NORTH TEXAS (7-5) at WICHITA STATE (8-5) Pregame Discussion

[AZ Shocker]

That's good and all for North Texas. Cool that they have over 40k and go to bowl games. Not cool the brand name recognition. Still stings that we are Houston and Cincinati-less. And soon to be SMU-less. When Memphis goes...oh boy.......

[C0|dB|00ded]

40k enrollment in a state with 29m, Dallas metroplex has almost 7m. Grand Canyon University has over 65k enrollment. I wouldn’t want them as a conference member either. Big Deal.

Any football program with a .500 season gets a bowl invitation.
Big Deal.

A lot of posters in Shockernet are not very aspirational or inspirational. Sights are too low.

Do you think we could use ALL our NIL money to get into the Big Priest. Hell, I'd go up to Omaha and deliver the check to BJ myself. I'd even start calling them Creighton. Please... PLEASE, can we leave the conference of POP-UP universities.

Full Disclosure: The Smaller12 got a pop up university of their own in UCF. That school was an embarrassment to me. Like Butler County Community on steroids.

I held my nose playing the likes of UCF and ECU. Now the entire conference is like one big baby diaper. AND we lost our fearless leader. And when I say fearless, I do mean FEARLESS.

I'm sorry. I just... Northern Texas. We fell from such a mountain top. STRAIGHT THE **** DOWN to sea level (or below).

[C0|dB|00ded]

That's good and all for North Texas. Cool that they have over 40k and go to bowl games. Not cool the brand name recognition. Still stings that we are Houston and Cincinati-less. And soon to be SMU-less. When Memphis goes...oh boy.......

Houston is a miracle. They were the joke of basketball for nearly half a century. But they aren't Northern Texas CC.

I don't even think we've stopped falling yet.

Why the **** did we hire an assistant coach with ZERO head coaching experience. We could have had Pitino...

We learn absolutely NOTHING from the 90's. So self-assured we can't fall all the way back. And here we are...

This was a break-the-glass emergency endeavor - to hire the right coach - when Marshall was fired. We needed an absolute ALPHA (with name recognition) to steady the ship. We get a polite dumb dumb. Now we just have a polite person.

I'm sorry.

[WuShock16]

Houston is a miracle. They were the joke of basketball for nearly half a century. But they aren't Northern Texas CC.

I don't even think we've stopped falling yet.

Why the **** did we hire an assistant coach with ZERO head coaching experience. We could have had Pitino...

We learn absolutely NOTHING from the 90's. So self-assured we can't fall all the way back. And here we are...

This was a break-the-glass emergency endeavor - to hire the right coach - when Marshall was fired. We needed an absolute ALPHA (with name recognition) to steady the ship. We get a polite dumb dumb. Now we just have a polite person.

I'm sorry.

Chris Jans wanted the job. So did Mark Turgeon (I know, I know). Instead, DB hired Isaac Brown. I can’t put into words how much of a f***ed-up decision that was.

I said at the time that because we were at a crucial time in college athletics, DB damn sure better get the hire right because getting it wrong would FUBAR the program and the whole department. He chose wrong, and the rest is history.

F***, this just pisses me off the more I think about it.

[WuShock16]

But back on topic:

Joe Carter MORE
Joe Greene LESS

[Dan]

40k enrollment in a state with 29m, Dallas metroplex has almost 7m. Grand Canyon University has over 65k enrollment. I wouldn’t want them as a conference member either. Big Deal.

Any football program with a .500 season gets a bowl invitation.
Big Deal.

A lot of posters in Shockernet are not very aspirational or inspirational. Sights are too low.

so enlighten me on how WSU is going to position itself for a better conference when it has no football, no NIL to speak of, and half the basketball fan base it used to have. Even KU is in big trouble and they at least have a $20 mil NIL. You can laugh all you want at UNT but they’re gonna be on the right side of any NCAA realignment before WSU is.

[Aargh]

WSU could hardly be in a worse position in the current NCAA environment. Wealthy alums are a MAJOR source of NIL money. WSU doesn't have enough of them.

Families with generational money send their kids away to school. Families who can only afford college if the kids live at home send their kids to WSU. Non-traditional students working their way through school have always been a large chunk of WSU's enrollment. Those students don't tend to end up with the wealth to support NIL programs.

I would wager that KU is getting 10 times as much NIL money out of people in Wichita than WSU is getting (excluding corporate $$).

Comparing WSU's situation in D1 sports to Kansas City's situation in MLB is legitimate. If there is ever significant success, free agency will claim the winning players. We've seen pro sports go through a period the NCAA is just now entering. The wealthy teams simply bought championships. George Steinbrenner comes to mind. Pro sports went to salary caps and instituted drafts so the lesser teams had access to the best talent entering the league. That's unlikely to fly in D1. The P5 have control and they have the power. They're unlikely to let anybody change the rules to minimize their advantage.

We just got our butts kicked back to decidedly mid-major. Our flirtation with something above that worked out about the same as Jaime Echenique's and Dexter Dennis's flirtations with the NBA.

[ShockerFever]

Geez Cold. Seems like that covid put quite a jolt into yah.

[ShockerFever]

Cold, you make some decent points...


IF we were having this discussion 5 years ago.

As WuShock16 alluded to, our ship has sailed with the moronic decision making of FDAADDB. We lost all of our clout, our prestige, our funding, and a lot of our support once IB was handed over the reigns (and a few decisions even after that). What we are left with is a program that probably equates to, if not trends lower to, a North Texas. That's a FACT Jack. It's painful. It hurts to type. But it's the actual reality now.

In case your Covid-entrenched eyes haven't seen, we have an NIL that consists of used car loaner vehicles, a half-empty arena, a current status that has us hovering around a ranking in the low 100's with a home L to South Dakota State, and a void of likely 3 postseason tournaments in row, no not just NCAA, but ANY postseason tournament.

It's gonna take a serious turnaround in a short period of time to even think about sniffing into the "club" again. And I do find it rather humorous that you are now bending over with KY in hand to the Big East after years and years of belittling and trashing them whenever given the chance. Man, that insidious, alien seed has done wonders to your cerebral cortex.

[C0|dB|00ded]

Cold, you make some decent points...


IF we were having this discussion 5 years ago.

As WuShock16 alluded to, our ship has sailed with the moronic decision making of FDAADDB. We lost all of our clout, our prestige, our funding, and a lot of our support once IB was handed over the reigns (and a few decisions even after that). What we are left with is a program that probably equates to, if not trends lower to, a North Texas. That's a FACT Jack. It's painful. It hurts to type. But it's the actual reality now.

In case your Covid-entrenched eyes haven't seen, we have an NIL that consists of used car loaner vehicles, a half-empty arena, a current status that has us hovering around a ranking in the low 100's with a home L to South Dakota State, and a void of likely 3 postseason tournaments in row, no not just NCAA, but ANY postseason tournament.

It's gonna take a serious turnaround in a short period of time to even think about sniffing into the "club" again. And I do find it rather humorous that you are now bending over with KY in hand to the Big East after years and years of belittling and trashing them whenever given the chance. Man, that insidious, alien seed has done wonders to your cerebral cortex.

I'm stuck 5 years ago and likely will be for the foreseeable future. The air is better.

I didn't even know Northern Texas was a college before they joined this conference. I probably still don't. High school makes more sense.

Any conferences in the top 7 willing to let us in (that includes the Big Pee), wouldn't need KY to enter me. I'd be aching for them.

My tune has changed you say? That's how far we've fallen sport. A number one Shocker fan here is on knees and willing to suck a **** for a spot in a respectable basketball conference.

Our problems aren't going to solve themselves. But folding money will. We need to innovate and we need to spend. We need to lawyer up, and throw the rulebook away. Black edge time.

[Onegreatracer]

... A number one Shocker fan here is on knees and willing to suck a **** for a spot in a respectable basketball conference...

Things I didn't expect to read on ShockerNet today (or ever) for 500, Alex

[Aargh]

Never heard of North Texas? You're young, grasshopper.

A good friend of mine, Mike Boyd, got the starting assignment at tight end against North Texas. The defensive tackle on the other side of the line was Mean Joe Greene. If you want to know how bad the WSU football program was in the late '60's, WSU was starting a 6'2", 185 lb. Fr tight end across from Mean Joe Greene.

Mike said that Mean Joe just picked him up and threw him out of the hole he was supposed to open up with his block. So Mike blocked him INTO the hole he was supposed to open. That worked once because Mean Joe picked him up and then moved AWAY from the hole Mike was supposed to open up.

After that Mike said Joe just picked him up and threw him back and forth across his body until Joe figured out where the play was going.

While Mean Joe Greene may not have much to do with WSU basketball, those of us who were around and fans of WSU FB remember. We'd love for Tulsa to be a rival, but we'd rather not have to drop our program to a level where they were competitive with us.

UNT is our most likely rival in the AAC. It's not a bad road trip. It's not a bad basketball program. It's in an area with some of the best gentleman's clubs in the nation.

[SubGod22]

I didn't even know Northern Texas was a college before they joined this conference. I probably still don't. High school makes more sense.

This makes no sense as we lost to them a couple years ago in Wichita. It also makes no sense because it's not a bad school and brings a lot to the table.

I know some of you only see things through basketball, but a lot more goes into things than just that. And for the University as a whole, the American is still where we belong. I've said it many times, but the University as a whole benefits from being grouped with other urban research universities. The University as a whole benefits from having reaches into Texas, and now we have direct avenues to the three largest metro centers in the state. The growth of the University doesn't happen without being in the American. It has helped the Innovation Campus and enrollment. It's helped with prestige and how we're viewed on the whole.

While the Big East would be nice for basketball on the surface, being connected to a conference that is essentially private Catholic schools in the northeast doesn't do much of anything for the rest of the University. We're not going to make gains in the northeast like we have and will continue to do in Texas. Travel becomes even worse for all sports teams. We don't fit as a university into anything other than basketball. There would be a lot of negatives that would come along with it. And until we get things righted, being in the Big East would be detrimental to even basketball.

[JVShocker]

I don't know where discussion goes for the pick em game, but I think everyone picked Tulane to beat Tulsa, and they forgot to show up for the game and lost by almost 20.

Tulane is dead to me now.

Hoping for the best possible outcome for our Shockers against North Texas. I wasn't aware that North Texas won the NIT last year. So I am fine with even a 1 point win by the Shockers tonight. I don't care if they have any assists. I don't care if they miss 20 open layups. Just win by 1. Or more. Please.

[shock]

I made the 2.5 hr one way trip to town yesterday and stopped at the liquor store for another bottle of Buffalo trace. Since they were out (I guess Buffalo Trace products are on allocation right now?) I grabbed a bottle of Basil Hayden’s and on my way out the door there was a middle aged whisp of a lady, wearing a mask who was trying to get out to her car by going through the sliding entry door instead of the exit. The confusion in her eyes was laughable as she was trying to force her way through the entry door that wasn’t opening. Eventually she wedged her fingers in the jamb and pried the door back until she could slide through. Several people were standing there watching in amazement while most just ignored the spectacle. I walked out the correct door right behind her and when I went past her car (which was right in front of the main entrance) I looked at her rear bumper expecting to see anti Trump stickers. I was disappointed to see none.

Anyway, that’s what it’s like when Cold posts.