our school’s passion surrounds the team name not the teams. The boards etc is taking a year+ to get the name “right” not fixing what we have.

 

9/07/2022 4:07 pm  #35


Re: This should make everyone happy

Before anyone invests money in the men's basketball program by purchasing tickets for the coming season, it would be nice to hear from the administration that there is a commitment to the success program. When we last heard from the president of the university we were told that GW really didn't belong in Division I athletics, which essentially sounded like, don't bother with GW men's basketball.  So we are supposed to spend our money on men's basketball when the university doesn't care about being in Division I or says we can't compete at that level.  It has to be a sad time for a new coach and the players. Is Wrighton trying to kill recruiting. Is Caputo outraged by what he said. Time for Wrighton or someone in the administration to speak up for men's basketball. If no one does, we can asume the program is headed to dumpster. Maybe that's what Wrighton and others want -- saying we can't compete, drive down the program and drop to Division III or just end the men's basketball program. 
  

 

9/07/2022 5:47 pm  #36


Re: This should make everyone happy

Self-fulfilling prophecy. Don’t buy tickets and prove that there’s no meaningful fan base to placate or satisfy. Last I looked, the student-athletes on all of GW teams give a damn. Wouldn’t hurt for supporters of the school to reciprocate and back the players. Argue about chicken or egg all you want. I’d prefer that the school ends up deciding to abandon me long before I would choose to abandon the coaches and players and athletic staff I’ve been supporting for over 50 years.

     Thread Starter
 

9/07/2022 7:12 pm  #37


Re: This should make everyone happy

Who cares what the president says about the basketball program? I mean, how involved is he in the program anyway? I imagine (hope) he has more important things to think about. All I care about is what the coaches and players think about if GW can compete, and to a lesser extent the AD.

Last edited by DC Native (9/07/2022 7:12 pm)

 

9/07/2022 10:25 pm  #38


Re: This should make everyone happy

Shame on the university president for saying such a thing. If the administration gave a damn about the success of the program over its long history, there would be no basis for even thinking about throwing in the towel. If the school ever drops down a league, I'm outta here--after 57 years!!!

 

9/08/2022 7:43 am  #39


Re: This should make everyone happy

Virtually every college president hates the external influence of major sports, but loves the $$$ and alumni engagement it delivers.  How many such presidents have lost their jobs or spent more hours than they ever cared handling sports-related issues and problems.

Unfortunately, past MBB success and the passion of a just a handful of people on this board, it has never sustained the long-term interest and financial support of the vast majority of our students that can overcome such indifference or ambivalence toward basketball.

I'm not  sure if Wrighton knew he was on the record or not, but I respect the candor.  In addition, maybe there is more nuance to his remarks than conveyed.  For example, he is stating the obvious that a mid-major like GW without a deep bench of alumni or other financial support is going to get killed in the new, already-upon-is world of NIL/transfer portal and TV contracts in terms of being a meaningful sustained threat in the upper echelons of D-1 basketball.  Perhaps he was suggesting that given the GW experience in this realm, knowing what he knows now and looking into the future, D-3 would have been the best pathway in maximizing what GW can offer students and the broader community. 

My sarcastic side says GW students with forgiven student loans should start a collective with some of their savings.  However, putting sarcasm aside, successful managers take their employees where they are and try to maximize their strengths. While we may experience short-term spurts of high performance in an area that is not a strength, if we continue to treat that individual's level of performance as the operative baseline for the future, we are bound to be disappointed when our expectations are not met and we detract from maximizing the value of that employee where they can be successful.  A John Kopriva can score 17 points in a game once in a while, but that's not their role and we shouldn't build an offense around that expectation.

Look, I'm as disappointed as everyone with the reality staring us in the face (arguably telling the emperor she has no clothes), but agree with Poog that I'll continue to support our folks--simply because I believe it's an appropriate thing to do until other priorities take over.   I love GW basketball, but not ahead of my family and so many other priorities of the world.  Heck, just think of how much greatness all of us could contribute to the greater good if we spent as much time on other pursuits as we do focused on GW basketball.      

 

9/08/2022 10:40 am  #40


Re: This should make everyone happy

If this program can't succeed at the D1 level, that's just a cop out. As I said before, plenty of schools with fewer students and alumni, much smaller endowments, and less attractiveness than GW are succeeding at the D1 level. Maybe the signing of Caputo, for which the university obviously had to shell out more money than ever before, is a sign that the school does give a damn. Win games and they--even the students-- will come. When Mike Jarvis was here there was so much excitement at every game that I thought the program was on a trajectory to real success, but hiring coaches on the cheap and a scandal put an end to that.. How could the school not realize, without football, the many benefits of having a successful D! program? Those benefits: increased student and alumni attendance, increased alumni contributions, increased TV, radio, and newspaper coverage, an increase in undergraduate applications, and on and on. By the way, I disagree with an earlier poster that what the university president says and does about the program is not important. The crowd got really pumped up every time President Trachtenberg came to a game, sat with the fans, and cheered the team on. His presence was the strongest show of support possible for the program. Maybe the new president should do the same.

 

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