My McCullum Take

[South_Florida_Flip]

If they we him I'm not making a donation this year. Now I don't give the most money but I've donated every year since my graduation. I sacrifice to make my donation as does everyone else.

If you're speaking of your donation to the Bulls Club, then why would stop making it even McCullum returns. Your contribution goes to fund the scholarships of the student athletes. By not renewing that you're not supporting the players.

[South_Florida_Flip]

Winning solves a lot of problems. Lets say next years squad starts 10-4

I agree about winning solving problems. Don't we lose 2 OOC games next season since we're going to 18 Big East games? The road will be that much tougher if McCullum comes back and the OOC schedule will be that much weaker as well.

[hightechbull]

Maybe you want to reread my post. I think he should go BUT the history of our basketball program has been doing it on the cheap and what it has gotten us is a few good years mostly bad. the facts are that you usually get what you pay for and our school as stated in earlier posts have sucked in every conference it has been in winning less than 40% of games. Coaches that were succesful in previous stints come to USF and lose

So it simple we NEED to show we care for the program and pay for a quality coach of course IF we win  money and revenue will go up I NEVER said it wouldnt.

What i did say is if we dont spend for quality we will get same crappy results we have been getting.

How the F did we suck in the Sun Belt when we won the Sun Belt title to go to our first Big Dance.

We were pretty **** good in our first Metro year, and we got an at large NCAA bid that year.

[hightechbull]

I hope you hit it big at texas hold em tables so you can donate the extra 200k to do the buyout.  I don't see that happening.

What about the future potential revenue that we will lose from diminishing fan support?  Ever think of that?

Remember that the BIG EAST kicked Temple out for really sucking big time for a long time in football.  Do we want to risk the same treatment for sucking arse in basketball to save a few bucks now?  If we show zero commitment to basketball and keep the guy just because of a contract and because he is a "nice guy" then what does that prove?  It shows that we are cheapskates, have no commitment to basketball, and probably do not belong in the BIG EAST.

Hell, USF scraped up a million dollars to get Sami Al-Arian to go away.  Luckily the Feds took care of him first and we kept that money.

Also, the Board of Trustees plan to give Genshaft a nice big raise, and a lot of that money comes from donors (whoever those fools are).  This is part of USF quest to play one up-manship with all the other Florida universities on who can pay their president the most.

I think if the university can scrape up a million dollars to tell Sami bye-bye and find gullible donors to give Genshaft a huge raise, then I think they can probably find the money to get rid of RMC and get a new coach.

[Cubanbull]

Maybe you want to reread my post. I think he should go BUT the history of our basketball program has been doing it on the cheap and what it has gotten us is a few good years mostly bad. the facts are that you usually get what you pay for and our school as stated in earlier posts have sucked in every conference it has been in winning less than 40% of games. Coaches that were succesful in previous stints come to USF and lose

So it simple we NEED to show we care for the program and pay for a quality coach of course IF we win  money and revenue will go up I NEVER said it wouldnt.

What i did say is if we dont spend for quality we will get same crappy results we have been getting.

How the F did we suck in the Sun Belt when we won the Sun Belt title to go to our first Big Dance.

We were pretty **** good in our first Metro year, and we got an at large NCAA bid that year.

how did we sucked in the Sun belt? Go back and do some research.

USF was in the Sun Belt for FIFTEEN years, our record over all in the conference was 75-116

USF NEVER won the Sun Belt we finished second twice and won the TOURNAMENT ONCE thats how we went to NCAA. We had SIX years out of FIFTEEN with winning records.

Now i dont know what you call sucking BUT being less than 40% winners in the Sun Belt, never winnng the regular title and one NCAA in 15 years is pretty sucky to me.

as for the Metro in four years our highest finish was THIRD and we went 16-32 in it thats 33%

we had a THREE year span with Paschal where we went to TWO NCAAs and 1 NIT thoose three years where the best in USF history and we went 24-16 in conference play that was 1989-92

[Brad]

Thanks for the facts Cubanbull, emotion overwhelms some folks at times.

[Brad]

On the turnaround....

I don't think a 17-13 team will bring out fans whether McCullum or <insert name here> is the coach.  Seth had 17 win seasons and still couldn't sell basketball to anyone other than the diehards (and we know he was a salesman).  I sat in the large $ donor section and those folks still never showed.  If 17 win seasons don't energize our own donors, I don't see how it will rally the community as some less experienced USF hoops fans anticipate it will.  It surely beats what's going on today, but it would put us right back where we were.  Mediocre at best.  We need to go beyond that and we need a full committment to it - just as soon as we can.

[Herman_Momart]

On the turnaround....

I don't think a 17-13 team will bring out fans whether McCullum or <insert name here> is the coach.  Seth had 17 win seasons and still couldn't sell basketball to anyone other than the diehards (and we know he was a salesman).  I sat in the large $ donor section and those folks still never showed.  If 17 win seasons don't energize our own donors, I don't see how it will rally the community as some less experienced USF hoops fans anticipate it will.  It surely beats what's going on today, but it would put us right back where we were.  Mediocre at best.  We need to go beyond that and we need a full committment to it - just as soon as we can.

I have to disagree here.  Going 17-13 in conference usa is way different than going 17-13 in the big east.  If we were 17-13 in the big east you know somewhere along that path and even at the end would make usf a ncaa bubble team.  Definitely making the conference tournament and a lock for at least an NIT bid.  17-13 in the conference usa means nothing, isnt UCF in conference USA now?

Fans go to games when there is something to root for.  Where there is an obtainable goal in sight.  If mac or <insert name here> had usf 17-13 this year the games would be packed.  But he doesnt.  

Games are empty when there is no committment to winning and we are getting blown out of most of our conference contests.  The big east is a basketball conference first, if we can compete, they will show.    

[Brad]

17-13 and an NIT bid would be an improvement.  But it's all relative regardless of conference.  My point was that if we returned to being 17-13 and a likely NIT team, there would not be much passion.  I think there was a lot of hope placed on that during SGs reign that just got destroyed.  I think to resuscitate the program and to expect crowds of people - you'll have to be a perennial contender for the BE title.  I just don't see the Tampa market as that sophisticated when it comes to college basketball.  

Besides, a middle of the road Big East NCAA bubble team isn't going to get them all crazy enough to spend money to see USF hoops.

[Triple B]

If mac or <insert name here> had usf 17-13 this year the games would be packed.

Is this just a hunch or are you basing it on something else? Brad is dead on with his Tampa not being sophisticated when it comes to college hoops, and I'd have to throw in the USF students, as a whole, in with that. I can vividly remember sitting in the dome during SG's reign with a USF team with a respectable record, an exciting team but not many more people in the stands than we have now and thinking "how much longer is Seth going to put up with this?"

Somebody else has also pointed it out but the general apathy of USF hoops loosely coincides with the start up of football. Basketball used to be the only major avenue for school pride and spirit and I don't think it's a coincidense that that the hoops apathy lines up with the emergence of football.... just my opinion.