Bando
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Post by Bando on Sept 21, 2011 12:32:29 GMT -5
The Armory has only bleachers. It hosts other events like roller derby, which leaves the court looking like a crappy high school. There are no bars or restaurants within short walking distance. It's on the complete opposite side of the city of the university.
Let's work on maximizing attendance at our downtown, ridiculously convenient arena and stop talking about downgrading game facilities.
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Bando
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Post by Bando on Sept 21, 2011 1:00:17 GMT -5
I understand the sentiment for stability, everyone likes security, but we are going to be able to make much more money by riding out SU/Pitt for another 2 seasons and then moving along with the hybrid conference that will have a TV contract. I just do not understand the rush to move to this basketball only conference that will undoubtedly result in less money for the University. I would like to think this may "wake up" our adminstration and reinvest in the program and athletic dept in general. Right now, I do not feel like Gtown could compete resource-wise as a program without a strong conference affiliation. Take the next 4 years to invest and be ready for the inevitable. But until this inevitable situation arises, why rush it? I would assume every other non-fball school feels the same way. There are not enough teams to add to not accomodate the non-fb schools. They will get to 10 probably by adding 3 programs - UCF, Memphis and Houston/ECU. Yes, Gtown and the non-fb schools will have nearly no input into who to add, but who really cares. If they get Memphis I would be happy from a bball standpoint. Just no reason to rush things right now, I cannot believe it but it appears cooler heads are prevailing right now. Now its time to reflect on what d-bags Pitt and SU were to leave out of panic. I don't think anyone advocating the Catholic (or really, bball-only) conference was disagreeing with you. Speaking for myself only, I was just trying to advocate proactiveness and making the best of a bad situation. Seriously, what actually ended up happening tonight was the least likely thing I thought could happen.
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Bando
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Post by Bando on Sept 21, 2011 0:50:59 GMT -5
If I've learned anything during this realignment, it's that the football schools will eventually leave us. It can be delayed, but it's inevitable. We need to have a ready backup plan, we need to up the cost of leaving substantially (calling basketball-only seed money), and we need to make sure the basketball schools are in a position to keep the conference name.
Er, or what MCIGuy said (sorry, didn't see that before posting)
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Bando
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Post by Bando on Sept 20, 2011 17:06:40 GMT -5
I'd like to associate myself with RBHoya's remarks.
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Bando
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Post by Bando on Sept 20, 2011 15:32:29 GMT -5
*Trying hard to stop posting*... Not to be the "Told ya so" guy, but I am glad to see some people coming around to the need for a place to play games on-campus (and not just a practice facility). I've thought/feared for 5 or 6 years now that a day of reckoning would come, where we'd be split from the football schools and forced to fend for ourselves. And in that scenario, I feel MUCH more optimistic about our chances for success if we have a renovated McDonough that is capable of hosting men's games. NOT a big, new shiny stadium like the Pete or Comcast. But basically, knocking out some walls in McDonough to add in additional and steeper risers to cram more people in. It will not be pretty or state of the art, but it could be a great environment for some home games and would make us a much more stable program. Many people blew off the idea, telling me that McD was too hard to get to, we needed to stay in Verizon. I tried to explain that Verizon is great for a schedule packed with Cuse and UConn and Pitt, but might not be so great if our conference blows up. Here we are. Plus side, there is still a small amount of time if we act fast. Some semblance of the BE is going to exist for another year or two. We can hopefully survive another year or two beyond that by playing in Verizon (with a few McD games per year) before the air starts to come out of the balloon and the attendance starts to dwindle. That SHOULD be enough time to get something done, if the permits and whatnot were in place. Somehow, I doubt it. I suspect we're looking at several years of curtained off upperdecks at Verizon. If we're playing games at an expanded McDonough, then we really are a mid-major. Even a 6000 seat arena would kill season ticket sales (only 100 alumni allowed to go to games!), and the transportation situation would be a complete clusterf---. I continue to be amazed that people see the big enough, on top of a transportation hub Verizon Center as some sort of great evil.
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Bando
Golden Hoya (over 1000 posts)
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Post by Bando on Sept 20, 2011 13:25:13 GMT -5
I've said this before, but it bears repeating: a CYO league will be the beginning of the end of any major college basketball at Georgetown. With less TV revenue and declining local interest, Georgetown basketball will resemble that of Holy Cross. It doesn't look like we're going to have a choice, DFW. If we don't get invited to the Big 12, what other option do we have? Also, Clutter Police, arrest this man.
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Bando
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Post by Bando on Sept 20, 2011 13:05:12 GMT -5
I think we're going to have no choice but to join the basketball-only Big East. If today's reports are correct, then the Big East teams will merge into the Big 12, not the other way around. Which means that even if we're accepted into such a league, we'll lose the conference name and tournament. In three years when this all happens again, we'll be forced to create a basketball-only conference anyway, but from scratch, which will be much harder all around. Better to just do it now and keep the very thing we need (the conference name) to keep us viable for a little bit.
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Bando
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Post by Bando on Sept 20, 2011 10:51:21 GMT -5
Does our basketball super-conference include UCLA? How about Kentucky, Duke, or North Carolina? I guess we whiffed on Kansas and Indiana, too. Did we at least get Syracuse? Oh. What is being proposed on this board is not a basketball super-conference. It's a regional small-school disaster that sounds great to myopic east-coasters but will have little national appeal and will likely fail to generate significant television revenue. Austin, care to tell us what your plan is? Do you really think the Big12 (or the ACC) is going to take a bunch of basketball-only schools? The other posters are making lemonade out of lemons, and you're chastising them for not grasping onto some impossible ideal.
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Bando
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Post by Bando on Sept 20, 2011 1:13:45 GMT -5
Or even better, kick out SHU and DePaul, invite UMass and Dayton. No St. Joe's or Temple, that will only Edited off Nova.
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Bando
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Post by Bando on Sept 20, 2011 0:59:10 GMT -5
I see no reason why the ACC would want all the trouble of being a hybrid league. Even if we were junior partners. No, the two realistic options are (assuming UConn, Rutgers, and WVU bolt):
1. Big East/Big 12 Merger
Football: Louisville, Cincinnati, USF, TCU, Iowa State, Baylor, Kansas State, Kansas, Missouri (add 3 more from C-USA for 12)
Basketball: DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Notre Dame, Providence, St. John's, Seton Hall, Villanova
Probably most likely to happen, has same problems as previous iterations (reliant on football teams that will leave at first opportunity), keeps league together for a few years
2. Back to basketball only
This only works if they keep the Big East name (and thus the tournament for a few more years), which gives us a chance to show that this "basketball major" thing can work.
DePaul Georgetown Marquette Notre Dame Providence St. John's Seton Hall Villanova Xavier Butler
True round robin, hope ESPN is still interested.
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Bando
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TV
Sept 19, 2011 14:38:46 GMT -5
Post by Bando on Sept 19, 2011 14:38:46 GMT -5
(I didn't think we were allowed to post on other topics today...thanks for being a trailblazer Boz) Nothing brings the B&G board political combatants together like freaking out about basketball. And congrats to Dinklage as well. I like that the first line of his speech was fretting that he was following Scorcese.
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Bando
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Post by Bando on Sept 18, 2011 22:55:09 GMT -5
Guys/gals: I realize we're upset and that leads us to talking about going FBS, but really, that's impossible. We can only occasionally fill the Verizon Center, usually with opposing fans. How in the hell are we going to fill a FBS-size football stadium? That's not even considering where the hell we would put such a stadium (the city already has plans for the RFK site, sadly). We're an urban school, we should double down on basketball.
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Bando
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Post by Bando on Sept 18, 2011 17:40:14 GMT -5
Do we really have the students/alumni to fill a football arena on a consistent basis?
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Bando
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Post by Bando on Sept 18, 2011 17:33:44 GMT -5
I think we should screw St. John's, Provvy, etc., band with Nova, and beg for junior membership in the ACC. I've read this ACC thing in a couple of different posts/sites so I'm not singling you out. But what do we offer the ACC (remember that this is all about $$$)? They already have a strong presence in DC. It feels like Temple or 'nova have a better shot at the ACC pipe dream than we do. We offer absolutely nothing. Hence the begging.
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Bando
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Post by Bando on Sept 18, 2011 17:20:14 GMT -5
Man, we wouldn't be so screwed if we had negotiated the TV contract before all this. Then we could have kept the Big East name and done whatever we wanted (even a basketball-only conference). It would have given us a chance to show that such a league could be profitable, and would have kept the automatic bid and the tournament in MSG. Now we'd be asking someone to take a chance on such a league, and I doubt anyone would bite.
I think we should screw St. John's, Provvy, etc., band with Nova, and beg for junior membership in the ACC.
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Bando
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Post by Bando on Sept 13, 2011 18:53:14 GMT -5
My baseless speculation: Dany's other riders are Jon and Aegon, Jon and Dany marry and happily rule Westeros. Or not, as Aegon has the better claim. Hmm. I guess he's going to have to die for this to work.
Also, we're going to have to meet Howland Reed (Meera and Jojen's father) for this to work, as he's the only person still alive who was at the Tower of Joy when this all went down.
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Bando
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Post by Bando on Sept 13, 2011 17:07:12 GMT -5
Jon can't actually be dead. He just can't. Mellisandre's going to resurrect him or something, and I still think he's the offspring of Rheagar and Lyanna. Still, his was probably the best story in the ADWD. If Jon is Rhaegar's son, then he is a Targaryean and will inevitably find his story meshed with Dany as she looks for the other two dragonriders. Martin does a phenomenal job of sprinkling all of these little asides about Ned Stark knocking up local women all across the Seven Kingdoms, which must have been a calculated ploy on Ned's part in order to keep his best friend from murdering his sister's son. It adds a humorous note when re-reading the series to see the number of times a character says "Ned Stark couldn't possibly have fathered a bastard!" when in fact, he in all likelihood didn't. My thoughts exactly. Although if Jon isn't Rhaegar's son, that's totally plausible as well. If he is, then the Song of Ice (Stark) and Fire (Targareyn) is completely about him.
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Bando
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Post by Bando on Sept 13, 2011 16:07:08 GMT -5
I actually thought that everything that happened in The North (Bran/Jon/Davos/Theon/Asha) was pretty great. I'm actually fine with the Battle of Winterfell happening off-screen, as there's some ambiguity there (why does Ramsey think Theon and Jeyne are at the Wall?)
Jon can't actually be dead. He just can't. Mellisandre's going to resurrect him or something, and I still think he's the offspring of Rheagar and Lyanna. Still, his was probably the best story in the ADWD.
Davos' story was a little short. And who really gives a Edited about Rickon?
I thought Dany's ending was strong. Still, she better leave Meereen in "The Winds of Winter". We get it, she's trying to rule but can't. Seriously, we get it.
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Bando
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Post by Bando on Sept 13, 2011 13:25:43 GMT -5
I felt that Quentin Martell's chapters were unnecessary, and his actions could have been relayed by Barristan or something. Victarion was pretty unnecessary too, and could have waited until the next book.
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Bando
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Post by Bando on Sept 12, 2011 12:49:38 GMT -5
Pawlenty endorses Romney. This changes everything!!!!!!
(not really)
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