Mike Stuben

First, the team earned those votes. I didn't reach out to any of the AP voters who voted for us, so no credit to me. I think I might have helped with the coaches poll, as one of the voting coaches liked my tweet to him, but we don't know if was one/some of our votes or not, and even if he was, he might have done it without my tweet.

I was there Saturday at Temple. I don't second guess coaches as they are the ones who spend all the time with the players, they know what players are capable of, not me sitting in the stands. We were getting destroyed, and on pace for under 30 points for the game. Shots weren't falling. We put in a defensive lineup. It 100% worked. That defensive minded lineup sparked the come back. Aarnio has developed into a defensive specialist. (if nothing else, you will keep seeing her at end of games when we sub offense/defense depending on the situation) There is a space for her on this team. I think too often we are forgetting we had a world class scorer last year, and this year she is unexpectedly gone (except for 1 game). Having someone who can shoot like that makes everyone else look better on the court, it opens up looks, it just flat out helps. They wll be fine, we all know this program reloads and wins.

I don't think so. Or at least, if yes, then I totally missed him.

He still plays. I keep trying to catch a show, it has been a while for me. I never went to the Proud Lion until he bought it, and I would guess he had it for a couple years before it closed. It was a cool place, but in my opinion, the location didn't help. He loves, loves, loves USF MBB.

Proud Lion Pub's last owner was Johnny G Lyon, who sits across the aisle from me at men's basketball.

This is great analysis. You combined two things, and I think we should split them up. Route: USF at large bid....gotta win just about everything but not the tourney championship game. In this scenario, we want Memphis and FAU to win, to make our wins over them look better. Then for everyone else, we want the teams we play twice to beat the teams we play once. Route: USF wins the tournament for automatic bid..... then the double bye is huge, so we want to see teams competing for top 4 to take losses, and if some of them have to win, then we want the ones where we have the tie breaker. The hard part, is at times, we want opposite outcomes of other games, depending on our path to the tournament.

I owned one for 10 years (sold it in 2014 ish), where I lived right accross from baseball. I hated that condo, but I loved walking over to athletic events. Going to miss it when the stadium is done. (I'm only 1.5 miles away now)

You should have seen me back in the day when I worked for Athletics. In all seriousness, I have mad respect for everyone in Athletics. so much time in the office, only to then work games and events. I don't know how I did it back in the day. When I did merch, towards the end of football season with basketball overlap, I once calculated I worked a 103 hour work week. (that was the extreme, but still lots of long hours) Nowdays, I love my job, but also love that most days I can leave at 5, and put it aside until the next day.

Yeah, Peabody's is still hanging in there, but I can add Goodfellas to the list, it was in the same plaza as Peabody's and long gone. I remember the name Bulls Club, but don't think I ever went there. I have a great Gumby's story back around 1997, I was working on my MBA, that particular year we had lots of French exchange students in the MBA program. 6 person group project, where we would meet and work for 20 minutes, followed by 2 hours of drinking. We order Gumby's, the delivery person is from Haiti, the French students go wild because he looks like Yannick Noah. They invite him to come in and drink with us. He abandons his deliveries and brings in all the pizzas in his car and stays for hours, right in the middle of his shift.

Nightlife around campus has been in decline for years. Younger fans won't know these names: Empty keg Greenery The Claw restaurant (really) CDB's Copper Top Montana's Kasey's Cove Bennigans Fridays The Brickyard (I think that was the name, current Acropolis) All those places at one point in time were around campus and drew in students, all gone. The only improvement, Mr Dunderbaks moving from the mall to their current location.

Here is a fun perspective, in 2011-12 we went 12-6 in conference. Since then we haven't won more than 8 games. At 7-1, there should be no question that this will end up our best team since 2012. (with that CBI run sort of tricky to rank)

While comparing to NBA its not much, but when comparing to other professions: I make less than $62,285 from my day job, and my day job isn't as fun as playing basketball, so WNBA players have me beat.

I was talking to a guy named Joe DeSantis at a Tampa Tarpons game back a few months ago. He is a former coach who is now a radio broadcaster for Fairfield MBB. He was asking me about Yetna, as it seemed he was a big part of their plans for this season. I keep checking and he hasn't played yet. He was both super talented, combined with the right physical tools. Such a shame so many injuries derailed him.

Here is a question to ponder. Let's say that Texas and Oklahoma just announced they were leaving for the SEC. UCF, Houston and Cincny are all part of the AAC. Today, the Big 12 decides it is going to add 4 schools, BYU plus 3 AAC schools. Who are the AAC schools selected? I think it is us, C, plus either Cincy or Houston, meaning we move ahead of both Cincy and Houston and they fight it out for the last spot.

currently in his 5th and final year. But he only scored 39 points at USF. So, in reality, most of those points in less than 4 years.

I just looked, he has scored over 1500 college points. unreal.

That is a great question, and @John Lewis may be better to answer. Here are a few unorganized thoughts: 1. Schools can create benefits for endowment giving. USF made a big push to get us preemenient, as it was one of the measuring sticks, then really backed away from it. 2. I personally love the idea of forever. Even if just small money. When I throw $100 into an endowment fund, it impacts the place I love forever. Long after I am gone, I am still helping. 3. It lets your money keep its power. It can't be wasted by a bad administrator. (sure, 1 year can be, but the money remains after the bad administrator leaves). 4. Often it comes with prestige, thing get named after the donor. In academics you hear about "The Triple B Endowed Professor of Economics" or stuff like that.

I know most will roll their eyes on this post, but for some it might be helpful. Endowment is donated money that can never be spent. The university can only spend the interest earned on the endowment (they use a complicated projection system, so they know in advance how much they have to spend). Most donations made are not endowment. When we hear the phrase "endowed scholarship", someone is donating big money, where the interest alone is enough to cover 1 student's tuition for the year. Like lets say I donate $500,000 for an endowed scholarship. USF foundation invests my $500,000 and earns 3% (they shouldn't be making any risky investments), then athletics would get $15,000 a year forever, to cover one student's scholarship. I am a huge believer every year in adding at least $100 to the endowment, which is an extra gift, as it does not count towards your Bulls Club level, club access, or seat location.

*while it is possible they stay (I always assume I am a better typer than I really am)

I hate to say it, but no chance of a sell out. Sell out would need to be Saturday night, against an opponent who is top 10, and with a large tradional fan base with a huge local presence. (UF and FSU) The crowds will keep getting better, and hopefully we will have a nice crowd for that game, but we aren't in the sellout range.

FSU academically is ahead of USF in most measures. We do have AAU which is a big deal, and is largely about research (other things too). While it is possible them stay, either because they are stuck, or because the ACC finds away to be more attractive to their top teams, it seems more likely that divorce is coming.

If it was showing sold out, then just a temporary mistake they caught and opened more up. Could also have been a TM issue. Not sure.

Never assume a ticketmaster map shows what is available. While some places open most seats up, most places will only open up what they want you to buy at that moment.

It is just to protect NC State. The state (government) shouldn't care about Duke and Wake, as they are private institutions. ie - the state (government) should care more about ECU and Charlotte than Duke and Wake.

The most interesting thing to me, what does Miami do. We know FSU is gone from the ACC. I am not sure Miami is one of the top 4 that gets the step up. If not, how does that impact us. Another wild scenario. SEC takes Miami and FSU. Then does the Big 10 look at us as a path to Florida.