Hoops_McKnight

SOLD!! To Ms. Klum for $75,000!!

Movement? I don't think that a half-dozen message board posts over 9 hours constitutes a movement. I'm betting that we'll all grow to accept the naming rights as we acknowledge Bright House's contribution to our athletic program.

This entire 2-day, 4-page thread - one in which USF fans without provocation encourage a 10-15K USF presence at the CBowl for a game against UCF - is testament that there is a rivalry, and it needs to be an annual game.

Some community colleges in FL are disbanding their athletic programs all-together due to $$ - Valencia CC is a prime example. They stopped theirs a few years ago despite having over 40K students.

FAU has always had talent, but Sidney Green was an abysmal coach.  Matt is a better coach, and in addition to the talent Sidney left him Dougherty brought in some more. I listened to the UCF/FAU game Tuesday, and they pretty much killed us with a wicked 2-3 zone defense.  16 TOs and 17 total points for us in the 1st half, that's the ballgame. Mike Bell was incredibly soft.  Doc Rivers sat behind us 2 years ago when FAU came to town, and he laughed at him the entire game... Good luck tonight!

While it at best could be called campy today, the hideous Citronaut was some admin's attempt at placating the local & state politicals' joint interests in the university. And it was introduced before we had any intercollegiate sports (thank god!!). There was a (faculty rigged) student referendum to offically create a university mascot in 1971, and the winner won a free quarter's tuition. Among other offerings was the SG favorite, the Vultures. A fraternity brother of mine submitted the (as it turned out pre-ordained) winner, the Knights of Pegasus (see the official seal of the university). All other incarnations followed...

I actually did a term paper on that subject in Spring 78, as the name change was taking place (and before UCF was officially selected). At our founding in 1963 the BOR actually wanted to name the school UCF, but a store front diploma mill in a downtown business park already held the copyright to the name. They then named the school FTU because it was roughly halfway between Kennedy Space Center and Martin Marietta, with the charter that the school would be an engineering center of excellence like Ga Tech or MIT. But the truth was that even though those programs were well founded, those technical programs never attracted more than 20% of the student body. In 1976 a statute was passed that regulated diploma mills, and (at the same time) negated copyrights to college names for those convicted of violating the law. The store front diploma mill was convicted of that law, and when Trevor Colbourn was named our 2nd president he was told by the BOR to change the name to UCF, just like they wanted it to be all along. I got a B- minus on the report, not for the research or content, but because the professor wanted the name to be the University of Florida - Orlando. I had footnotes and everything - I can't make stuff like this up!!

"It might be nice to have an indoor facility, but IMO a waste of money. Lightning storms don't last that long in FL. It's not like the northern schools who have a snow storm move in for a week. Do FSU, UF or UM have indoor facilities? Spend the money somewhere else." That's not true. Orlando-area thunderstorms frequently last over an hour, and when you factor in a half-hour either way for legitmate liability concerns you lose valuable PT. As for FSU, UF or UM (and USF) they're not in the lightning corridor... "It must be a nice thing to hold onto that your claim to greatness, is that you showed others how NOT to do it. That's classic! I say this one goes into the HOF!" Do what you want with that post. I wasn't happy with that situation then, nor proud of it now. My point was that due to our problems USF built a better foundation for your acknowledged success (to-date). My point was that Griffin's comments were BS. And for my benefit, how do you do the cool copy & paste of other's posts?

Artificial turf considerations had nothing to do with its construction. The indoor facility was built because we were losing multiple practices due to lightning storms. Orlando is the #2 lightning storm capital of the world, because the Gulf and Atlantic sea breezes collide over hot earth in Polk, Osceola, Orange and Seminole Counties during the summer. We gained 9 pre-season practices this year alone because of that facility.

Edit: Wrong board for that comment. Sorry...

I can't help but respond to a couple of points on this article: 1.  McDowell is a former coach and AD, one that was pushed out after our fabled cell-phone incident.  2.  If the relative states of our 2 basketball programs was the BE discriminator (and it was), then it was McDowell's fault as AD - it was him that was "asleep at the wheel."  He hired 3 bad basketball HCs, got us out of a decent conference (Sun Belt) then into a bad one (TAAC/A-Sun) then underfunded his basketball program during his entire tenure as AD.  I argued this with him for 8 **** years, and he hated talking to me. 3.  USF may not have used UCF as its model when forming your FB program, but the model Griffin did use was a direct result of our experience.  When we ****-near bankrupted our entire athletic program in 1983-84 due to our FB program, the state Board of Trustees instituted new rules design to ensure that future startup FB programs had a stable foundation.  Thats's why Griffin hired LRS to raise the required $5M, that's why he hired TheJim a year ahead of your first practice, etc - the BOT required him to do that, based upon our bad experience. 4.  Greg interviewed a very bitter McDowell. 5.  I feel much better now...

Are Lots 1-4 General Admission parking?

Thank you. This is a tough time for us - he's such a good kid.

"Why do you guys always presume it's our fault. From my understanding UCF is playing UF, Stetson and FAU this up coming year we could flip the question back to you." Apparently we still have 2 OOC vacancies remaining on our schedule, so we're available. In your defense, at a minimum BCC and FIU are return games of a home-and-home series - right?

I agree with CB (gasp!) Right now I don't think that any in-state school wants Brumbaugh, and I can't blame them. I do think he'll end up at Nebraska, but for the life of me I don't know why - I think that OK State is a better fit. What's mind-boggling is that Nebraska already has all 13 available scholarships taken. That coaching staff is gonna screw somebody...

According to many reports Brumbaugh has withdrawn from the draft. OK State, USC, Nebraska and UF now his choices (concensus choices, my hierarchy).

From today's (Thursday's) Daytona Beach Journal: CHICAGO -- Despite telling The News-Journal Monday he would attend the pre-NBA draft camp here, DeLand basketball player Keith Brumbaugh never received an invitation, a league official said. "He wasn't invited," said Ryan Blake, the NBA's assistant director of scouting. "The guys that deserve to be here are here. That's how we whittled it down." The four-day camp, which began Tuesday at the Moody Bible Institute, allows players to showcase their skills for NBA coaches and executives. Many of the 62 participants are considered possible second-round picks, but few are expected to go in the first round. Both Brumbaugh's high school coach and his former guardian confirmed Wednesday that Brumbaugh -- who did not return calls to The News-Journal -- told them he received an invitation. But only two high school players have participated in the drills and games -- Brandon Rush of North Carolina and Louis Williams of Georgia. A committee chaired by Stu Jackson, the NBA's senior vice president of basketball operations, chose the participants after surveying team executives. Blake said the committee considered 109 players who declared for the draft before their senior year of college. "A good majority of the early ones, a lot of them got letters saying unfortunately you're not going to be invited," said Blake's father, Marty, the league's scouting director. Marty Blake said the NBA likely contacted Brumbaugh earlier in the spring to gauge his interest in playing in the Chicago camp. "He might have gotten an alternate letter and wasn't good enough to bring here," he said. "Everyone gets an alternate letter. And then he would send it back, and then he would get a letter saying no." The 6-foot-8 Brumbaugh, who said recently he did not hire an agent, has been training recently with former NBA coach John Lucas in Houston. If Brumbaugh withdraws from draft consideration before June 21, he will retain his amateur status. He has said he is considering attending Okalahoma State, Florida, Southern California and South Florida. Some league officials said Brumbaugh likely will not be taken in the June 28 draft. "He's like many of these other players who have enough ability to be effective in a high school game against that level of player because he's a little better athletically and he can jump a little higher and he can score a lot of points," said Chris Ekstrand, an NBA consultant who helped pick the players for the camp. "But that doesn't mean he's ready for the NBA. "He should pull out and go to college." If Brumbaugh isn't selected and chooses not to attend a college, he could play in the NBDL, the NBA's developmental league. Brumbaugh will turn 20 on Sept. 28, reaching the league's minimum age. Joey Meyer, coach of the NBDL's Ashville Altitude, said he would also advise Brumbaugh to go to school. "I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings," said Meyer, the former coach of DePaul. "But just look at the numbers of how many guys come out and how many guys make it. It's a lot harder than they think."

The "Hoops" in me wants the Convo Center because I think it'll jump start basketball recruiting and attendance, and allow us to bring in name OOC opponents more readily. That, and Kirk deserves a break for a change. Logic tells me the the FB stadium is more important for the revenue of entire athletic program and for the good of the campus community. The good news is that it's almost a certainty that they'll both happen, and it's just a matter which one happens first.

Here's what I'm hearing on the Convo Center: First, the developers want more of the reliable revenue producing components of the complex (dorms/retail) in place or underway prior to beginning construction of the Convo Center. Second (and in large part due to the above), the financing package has not been finalized yet. The current schedule is to have that in place and groundbreaking this summer (that's what I'm hearing from an unofficial source). Three, steel and concrete prices have dropped a bit lately after production capacity has caught up to the demand spike caused by China's modernization program. Take it for what its worth...

That's Schmadtke's idea of humor, given our periennial debates over 1:00, 4:00, 6:00 or even 7:00 game starts. Our coaches have historically wanted 1:00 starts, but few others do. Orsini is on record lately that our kickoffs will be 6:00 except for Homecoming (4:00) or TV games.

We both might have to begin offering scholarships at conception! As you probably heard, Nick Calathes (a SO at Lake Howell) committed to UF last week after an AAU tournament in Texas - good kid, great player.  I know other kids on that team, and at least 2 other SO members on that team received offers from ACC, SEC and BE schools that weekend, too.  It's becoming crazy!! BTW, both Kirk and McCallum (sp) were at that tournament, too...

Chuck Machock, Phil Carter and Joe Dean, Jr. all quit coaching basketball after resigning from UCF.