2024 Edition-Bilas “Let them transfer at Halftime to the opposing team” Portal Update

[shockerfan]

Koch 100% has more available money than Fedex. They are also a mile from the campus. If we "don't have them anymore" that's due to lack of leadership across multiple years at the school. Its ADKS (and President Muma) responsibility to fix that. You also have all the other companies that have places on campus now. Surely they want to be able to attract talent to those new fancy partnership buildings? One way to do that is a good sports program.

Lol OK man.

[Stickboy46]

Lol OK man.

What's your counter argument? Woe is me and give up? Serious question since you apparently didn't like my reply.

[Shockm]

Yes, though Memphis is one of the few schools that likely sways toward providing more for basketball than your average school with football.

Koch gave 6 Million for Koch Arena

11 Million to Bardo about 10 years ago

10 Million for the Track & Field facility

City Businessmen gave a couple of million yearly to GM to win (to keep him from Alabama until he was fired)

Koch gave the use of his plane for recruiting to Marshall

The majority of the money was started byJim Schaus, and then enhanced by Sexton, and Bardo, with a continuation to Marshall (because he won), but then Bardo passed, Covid hit, and Marshall was fired. There was big money prior to JS, but it was lilke a snowball gathering steam down the mountain afterward, and Sexton knew the donors. I remember after GM, when the Pizza Hut money was pulled. She was angry because of how GM was treated. He was our last connection to the big money for athletics.

Some of you anti-Marshall people were just wrong.

[asiseeit]

We will be a middle of the road mid major for years to come but I'll still be a fan rooting for WSU and other under dogs and upsets of the big money schools. That's all there is anymore except for watching local youth sports.

[Stickboy46]

Koch gave 6 Million for Koch Arena

11 Million to Bardo about 10 years ago

10 Million for the Track & Field facility

City Businessmen gave a couple of million yearly to GM to win (to keep him from Alabama until he was fired)

Koch gave the use of his plane for recruiting to Marshall

The majority of the money was started byJim Schaus, and then enhanced by Sexton, and Bardo, with a continuation to Marshall (because he won), but then Bardo passed, Covid hit, and Marshall was fired. There was big money prior to JS, but it was lilke a snowball gathering steam down the mountain afterward. I remember after GM, when the Pizza Hut money was pulled. She was angry because of how GM was treated. He was our last connection to the big money for athletics.

Some of you anti-Marshall people were just wrong.

Not sure if the anti-Marshall comment was directed at me but that's irrelevant so not going to derail.

6 million for CKA 20+ years ago is cool .. but irrelevant

11 Million to Bardo 10 years ago .. yet again irrelevant

What was given to Marshall . also irrelevant.

All nice gifts at the time, but Businesses don't just invest then sit for 20 years. Same here. If we want to compete, the AD and the President HAVE to have getting yearly commitments from big businesses at the top of their priority list. There is no way around it now. The ones that do, will have longer tenures than the ones that don't.

[calfan]

It is an interesting question to ask, who has money in Wichita? Who do they support?

How good is the marketing department in getting businesses to support WSU?

We know the last year the NIL has done little to go out and get support.

WSU needs to get a lot of people with some money to invest in WSU.

Doctors have money, Lawyers have money. Large businesses have money.

One of the other challenges is that Wichita and Kansas needs to bring in or build technology companies for the world of today and tomorrow.

I think Wichita is satisfied with where it is as the "Air Capital of the World."

That was cutting edge in 1960, not so much in 2024.

Until these things change Wichita and WSU will be where it is now.

I could be wrong, but those are my thoughts.

[BostonWu]

Not sure if the anti-Marshall comment was directed at me but that's irrelevant so not going to derail.

6 million for CKA 20+ years ago is cool .. but irrelevant

11 Million to Bardo 10 years ago .. yet again irrelevant

What was given to Marshall . also irrelevant.

All nice gifts at the time, but Businesses don't just invest then sit for 20 years. Same here. If we want to compete, the AD and the President HAVE to have getting yearly commitments from big businesses at the top of their priority list. There is no way around it now. The ones that do, will have longer tenures than the ones that don't.

Not sure these two takes are far apart. They're at least connected to the not too distant past and today's conundrum.

[Stickboy46]

These feel like really good companies to start asking. Ones that have a vested interest in WSU drawing talent. Heck, maybe its part of the innovation campus marketing package that is sold as part of the lease to the buildings/land


Innovation.png

[Shockm]

It wasn't directed toward you unless you've been anti-Marshall. It was toward your questions.

My point is that money from local businesses are often not because they went to WSU. Many went to other schools and their kids did too. It's because they had connections to people from WSU who they believed were doers and getting things done. Bardo and Marshall knew that..

Bardo was also a believer that a big time basketball program was a ticket to more money and prestige from people and entities, and he put himself out there. Marshall was the last connection that our local businessmen believed in, and few of them went to WSU.

I knew one of our local businessmen who went to WSU, and his money dried up after Marshall, but even if they could get his money, he wasn't a Koch, nor did he have connections to Cessna, Spirit, or even "old" money that Pizza Hut had, etc.

Muma has some vision, but I"m not sure of his connections to the old time money.

To answer your comment, many of the 20 businessmen who met to keep Marshall made commitments to him because of him, and they viewed him as a "WINNER". When he went, so did their commitments.

[ShockerFever]

Koch gave 6 Million for Koch Arena

11 Million to Bardo about 10 years ago

10 Million for the Track & Field facility

City Businessmen gave a couple of million yearly to GM to win (to keep him from Alabama until he was fired)

Koch gave the use of his plane for recruiting to Marshall

The majority of the money was started byJim Schaus, and then enhanced by Sexton, and Bardo, with a continuation to Marshall (because he won), but then Bardo passed, Covid hit, and Marshall was fired. There was big money prior to JS, but it was lilke a snowball gathering steam down the mountain afterward, and Sexton knew the donors. I remember after GM, when the Pizza Hut money was pulled. She was angry because of how GM was treated. He was our last connection to the big money for athletics.

Some of you anti-Marshall people were just wrong.

Marshall going the way he did definitely pissed off some big money boosters. The guy had pool parties at Koch’s pad for crying out loud. But don’t forget the massive damage that Golden did in his short stint here. He absolutely destroyed any other ties with big money. I don’t want to bring politics up but when your entire big money donor base is conservative and you go all woke central because it was the trendy cool thing to do, well this is what you get. And there’s still a lot of scorned donors coming out of that deal.

[rjl]

I'm not sure how sage a businessperson could be and simultaneously be unable to recognize there was no salvaging the Marshall situation. National perception of Marshall was rock bottom. Whether you believe the allegations against him or not, the national perception was that they were real and that WSU had no choice but to get rid of him. That's not "anti-Marshall." That's reality. The team was already hemorrhaging players Marshall's last few years here, certainly no player would want to come after those news stories broke, and the university itself was facing a general PR nightmare.

I've said this before, but if WSU had a time machine, WSU would have been much smarter and much more ethical to address those issues with Marshall as they happened and not bury them under the rug where they erupted a few years later. If they had done that, Marshall would probably still be coaching at WSU today. That's on Boatright, or whatever system compelled Boatright to sit on his hands and try to keep things quiet like he did.

Even more, let's not act like Marshall was seriously mistreated as a result of all this. News stories break that Marshall was abusing players, and how is Marshall treated? He gets a cool $7.75 million to do jack **** for the next 6 years. Pretty rough.

So any claim that a businessperson stopped giving money because of how WSU "treated" Marshall makes me seriously question whether that businessperson ever really, truly gave a **** about WSU.

So it sounds like Wichita just has a bunch of businesses that could ultimately not give a **** about Wichita. I'm sure the citizens of Wichita have no problem continuing to pray at their altars, though.

[shoxrox89]

Well, if Charles Koch wants to throw a hissy fit and take his ball home because of us getting rid of a physically and verbally abusive coach why don’t we snatch his damn name off the arena and give it to someone who actually has some morality. No one man is bigger than the program.

[ShockerFever]

I agree with you about DB’s complete botching of the situation. And that’s probably where the anger is directed at most. Yes, WSU probably had to part ways based on the horrible way the situation was dealt with, but it’s just a fact that Marshall was a people guy and I’m sure built stellar relationships with the wealth. Marshall gets credit for bringing a lot of publicity, wealth, and excitement to WSU. That’s a FACT. That’s why it was so important to get on top of any situations before the Jeff Goodmans of the world got ahold of them.

[1972Shocker]

Keep in mind that Gregg Marshall wasn't just a guy who was admired by these wealthy supporters from afar and dispassionately. Many became close personal friends with Gregg and many of their wives became close personal friends with Lynn Marshall (and those relationships are still in place). Part of that was due to just a natural desire to be connected to success and fame and part was no doubt cultivated by Gregg and Lynn. Not saying there was anything wrong with that. It was probably very beneficial to WSU when things were going well. But when the Shocks were slammed with the Golden showers and the washout in the aftermath of that the emotional impact of that was just that much greater and deep wounds were created and while they are probably healed some nasty scares still remain and may not be forgotten (especially since the Marshalls are still in Wichita and most of those personal relationships are still in place if not even deeper than before).

I just don't seen Coach Mills or ADKS recreating those close personal ties with the big boys.

BTW, how many know that Gregg is Marshall's middle name. His first name is Michael. They should have just fired Gregg and replaced him with his twin brother, Michael.

[Shockm]

I'm not sure how sage a businessperson could be and simultaneously be unable to recognize there was no salvaging the Marshall situation. National perception of Marshall was rock bottom. Whether you believe the allegations against him or not, the national perception was that they were real and that WSU had no choice but to get rid of him. That's not "anti-Marshall." That's reality. The team was already hemorrhaging players Marshall's last few years here, certainly no player would want to come after those news stories broke, and the university itself was facing a general PR nightmare.

I've said this before, but if WSU had a time machine, WSU would have been much smarter and much more ethical to address those issues with Marshall as they happened and not bury them under the rug where they erupted a few years later. If they had done that, Marshall would probably still be coaching at WSU today. That's on Boatright, or whatever system compelled Boatright to sit on his hands and try to keep things quiet like he did.

Even more, let's not act like Marshall was seriously mistreated as a result of all this. News stories break that Marshall was abusing players, and how is Marshall treated? He gets a cool $7.75 million to do jack **** for the next 6 years. Pretty rough.

So any claim that a businessperson stopped giving money because of how WSU "treated" Marshall makes me seriously question whether that businessperson ever really, truly gave a **** about WSU.

So it sounds like Wichita just has a bunch of businesses that could ultimately not give a **** about Wichita. I'm sure the citizens of Wichita have no problem continuing to pray at their altars, though.

You center on the idea that people believe that Marshall was mistreated. These businessmen likely didn't care about that as much as you think. However, when he was fired, there was no Sexton (who a lot of Shockernetters didn't realize how influential he was in the Wichita community in the area of raising money), nor was there any longer a Bardo who also was a tremendous connection builder in this community to smooth things over. That's why I mentioned the four names who were tremendous Schaus, Sexton, Bardo, and Marshall who brought the Wichita business community together, and knew how to raise money. The only person there now, who knows the history of big money donors connections to Wichita State is Brent Kemnitz, and he has limited connections, mostly to our baseball past. However, he has shown some success by bringing former Shockers like Kosich into the fold.

But whatever your thoughts on Sexton were, he knew the Wichita business community and could raise big time money.