Men's Basketball Practice Begins

[Brad]

Like when many took shots at the basketball team - the football team is too easy a target.

We shouldn't take shots at any of our teams, but shots happen. 

[Brad]

A lot of it has to do with marketing in my opinion. The very little marketing that USF does is all related to football. Many of the other sports get the shaft at USF and it's ********.

That started happening in 1997.  Basketball was the sport.  Then football became the money sport.  Now it remains to be seen if Woolard and company have killed the goose that laid the golden eggs.

But let's get back to Basketball.  We opened the purse strings to pay Stan Heath.  That money had to come from revenue earned by the historically successful football program and subsequent membership in the Big East.  Football has led to many great things in USF Athletics including Basketball.  Basketball has received more money despite no corresponding increase in revenues.

Coach Heath truly has the toughest job in America.  He's done terrific, although I'm not sure there is a foundation for future success yet.  But he got us to be a competitive team rather quickly.  Losing McCullum's recruit and first round NBA pick Dominique Jones will hurt, so Coach Heath needs to show what he can do to win with the talent he has.  In other words, don't run the same offense if he doesn't have the personnel for it. 

[DELdaBull]

Stan has created a winner. Too bad no one is in the dome to see it.

[Held_AccountaBull]

Will there ever be a day that losers like the one in this thread don't feel the need to tell all the other fans what ***** fans they are? What will it take for idiots to realize this isn't a competition?

And there are many, many, many schools that don't hold "midnight madness."

And calling people names and attacking them got your point across. Someone has some growing up to do.

[SattyBull]

The University of Tampa even has Midnight Madness lol

[BullsDude08]

Will there ever be a day that losers like the one in this thread don't feel the need to tell all the other fans what ***** fans they are? What will it take for idiots to realize this isn't a competition?

And there are many, many, many schools that don't hold "midnight madness."

Maybe if you learn how to read you could see Vega's point. He was not saying he was a better fan than anyone else. He is calling out all the non-fans that don't show up for Top 25 NCAA Basketball, night in and night out. Yet, they come support an average D-1 football team.

No high school or JUCO kid of elite caliber would come play in front of 3,000 fans on a given night, in BIG EAST CONFERENCE play at that.

It's pathetic the support Stan Heath gets, if I was him, first school that comes calling....SEE YA!

[cmhatter]

Let's be realistic... Almost everyone had better bball facilities than us. With the new bball center I am very interested to see how it will change the recruiting landscape for us...

That said I'll be buying 2 season tickets for basketball this season.

[Triple B]

A winner we can all believe in. Funny thing is when McCollum got fired 3 years ago this board was going bonkers.

I remember the fan base being way, way, WAY less upset about the firing of McCullum than about the firing of Leavitt. Not even close. I'm sure there were SOME people upset about his firing, but the team was so poor under them that I don't think anybody was "going bonkers."

Then when Stan was hired more craziness. His first ROUGH year almost EVERYONE wanted him fired.

More interesting revisionist history. Who called for Heath to be fired after one year? Give me a name. That's nonsense. Heath was the best hire USF could have made, the fans were excited about the hire and nobody with any credibility could have been stupid enough to think he would have turned it around in one year.

The baffling part is, I have no idea what you think you're accomplishing by making up history like this. What point are you trying to make? What on earth does it have to do with the basketball team starting practice in 2010?

Agreed. I don't remember anyone crying at McCullum being fired, and I don't remember anyone wanting Stan fired after his first year.

I was one of the biggest Mac apologists on here but understood the firing. I didn't think he got enough credit for some stuff he did do when here but understood that he just didn't appear to be pulling in enough quality recruits to get us competitive in the BE .... and don't remember anybody calling for Stan's head after his first year.

[Triple B]

Tampa is the worse sports town there has ever been. Although we strangely support the weak FB team that plays in the BE which is on the level of a D-II conference. I know the Rays wonder the same thing.

You like usf basketball, but you take shots at the football team every chance you get.

Vega's not been shy about his affiliations:

Well I like SEC FB and I see no crime in that. I also use to like the USC Trojans FB team under Pete Carroll too. Right now I'm following USF, Auburn, and Bama.

[bullwark]

What I don't understand is that the basketball facility (Sundome) is on campus and attendance is low.  The athletic department needs to reach out to the students on campus to attend games and the students need to realize that attending basketball games and supporting the team is an integral part of college life.  The students get it for football.