gobulls83

I don't see USF on this list of most wins in the NCAA tournament history but Louisville is there. http://sportslistoftheday.com/2012/03/26/kentucky-kansas-louisville-ohio-state-and-teams-with-the-most-wins-in-ncaa-tournament-history/ So? I don't understand your point. Every single person who claims winning is what gets teams into bigger conferences can be refuted with a single word: Rutgers. Until you explain how Rutgers fits into your theory that schools "play their way in," your argument is total nonsense. Like I said, Louisville's success is only a convenient coincidence. Just because they've won stuff doesn't mean their winning stuff is what got them out of the Big East.

Louisville had already announced it was jumping ship before the team went to the Sugar Bowl and before the NCAA basketball tournaments. They didn't "play their way in" anymore than Rutgers did. That their teams have had a successful year in terms of results is merely a coincidence. The only thing USF could have done to get where Louisville is is have been founded about 50 years earlier and started playing football immediately.

1. If a player is deemed excessive in throwing an elbow, he can be hit with a Flagrant 1 or 2 and ejected at the refs' discretion IIRC 2. You say getting hit by a round, soft basketball as if it were a round pillow filled with feathers. In some of the clips, he was pegging players in/near the head. A well inflated basketball is not akin to a feather soft pillow, and speaking from experience, getting drilled in the head with one isn't exactly pleasant. bull-71 has already admitted he has no idea what he's talking about and is pulling stuff out of his ass. There's not really any reason to engage him in this conversation once he admits that.

"When are you going to start running" is a far cry from what Mike Rice did, and no, I don't think most coaches treat their players like Rice treats his. It is obvious you don't know anything about this case, or the timeline of all that went down.

Is this a joke? The university did look the other way and find ways to excuse it, even though the team wasn't any good. It was only when the public found out that he was canned, and I doubt most people really give a **** whether Rutgers' basketball team is any good.

I obviously don't have any proof of this, it's just my own impression, but I don't believe there's a single FBS school that, were the NCAA to actually conduct a thorough and professional investigation, would escape being found guilty of severe infractions. There's too much money at stake in college football for universities and coaches to play by the NCAA's flexible and arbitrarily enforced rules.

Mike Rice's infractions were worse than Jim Leavitt's because they happened repeatedly and were seemingly just how the dude was rather than Leavitt apparently just losing his cool once. That said, the two cases are similar enough that I don't think it makes sense to call USF "clean" and Rutgers "not clean." I also agree that every school is "clean" only until its own dirty laundry gets exposed. Maybe there's nothing going on at USF as offensive as what Mike Rice did, but I'm sure there are things somewhere that one or more USF coaches and/or administrators wouldn't want brought to light. Not a knock against USF, just a statement on the nature of college sports and the NCAA. I don't think either school, Rutgers with Mike Rice or USF with Leavitt, handled the situations in an even remotely professional manner (albeit for very different reasons), even if the final results were right, so I don't think that distinguishes the two cases either.

smazza, how much do you pay the person who ties your shoes and spells your name on credit card receipts for you?

"Athletic" is just a word. The schools in the other conferences have strong partnerships because most of them have been together for several decades or longer, not because the word athletic is missing from their names. SEC, ACC, etc were formed long ago before anyone knew what importance conferences would go on to have, and that those names don't have the word "athletic" in them is purely coincidence.

It's not that pulling in the third-ranked recruiting class wouldn't be awesome, it's that being ranked third almost a year before signing day is absolutely meaningless. As someone else pointed out, this is "good news" in the same way that USF still being undefeated in 2013 is "good news" - it doesn't actually mean anything practical.

It will never be over.

Fun if you have no hopes for a conference championship trophy. I hope that was a joke. You're an idiot if you think our current situation would be better than bolting to the Big 12 or ACC. A conference championship trophy doesn't mean anything when nobody gives a **** about the garbage conference you play in. Tell that to WVU. Or Rutgers. Or Pitt. Or Louisville. Or even Syracuse who shared the Big East football championship last season. Or are you saying that the Big East hasn't been garbage since 2005? Cincy and UConn, acknowledged by many as the two most desirable left of the recent Big East members, have also won the conference championship. Who is last on the list? Last of the entire Big East of the 2005 membership? The same school that hasn't won even a share of the championship. Not to mention the schools like Boise St that the Big East was attempting have join the conference or which Sun Belt teams are moving up. Championships DO seem to increase the chance of upward mobility in a lot of cases, regardless if its a garbage conference. If conference championships increase upward movement, it adds only an infinitesimal chance, and mostly moving from one "garbage" conference to another ... 5 of the 8 Big East members from 2005 went to garbage conferences? The first of those 5 to leave wasn't the one with the huge TV market or top notch academics, it was the one that dominated the conference. 2 of the 3 left are on the top of the lists to leave next. All 7 won all or part of the Big East Championship since 2005. The one not on anyone's list didn't win a championship. Never said that. Maybe I wasn't clear .... If there is any hope of a significant bump in a program's chance of moving up in conferences it's going to come from moving to FROM garbage conference TO garbage conference. The movements from the BE to the Power 5 were minimally affected, if at all, because of BE conference championships, with WVU probably being affected the most. If conf championships were that important, BSU would have been gone a while ago ... Boise St was going to go...to the Big East. Remember? 1) I fail to see how Boise St. potentially coming to the Big East changes B's point about jumping between garbage conferences. 2) Rutgers didn't win any Big East titles, so I'm not sure what your point about "5 of 8" is, as that just further demonstrates B's point. 3) Connecticut and Cincinnati each have more BCS bowl appearances than Rutgers - Cincinnati actually had back-to-back conference titles and an undefeated regular season! - and they are still stuck in garbage conference hell. There is no support at all for the argument that on-field success is making any difference in this process. It is marginal if it makes any difference at all.

What? What is being a sports fan if it's not "getting satisfaction vicariously through others" then? That's EXACTLY what being a sports fan is.

Houston, and most of Texas in general, is NOT what I would personally consider a honeymoon destination. I lived in Austin (great, great city, one of the nicest in the country in my opinion) for about three years and then San Antonio for a year, and the only place I personally would consider out of the parts of Texas I've been to is Padre Island, the south of which has some nice beaches. But it again warrants repeating that this is an individual preference, you may be into things I'm not into.

Holy ******* ****!! I thought you made that up. That article is 10 years old .... I had no idea he already had a rep at that time. Our football program was barely 5 years old and he was already whining? I guess this article had been kind of referenced in the past but if it had ever been linked I obviously must have missed it ..... or forgot I read it, which is entirely likely. That's amazing. Knowing how senile and clueless he was from pretty much the very beginning makes it a lot easier to ignore his drivel today.

Robbed? How so? Maybe because there was a jump ball called at the end where we had clearly gotten possession if the ref had waited a second longer to blow the whistle? Aside from that, I don't know ... That crummy foul called on McDonald when she fouled out sort of set the tone though for Cal. Aside from that, the Bulls had chances to win. Cal seemed to be a bit deeper. Yeah I agree with all that, especially about the jump ball at the end. That made a huge difference because seconds later there was a legitimate jump ball and the arrow was then with Cal. That was terrible, it wasn't even close to a jump ball. But that didn't cost USF the game.

Wow, overtime. What a great comeback!

Wow, ice in her veins on those first two. This is so exciting.

USF going to line to shoot three to tie it!! Big pressure situation here.

Wow, USF ball, 1.7 seconds left down three! Crazy ending.

**** if she had hit that she could have been at the line to tie it!

Wow two big misses there, a basket here would make it very interesting!

They went to three straight final fours with him, including that year they lost to Florida in the title game. His UCLA teams won four regular season conference titles and two conference tournament titles in his 10 years, plus he won a regular season title and a conference tournament title in his four years at Pitt. He hasn't won a national championship, but that doesn't mean he isn't a really good coach - only one coach's team can win a title each year, but I don't think there's only one great coach in the country each year. I don't know enough about UCLA to explain why they were disappointing in the past couple of seasons, but sometimes a change of scenery is just needed for both team and coach. Anyway, my point is, I think he'll land at a place in a better conference than the one USF is in, he has a good track record. But we'll all just see what happens I guess.

It would seem to me, in the 30 seconds I've spent pondering the question, that the only way an AD hire could make an immediate, huge impact at USF is if it were someone with solid ties to multiple schools in one of the big conferences - but of course that's an unlikely hire. Not saying Woolard's a great AD - his fate and final judgment will ultimately be tied to however Taggart performs as football coach, probably. And of course whether he and his coaches can manage to keep the athletic department both solvent and competitive in the wake of a huge slash to its budget. But if Woolard is eventually fired I won't expect his replacement to make a meaningful difference unless he has those strong ties to the Big XII (really exciting) or the ACC (less exciting, but still something), and even then it's no guarantee of anything.

Agreed. First of all I wouldn't want Howland Now if USF didn't have Woolard in charge then I'm sure a competent AD would a least inquiry about Howland. I do not think he would command a high salary right off the bat. Might be like Heath when he was fired at Arkansas, just look to take the best job available as quickly as he could to get back into to head coaching. Maybe being let go can light a fire in Howland to prove he still is a good head coach. Why would Howland be interested in this job? The USF basketball coaching job is one of the best in the nation. Incompetent AD, no worries about trying to get people to attend home games, no pressure from the fan base to win, and can have 19+ loss seasons as long as there is at least one 20 win season every 30 years. Any coach that does that gets a lifetime pass from the fan base, pay raises every 3 seasons, and can enjoy working and living in Tampa without a worry in the world for the rest of his life. If being the president of the United States is the most uncomfortable job in the America, then being the head basketball coach of the University of South Florida is the most comfortable job in the America. I wonder if Brad Stevens would be interested? Vega, are you some sort of automated bot that just regurgitates stock phrases at random in hopes of making it seem like a coherent thought? You just ... say things, regardless of their basis in any sort of, you know, reality. It is all very mindless. "No pressure from the fan base to win" is a pretty interesting dumb-as-hell way to say "coached the team to its best season ever and two of its four best seasons ever." Heath has won at USF like no coach in 20 years and did it against the highest level of competition USF has ever faced. You just have absolutely no clue what's happening, even when it's right in front of your face, or monitor with a human face taped over it, or whatever the hell you are. "As long as there is at least one 20 win season every 30 years" - Heath coached two 20-win seasons in three years for a team that hadn't had a 20-win season for almost 20 years when Heath arrived on campus. You seem to be unfamiliar with the firing of one Robert McCullum, who was fired for most of the same nonsense you are here falsely putting on Heath. You just ... you're certainly a special one.