Gregg Marshall on the Jim Rome Show - Coming up NOW1

[pogo]

No. Applications for admittance to WSU are up but I for one know I applied to several other universities as well as WSU. But that doesn't diminish the fact that its still AWSOME news.

[pogo]

Another way to looks at this is "You can't sell em the house if you can't get em in the front door."

[Rocky Mountain Shock]

Yes, IF they can make it happen.

Or maybe he's talking about a move to the AAC . . . I kid!

A H/H with UConn would be great. It would be even better if it didn't end up happening...because we were in the same conference.

[ciaomichael]

He mentioned that college admissions to WSU are up 75% since the Final Four, and they expect that to climb to 100% by the end of the year. Could that possibly be true? I have no reason to doubt it, but that is INCREDIBLE!!!

Actual admissions or applications for admission? Big difference. But it can be significant and the impact of athletic success on a school's overall advancement is real. I remember in Virginia, the singular impact of Michael Vick on Virginia Tech. Once kind of a backwater agricultural school, after some years of extraordinary football success, including an appearance in the national championship game, VT became the place to go to college for Virginia's students. Since then, their admissions standards have risen considerably and VT graduates have been measured to earn more than their once-superior University of Virginia (UVA) counterparts.

[wufan]

Nail on the head. He can either call these guys out by telling everyone they are afraid to play us, or he can simply state "I wouldn't play us either.". The implication is the same.

It's such a subtle attack, it's beautiful. We're good enough to beat you…and you know it. KU's actions make it obvious to everyone that WSU is NOT to be trifled with. When we were mediocre, the nothing to gain argument held some water, but now, we're NUMBER EFFEN 8 in the country! KU wants nothing to do with that.

[Downtown Shocker Brown]

Everyone jumping on the "I wouldn't play us either" bandwagon missed the best part of the interview.

He put his feelings all the way out there, and if people to the north are butthurt, well, frankly, "I don't give a damn!"

[rialaigh]

Also props to HCGM for giving FVV credit where credit is due for not jumping ship and holding to a verbal commit when all the big schools came calling. I appreciated that :)

[mulligan]

Sounds like the national media wants this game.

[mulligan]

CBS Sports has a column out on the Rome interview. Funny how a national interview becomes internet worthy. Looks like the national comments tend to favor us. Marshall is smooth..... he is getting the whole country behind Shocker Nation.

[ABC]

I guess I never realized that he went as far to say he outright wouldn't do it if he were in their shoes. I thought he had tiptoed around their motivation and been less direct in the past. Not a big deal, just caught me by surprise.

I find it interesting that many posters will simultaneously call out KU and say they are "afraid" to play WSU, but then act like Marshall is a god and not afraid of anything. How does that jive together when Marshall himself has said he would do the same thing KU is doing right now if he were coaching there?

You comment doesn't jive. I don't see the correlation one bit.

[pogo]

I know we have access to everything that is spoken and written but I can't ever remember a time when WSU basketball has been in the spotlight during the regular season like this and I am really old.

[Play Angry]

Masterful. He has done a great job of getting out ahead of the "WSU hasn't played anyone" critiques that are inevitable as our chance at a top seed becomes a hot topic. People will still argue that point, but there are also going to be a lot of defenders pointing out how hard we tried to get quality opponents.

The first one to shape the narrative is almost always the most successful.

[_kai_]

I sat in on a talk with Bardo and he talked briefly about other school's who were relatively unknowns to a national audience "post Final Four" effects, and I think he said Butler or VCU saw admission substantially rise after their run.

I truely believe those numbers that 75% of APPLICATIONS are up. Because Bardo and Admissions are spending substantially more money on contacting prospective students, and then plan to spend even more in future years. It's a big dedication to getting enrollment up to around 20k for WSU.

[Awesome Sauce Malone]

Thought it was funny that when Rome tweeted about this some responded with "why doesnt wsu schedule home and home with umkc"

Inalmost slit my own wrists

[RoyalShock]

I sat in on a talk with Bardo and he talked briefly about other school's who were relatively unknowns to a national audience "post Final Four" effects, and I think he said Butler or VCU saw admission substantially rise after their run.

I truely believe those numbers that 75% of APPLICATIONS are up. Because Bardo and Admissions are spending substantially more money on contacting prospective students, and then plan to spend even more in future years. It's a big dedication to getting enrollment up to around 20k for WSU.

I was just thinking that I read an article recently where Bardo said there is no evidence that athletic success like a Final Four brings about an increase in enrollment. So I went searching and found these two articles:

Basketball success doesn't always drive enrollment

WSU's enrollment of 14,550 is actually down about 2.3 percent this year compared to last fall, though a university spokesman says the added exposure from the NCAA tournament can't hurt President John Bardo's long-term goal of growing enrollment to 20,000 students.

Bardo has big goals

Enrollment. Though some scoffed when he announced his goal of growing WSU’s enrollment to at least 22,000 students, Bardo said the target is “meaningful and achievable.” And WSU already is seeing major movement, he said. Applications for next year were up 26 percent as of last week compared with the same time a year ago. Bardo thinks there will be at least 15,300 students next year, up from about 14,500 now. Has the men’s basketball success last season helped recruiting? “The Final Four effect is way overplayed,” Bardo said. It helps with people who previously had not heard of WSU, he said, but the impact lasts only about three years – that is unless WSU keeps doing well in the tournament.

While he doesn't say it won't help enrollment, so far it hasn't helped. Although it still could, especially if Marshall continues to get us deep into the tournament most years.

I would speculate that of the 75% number Marshall mentioned, a large majority is likely due to the increased academic recruitment efforts.