UDPride Discussion Forums    
     

Go Back   UDPride Discussion Forums

» Log in
User Name:

Password:

Not a member yet?
Register Now!
» Advertisement
View Single Post
  #315  
Old 04-03-2018, 01:22 PM
UACFlyer UACFlyer is offline
Committed to this Web Site and Your Enjoyment!
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 13,229
Thanks: 3,986
Thanked 4,600 Times in 2,847 Posts
UACFlyer has a reputation beyond reputeUACFlyer has a reputation beyond reputeUACFlyer has a reputation beyond reputeUACFlyer has a reputation beyond reputeUACFlyer has a reputation beyond reputeUACFlyer has a reputation beyond reputeUACFlyer has a reputation beyond reputeUACFlyer has a reputation beyond reputeUACFlyer has a reputation beyond reputeUACFlyer has a reputation beyond reputeUACFlyer has a reputation beyond repute
Villanova BB history...and opinions

Originally Posted by SeasonTicketFan View Post
The questions to ask each year. What is the difference between UD and Villanova, or other highly successful Catholic colleges?
Originally Posted by CE80 View Post
When the times were a changing, UD's missteps with conference affiliation and the coaching change at the end of the Donoher era allowed those Catholic schools to get a leg up on UD. Many state schools passed UD too. UD has never been able to recover.
Going back several decades ( to our Donoher era) VU has been coached by Massimino, Lappas and now Wright. Each of the three had been a head coach...but not at big name schools, Stony Brook, Manhattan and Hofstra, respectively. Each had a relatively long VU tenure, at least a decade. Massimino was quite successful winning a championship; had the Old Big East going for him...but then faded. Lappas was mediocre by VU standards. Wright...we all know about his success.

But the importance of BB to VU dates way before Massimino..back to the 30s and well before UD's rise to prominence. I think the fact that VU is located essentially in a large sports city accounts for some of that...and Phila was a major force in the national sports scene in the 30s, 40s, 50s,.....much more so than today. In the late 40s Penn football lead the nation in attendance. That's Penn...not Penn State.

UD's BB ascendancy was pretty much an accident...hiring Tom Blackburn; followed by the success of a top assistant, Donoher,...rather than due to a history of solid BB and/or athletic leadership and planning.

When the national scene changed UD tolerated poor performance by Donoher for too long; and then made a dreadful hire to replace him. By then things were spinning out of control.....and we did not have the advantage of big city exposure, a good conference affiliation or, most important, I think, good athletic leadership. Ted Kissell was the first professional AD UD ever had...and he resurrected the BB program and established for the very first time a broad-based Div1 athletics program at UD.

All aspects of athletics at UD are infinitely better because of Kissell.

Things that have not changed are the Dayton location and a stable, but not prominent conference affiliation. Yet, essentially neighboring schools like Butler and Xavier have exceeded far beyond UD operating with about the same advantages and disadvantages. They don't have UD's facilities and they have not had great coaching stability.

We lucked out in recent years with a hire that worked out well...Miller, an assistant, whose NCAA success we couldn't have imagined a decade ago. But given our recent decades of under-performance the bar was not set high. Four consecutive NCAA appearances including an Elite 8 was a huge leap up for UD. But really doesn't compare all that well when measured against the two "neighbors" mentioned above and, of course, pales in comparison to Villanova.

Bringing in good players consistently is critical...they play the game. Miller pulled that off reasonably well until his last year or two. So we find ourselves starting over, essentially. I, and I'm guessing other Priders, can't help thinking that we're doing something "not quite right" considering that our more than ample resources and desire to succeed are not limited. Since there are a few (not many) more successful BB schools that can be compared fairly with UD, I wish I understood the situation better than I do.

I have no reason to believe that Neil is not a top-flight AD that we're lucky to have. But often "fresh eyes" are very helpful. I would love an independent assessment of our program by a paid outside expert consultant who is highly experienced in the 21st century Div 1 BB environment and understands UD's goals, our advantages and disadvantages....to help us get to where we want to be and stay there. Possibly our goal is not realistically attainable. If so, knowing that would be helpful.

This is hard....that's one thing I do know. But seeing at least a few other similar institutions succeed in a way that eludes us is frustrating. Hopefully Coach Grant will be able to get the Flyer Express back on track, soon. But, I'm a bit worried.

Just thoughts
Reply With Quote
4 UDPriders Offer Mad Props to UACFlyer For This Totally Excellent Post:
frisco flyer (04-03-2018), Radar (04-03-2018), T-Bone 84 (04-03-2018), ud2 (04-03-2018)
 
Powered by vBadvanced CMPS v3.2.1

All times are GMT -4. The time now is 09:01 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.6
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Advertisement System V2.6 By   Branden

     
 
Copyright 1996-2012 UDPride.com. All Rights Reserved.