guru
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Post by guru on Dec 22, 2005 10:32:41 GMT -5
On his radio show, TK just went off for about a minute or two about how stupid it is for Georgetown to schedule this game at the MCI Center. Referred to Camille's reference to the "announced crowd" of 4800, and said that usually means the reporter thinks the actual crowd was nowhere near that large. Said the building has to lose money on this game - and why not put it in McD, where it would have been full and there would have been a far better atmosphere. Have to say he's got a point. Why do the Hoyas play most of these early season cupcakes at MCI Center? So they can stick it to their season ticket holders? Makes no sense.
Also, caught a very brief bit of a Feinstein appearance on WTEM last night. Someone called in about G-town and the M&T Bank Classic (or whatever his local charity tourney is gone) and Feinstein said all JTIII has to do is pick up the phone and tell him the Hoyas are willing to play GW, UMD or even a non-local opponent and they would love to have Georgetown as a part of it. He did put some of the onus on UMD, though, when he said the idea of putting G-town against the Terps would probably make Gary Williams bring up the whole College Park issue again.
In any case, JT3 needs to do something more about this early season schedule. Even with a few bigger names, there is absolutely no buzz about the team at this point, locally or nationally. The recruiting stuff looks great, but no one seems very excited about this year's team.
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prhoya
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Post by prhoya on Dec 22, 2005 10:46:48 GMT -5
Damned if you do, damned if you don't...
It used to be that under JT2 everyone made fun of our early season schedule. There certainly was a "buzz" around our team, as you call it.
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Jack
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Post by Jack on Dec 22, 2005 10:48:05 GMT -5
Re: Games at MCI- I believe there are contractual issues with MCI requiring GU to play home games there unless it is unavailable, so opportunities to play at McD are limited. That is not to say you could not attempt to negotiate a more favorable contract, but last night I am not sure you would want to play at McD either- there would have been about 300 people at the game in that case- students are gone and getting to Georgetown is a lot tougher than getting to Metro-accessible MCI on a weeknight.
The real problem is not where the game was played, but the opponent- playing both Stetson and Savannah St. is one truly horrible cupcake too many. The early schedule did present an opportunity for generating buzz, but only with a win over Illinois. It's ok to lose that game, but you cannot expect people to be really excited about the team until they beat a real contender, and Oregon does not count this year.
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Post by hoyaparanoia1984 on Dec 22, 2005 11:06:40 GMT -5
I would like to get rid of maybe 3-4 games like this and maybe get a traditonal program in that could be "bubble" teams like Indiana,Temple,LSU(used to play them) or even someone like the Penn St, Clemson, or Florida St. SOMEONE that at least plays basketball at a DI level. This would get us back on the TV and probably help in recruiting.
I can remember there would be atleast 10 games televised nationally through the year
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Post by Nitrorebel on Dec 22, 2005 11:12:58 GMT -5
JT3's schedule this year is a step in the right direction, but I felt he was exaggerating about how tough the OOC schedule was. Duke and Illinois are good losses and not expected to be wins, so the only real competitive games scheduled are Vandy and Oregon. I also agree that these terrible opponents really are useless, from a buzz standpoint, RPI standpoint and every other standpoint as well.
However, I hope that as JT3 has more time to set up home-and-homes, get invitations to Maui/Alaska, and get more experience in juggling all the MCI vagaries (Caps/Wizards schedule, etc), that the OOC schedule will continue to improve. This year represents a step in the right direction, esp. when I look at Cuse or Pitt's schedule.
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DFW HOYA
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Post by DFW HOYA on Dec 22, 2005 11:19:06 GMT -5
I'm not going to criticize the staff on this one, because it was probably tied in with the amorphous "Hispanic Fund Classic" tournament. Getting Oregon may have been contingent with picking up Stetson and Sav State.
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YB
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Post by YB on Dec 22, 2005 11:24:40 GMT -5
I'd like everyone to keep in mind a couple of things here:
-Our team does need to be able to study during exam period. This means, for about a week or 2 at thistime of year, their focus cannot be on bball. Sorry, but this is a byproduct of not going to Univ of Maryland- De De De Park. Regardless, you have to say that our sched this year much improved- 5 decent games and 2 against mid majors at their places. Not too shabby. And only 3 cupcakes at home! That's less than most major programs, including UM.
-Our MCI contract requires a certain # of games at MCI each year. This limits how many we could put in McD- regardless of how much all of us- me, Coach, everyone- likes McD better.
-When it makes sense for us from a schedule and UM standpoint to be in Potato Head's silly tournament, we'll do it. But he created a ton of that bad blood, as did Gary, so I fail to see why we have to apologize for their being chicken-s--t. Gary doesn't want to play us bc he doesn't want to have the clear #3 program in the area, plain and simple.
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DanMcQ
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Post by DanMcQ on Dec 22, 2005 11:27:26 GMT -5
I'm not going to criticize the staff on this one, because it was probably tied in with the amorphous "Hispanic Fund Classic" tournament. Getting Oregon may have been contingent with picking up Stetson and Sav State. The bit at the end of the Post article yesterday indicates you're right:
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 22, 2005 11:35:02 GMT -5
One of the real keys to the schedule RPI-wise is that we went on the road to play Navy and JMU. Neither is a great opponent to have on the schedule, but playing in their gyms will be a big help. I'll suffer through Stetson and Savannah St. knowing that we also went to Oregon and to Illinois...
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PhillyHoya
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Post by PhillyHoya on Dec 22, 2005 12:12:16 GMT -5
The only reason Stetson was at McD was because Bon Jovi was playing MCI that night.
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CO_Hoya
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Post by CO_Hoya on Dec 22, 2005 12:25:32 GMT -5
My standard rejoinder to this that we would better served playing local cupcakes (Hispanic Fund Classic requirements excluded).
The advantages of playing Howard, Geroge Mason, Loyola, American, etc. include better turnout at MCI, better coverage in the local media, and better motivation for our local kids, playing for bragging rights.
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lichoya68
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OK YOUNGINS ARE HERE AND ARE VERY VERY GOOD cant wait GO HOYAS
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Post by lichoya68 on Dec 22, 2005 12:33:37 GMT -5
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lichoya68
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OK YOUNGINS ARE HERE AND ARE VERY VERY GOOD cant wait GO HOYAS
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Post by lichoya68 on Dec 22, 2005 12:34:34 GMT -5
ps gary still owes us a game at md fifty fify seats and gate hoyas STILL waiting for that what we aint stupid.. go hoyas
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YB
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Post by YB on Dec 22, 2005 12:43:03 GMT -5
Well said, lic. Happy Holidays!
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Eurostar
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Post by Eurostar on Dec 22, 2005 13:29:20 GMT -5
the schedule this year is very good, but not perfect. in my opinion, stetson and sav st. are just too bad for us to play even at finals time. it really hurts our rpi. replacing those 300+ rpi teams with a couple around 200-250 would be perfect. this would give us our guaranteed win with little practice time around finals, and wouldnt damage our rpi too much.
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aggypryd
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Post by aggypryd on Dec 22, 2005 13:52:32 GMT -5
I really don't mind playing these type of opponents...it gives us opportunities to work on things...and for a lot of schools like Savannah St., the MEAC and SWAC schools, Georgetown is still very important...most of us live and die with each loss as well...(except Howard...they're so fickle)
Also...When JTII was getting ridiculed for scheduling such opponents, he fired back that when he was trying to build his program, these were the only types of teams that would schedule the Hoyas...why should he turn his back on them now that Georgetown has had some success?
That would be like...hmmm...B.C. running to the ACC and turning their backs on us...
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guru
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Post by guru on Dec 22, 2005 14:43:46 GMT -5
I'm not sure that picking up Oregon this year was worth picking up Stetson and Savannah State. I suspect that by the end of the season, that trade off will be a wash, RPI-wise.
As for the "kids need to study during exams" argument, I think we as Hoya fans have to be realistic about the numbers published on DFW's front page yesterday. This is clearly not a program that is putting academics first - which is fine, since the vast majority of competitive D-1 hoops schools operate in the same manner, and if we want to see W's, we can't expect straight A's. But the act that we are somehow holier than other schools in this regard just doesn't hold up anymore. No matter how you choose to spin them, those numbers were ug,ug, ugly.
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SFHoya99
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Post by SFHoya99 on Dec 22, 2005 14:47:12 GMT -5
The schedule was and is fine. I'm not a huge fan of Stetson and Savannah, because we'd be much better off getting RPI 200 teams there instead of 300+, but other than that how can you complain?
Oregon SHOULD have been an NCAA team this year. It's not JTIII's fault the team is struggling. Vandy likely will be. We could have beaten Illinois. We played like crap, and only lost by ten. We can beat Duke. UTEP is looking very much like a Clemson-caliber opponent -- a must win, but a good around 100 RPI opponent.
Just because Oregon sucks and we played poorly versus Illinois doesn't mean the schedule was off.
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YB
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Post by YB on Dec 22, 2005 14:49:00 GMT -5
Not to nit-pick guru, because there is some validity to your concerns about our academics, but I'd like to point out that the survey noted on the front page did not take into account transfers or early draft entries or those who stayed for more than 5 years. So people like DJ, Sweetney, Ray Reed, Guibunda, and others who transferred (mainly in the Esh era) would have worked against us. That said, there has been absolutely nothing to suggest that those who do stay 4 years (or even 5) do not get their degrees.
Bottom line is that those who don't transfer or take NBA money do pretty well academically here, largely because they focus in when needed. And that does include at exam/MEAC time.
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DFW HOYA
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Post by DFW HOYA on Dec 22, 2005 14:50:45 GMT -5
Also...When JTII was getting ridiculed for scheduling such opponents, he fired back that when he was trying to build his program, these were the only types of teams that would schedule the Hoyas...why should he turn his back on them now that Georgetown has had some success? Disagree. Yes, St. Leo was there at the beginning, but the teams that were scheduling Georgetown in the 1970's (Fordham, Holy Cross, St. Peter's, Manhattan, St. Joe's, Fairfield) all fell off the schedule by 1980. As for the MEAC's, Morgan State wasn't even an opponent for the first 10 years of Thompson's coaching tenure, Bethune Cookman didn't arrive until 1992, and, as MEAC folks will tell you, Georgetown never did schedule Coppin. Thompson earned the right to be selective on his schedule, but it set in place a national mindset about scheduling that follows the school's reputation to this day.
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