The Excitement index

[BBF]

The University hired a new basketball coach the other day. This is one of the most cataclysmically important events that can happen at any college program. At most schools it leads to message board threads that go dozens, scores or even hundreds of pages. Hundreds of fans weigh in.

I did a quick check on the eunuch board and here. By my count, 15 individual fans have made posts. Fifteen. About a new basketball coach.

That's where our program is now.

[Jimmy Lemke]

We're done.

The best case scenario, to me, at this point, is that Mark Mone is fired from his job. The rumors I've heard are that the Faculty Senate and Board of Trustees have been thoroughly unimpressed with his leadership and inability to keep the university from taking far more than its fair share of the beating from the Republicans running the statehouse. If he's fired, Amanda Braun loses her cover. He's the guy who gave her the go-ahead to do the sabotage. Once he's gone, we can be far more involved and pushy about the next chancellor, so when they're hired we can hopefully get ourselves a Nancy Zimpher that understands what basketball can be for the university. If we somehow can get a new Nancy, that person won't have to be convinced to remove Amanda Braun - they'll just need to see the infamous document and talk to a couple people to verify its accuracy. They'll fire Braun, get us a new AD, and we can get moving on changing the culture in the university and in athletics. Oh yeah, and by the time we're all set up, Pat Baldwin Jr. can commit to play here and he'll be like Ray McCallum Jr. only better.

That's the best case. Absolute best case. Does any of this sound like anything more than a pipe dream?

[BBF]

Think of it this way: we're right-sizing our fan base to match the excitement level for the new Horizon League -- a/k/a the Mid-Con circa 1997.

[BBF]

I got an e-mail yesterday inviting me to come meet the new coach at the dinner after the golf event.

For $35!

I swear it's as though they are actually trying to make this worse.

You know what? Next season is going to be another complete throwaway anyway. Even in a terrible league we will be inordinately lucky to break .500. If the admin had even the slightest sense (or care) about where this program is right now they'd tell Baldwin to spend the vast majority of his time between now and fall practice as an ambassador, going TO every season ticket holder and donor, past or present, and personally imploring them to maybe, maybe give the program another chance and come to a game or two. And put him under strict orders not to ask for a penny. (Side note: isn't that what some of the deadenders most often complained about with Rob? That -- in their opinion -- he wasn't enough of an ambassador? And yet, somehow, thousands more fans came to his games.)

God knows our AD has utterly no ability in this respect. You can pretty much guarantee that the more she's doing "outreach" the fewer fans we will have.