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Thread: Yesterday I finally got my first contact from the administration

  1. #1

    Yesterday I finally got my first contact from the administration

    I got an e-mail inviting me to come to the PC for the new coach.

    And I thought "are you kidding me?"

    I responded politely, because the message came from someone I like very much who had absolutely nothing to do with this backstabbing horrorshow. But in my response I made it very clear that after all the years, all the donations, all the volunteer professional committee work I had done at the request of the Athletics administration, all the games and events I had attended, all the times I had traveled to watch the team, I was withdrawing my support.

    This is extremely painful for me. I have been going to games since Charlie Parsley was roaming the Baker Fieldhouse sidelines. I was writing about it almost a decade before Lavall Jordan was born. I have been as reliable a booster and promoter of this program as I could be, in every way I could. As much as I hated the ridiculous decision to abandon the brilliant HLT on-campus format, I even went to Detroit last month! I doubt there's a person who knows me who doesn't know how committed a Milwaukee fan I have been. And I have done all this despite having to endure, as we all have, the constant chaos and low comedy behind the scenes in the department and at the University when it came to athletics support.

    But there comes a point where you have to say "enough!" This was it. I simply cannot abide rewarding or accepting what has occurred. Especially when the architect of this debacle has roots so shallow in this University and this program that she probably doesn't even know where Baker Fieldhouse was.

    And here's the really sad part. I don't believe there's a single fan, donor or sponsor who has pulled out -- myself included -- who wouldn't return and get behind LaVall Jordan in a heartbeat if only it wouldn't associate us with the bad behavior and untrustworthiness to which the program we love was subjected. The biggest lie I have seen repeated and urged is that those of us who have pulled our support did so only because we were "friends" with Coach Jeter. As if we don't understand that coaches come and go. Of course, that was not what enraged us at all, and those who claim not to understand that are being truly and powerfully disingenuous.

    The bitter truth is that right now the program does not deserve our support. And until things change, won't have it.
    Last edited by BBF; 04-11-2016 at 12:46 PM.
    "She would constantly try to throw [Coach Jeter] off and create distractions," said another source who worked in the athletic department and no longer is at UWM. "All the time. It was bad. I felt bad for him all the time. I told him, 'You're a bigger man than I am.' It was brutal. Sabotage was in the cards." -- From the JS story, March 17, 2016

    "Baldwin! Get in here and grovel!" "Right away Ms. B!!"

  2. #2
    The response to your posting of this on the eunuch board is interesting. Do none of your detractors have courage enough to respond openly? Are they actually so insecure as to feel it necessary to create new user names to attack you?
    A panther is like a leopard. Except it hasn't been peppered.
    Should you behold a panther crouch, prepare to say "ouch."
    Better yet, if called by a panther...don't anther (Ogden Nash "The Panther")

    Ceterum censo Amanda Braun debet esse accensa.

  3. #3
    No substantive response, of course, just banal snark. But what are the toadies going to say? The administration wants people to look away from the bloody sausage making and get in line, and the newly minted sausage eaters over there are trying to bury the issue in ad hominem attack.

    I'll stack my support for this University and our program up against absolutely anyone's. If they believe it's immaterial that people like me are so repulsed by what has gone on that we cannot in good conscience continue that support, it tells you all you need to know about who's in charge now.
    "She would constantly try to throw [Coach Jeter] off and create distractions," said another source who worked in the athletic department and no longer is at UWM. "All the time. It was bad. I felt bad for him all the time. I told him, 'You're a bigger man than I am.' It was brutal. Sabotage was in the cards." -- From the JS story, March 17, 2016

    "Baldwin! Get in here and grovel!" "Right away Ms. B!!"

  4. #4
    Fran,

    What changes are you demanding in order to support the program again? Is it as simple as firing Amanda Braun?

  5. #5
    Actions have consequences -- or should. Misbehavior has consequences -- or should. The chancellor needs to step in and act to assure us that our program will not be controlled by those who have abused their obligations to it, whether through rank incompetence or ambitious malice or both. There are different ways to do that, but without that happening -- soon -- there will be permanent disaffection of people and sponsors that a program like ours can't afford to lose.

    By the way, I found it astonishing that there was an article about finding new sponsors that didn't contain the phrase "to try to fill the immediate hole created by the sponsors and boosters who have left the program in disgust."
    "She would constantly try to throw [Coach Jeter] off and create distractions," said another source who worked in the athletic department and no longer is at UWM. "All the time. It was bad. I felt bad for him all the time. I told him, 'You're a bigger man than I am.' It was brutal. Sabotage was in the cards." -- From the JS story, March 17, 2016

    "Baldwin! Get in here and grovel!" "Right away Ms. B!!"

  6. #6
    Senior Member
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    I am going to wait and see what happens with the players. If they endorse the new coach by staying, then I will stay to support them. If many of them don't stay, because of the AD, I'm taking the 2016-17 season off, and will reassess for the 2017-18 season.

    I'm about 80% sure I'm going to be taking next season off.

    Regardless, I won't stay in my same section for a few reasons. I'll only list the #1 reason, the others I don't care to say. I was about 5 rows away from the AD's seats. I would have to move to the other side of the court to get away from her.

    So with that, I'm taking the summer off from all things Panther related.
    Maybe see you guys in the fall.

    Have a good summer everyone.

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by BBF View Post
    By the way, I found it astonishing that there was an article about finding new sponsors that didn't contain the phrase "to try to fill the immediate hole created by the sponsors and boosters who have left the program in disgust."
    I don't think Amanda Braun will acknowledge that "sponsors and booster who have left the program in disgust" even exist, unless forced to. And then she disparages them, no matter how long before the Jeter era the sponsor's relationship began.

    No surprise there. She's been circling the wagons ever since she got the first pushback from her decision not to allow the Men's BB team to go to a post-season tournament.

    It would be interesting to know, since allegations of Braun alienating sponsors and boosters started circulating almost immediately after she started the job (allegations i admit i discounted at the time as the gripings of someone who just didn't like Braun), what numbers of sponsors/boosters and what dollar values have been driven away from supporting Panther Athletics, and how those totals compare to the numbers of donors and dollars pledged/donated that Braun and her proxies on the eunuch board have been touting. An increase such as she has claimed loses a great deal of luster if any significant part of the increase is filling in a hole she created herself.
    A panther is like a leopard. Except it hasn't been peppered.
    Should you behold a panther crouch, prepare to say "ouch."
    Better yet, if called by a panther...don't anther (Ogden Nash "The Panther")

    Ceterum censo Amanda Braun debet esse accensa.

  8. #8
    BBF is so right on. Braun fired a man to be replaced by a younger clone. And it wasn't even her first choice and allegedly if not for civic organizations stepping in, Jordan wouldn't be here as well. A Joe Madden-like coach wasn't available to replace Jeter. This UW-Milwaukee basketball team is not the equivalent to the 1969 Washington Redskins. BBF is also right that Braun has NO idea where Baker used to be. 99% of the Panther world had NO idea who LaVall was 40 days ago, and now HE is going to take UWM to higher levels? Not as long as Eva is running the athletic department. Sincerely and with ALL honesty, good luck Coach Jordan. Wish you all the success in the world. Too bad your AD is a paranoid liar.

  9. #9
    'Heap, I believe that Fran was alluding to a reference to the exiled sponsors by the story's author.

    Also, your questions about money raised vs. money pledged is a query that 'Hawk has been posing for weeks without a hard answer.

  10. #10
    If 99% of the Panther world didn't know Lavall Jordan's name 40 days ago, then that says much more about our collective lack of knowledge of the college basketball landscape than it does about Jordan. My guess is that 99% is a far exaggerated number. Coach Vall was well regarded as an assistant coach and in coaching circles and was paid as such. We are lucky to have him.

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