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Post by Retired Coach on Dec 6, 2014 12:08:28 GMT -5
Klinger brought this up on Raiderroundball and it is a topic worth discussing. Why are we playing in crappy tournaments hosted by mid-majors and low majors on the road when we could just as easily host our own tournament? We just finished playing in the Spartanburg Marriott Upstate Classic. If USC Upstate was able to get a sponsor for that tournament which drew less than 1000 fans a game, there is no reason why Wright State shouldn't be able to get a sponsor and host our own tournament. We average 4x that many fans per game. We currently play 2 non-D1 games a year at home for 2 reasons according to Donlon and Grant: 1. We need to play a certain number of home games every year to make enough revenue to support the program. 2. It is more cost effective to schedule a D2 team than to buy a low major D1 team. Well, if we held a 3 day tournament at the Nutter Center, we would add 3 more home games to our schedule and wouldn't have to schedule any D2 teams at all. Grant and Donlon say it is hard to get teams to come play at the Nutter Center. Personally I do not buy that, but even if you want to believe that you have to think that it would be easier to get teams to come to the Nutter Center if it was part of a good mid-major tournament. What do you think?
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Post by Glory Days on Dec 6, 2014 12:17:05 GMT -5
Wright State did host a tournament several years in a row in the early 1990s. I believe it was called the USAir Classic.
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Post by keithfromxenia on Dec 6, 2014 13:26:14 GMT -5
You are right gd. It was a four team event with the traditional format of winner playing winner and loser playing loser on the second night. I personally prefer that format over the round robin format.
I am sitting at bw 3 watching some games. right now new jersey institute of technology (njit) is giving Michigan all it can handle in ann arbor. seems like I read about them giving another good team a tough time recently. I think they just went div i in the past few years.
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Post by Tipp City Raider on Dec 6, 2014 15:02:32 GMT -5
We currently play 2 non-D1 games a year at home for 2 reasons according to Donlon and Grant: 1. We need to play a certain number of home games every year to make enough revenue to support the program. 2. It is more cost effective to schedule a D2 team than to buy a low major D1 team. I highly disagree with our coaching staff and AD about scheduling. I think our biggest problem is our coaching staff doesn't put enough effort into scheduling and I honestly believe they want a weak schedule. Scheduling is done by coaching staffs and/or ADs across the country. Some schools have staffs dedicated to scheduling or at a minimum one person responsible for scheduling the majority of the year. WSU has Director of Player Development DJ Wyrick as our one man dedicated to scheduling. Considering how important scheduling is to our revenue stream and outlook for the season, shouldn't we have someone solely dedicated to scheduling instead of our lowest level basketball staffer that is also responsible for coordinating team travel, organizes film exchange and video editing, assists with scouting and serves as the director of the Billy Donlon Basketball Camp. That doesn't leave much time for contacting other schools for scheduling. The other argument I made above is that our coaches want a weak schedule. Donlon likes to say to the media that he has a hard time getting team to come to the Nutter Center because they are afraid to play here. Pleeeeease. I really don't think 2 NCAA tournament appearances in the last 20+ years is scaring anyone away. Our scheduling has been middle of the pack in the HL or lower every year Donlon has been here. Our fans and his players deserve more. We shouldn't be preparing to play Urbana tomorrow. We should be getting ready for a D1 game. Playing a tournament at WSU in the future sounds like a great idea. I don't see that ever happening with our current coaching staff and AD. Organizing a tournament would require waaaaay too much effort when they can just continue to schedule a couple of D2 teams a year and get away with it. |
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Post by wsuraider09 on Dec 6, 2014 16:19:24 GMT -5
No reason not to. We've got the arena to do it, the athletic facilities with several different practice gyms, plenty of lodging, and plenty of fans in the area who love roundball action. Sounds like a win-win.
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Post by keithfromxenia on Dec 6, 2014 18:15:30 GMT -5
tipp, I think you are right, the staff wants a weak schedule. that scheduling philosophy is called the coaches full employment philosophy. schedule crap, win 20 games and never have to worry about your job.
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Post by Dr J on Dec 6, 2014 18:30:44 GMT -5
To host your own tournament you need a corporate sponsor and people willing to put it together. We would need to have butts in the seats to make sure it is not costly. It might be possible in one or two years. I'm not sure if we have coaches with personal relationships with other coaches to schedule some teams. Also most of the good teams will stay away from BD because of his style of play. They have built there programs on exciting play and if they play us he would bring the boring run the clock game.
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Post by Raider Pride on Dec 7, 2014 0:56:27 GMT -5
To host your own tournament you need a corporate sponsor and people willing to put it together. We would need to have butts in the seats to make sure it is not costly. It might be possible in one or two years. I'm not sure if we have coaches with personal relationships with other coaches to schedule some teams. Also most of the good teams will stay away from BD because of his style of play. They have built there programs on exciting play and if they play us he would bring the boring run the clock game. I don't think the first poster was suggesting that we would be able to bring in any great teams for a tournament at Wright State. He suggested that if we were going to play in a tournament with other mid-majors and other low majors we should just host it our self. There is no reason we shouldn't be able to line up 3 local mid-majors/low majors for a tournament at Wright State. |
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Post by wolf41 on Dec 7, 2014 10:56:39 GMT -5
I remember the tournaments we use to routinely host, and even the times we use to host our league tournaments. Those were always enjoyable, but a LOT of work for the Athletic's employees. But it would seem to me that WSU should think about it. Drop your three or two non-D-I opponents and have a tournament with a MAC team from Ohio, a MV team from Indiana, and a team like Belmont, E. Ky., W. Ky., or Robert Morris. All of these schools could be reasonably close, so travel costs would be minimized, and we could draw decent crowds. But you are correct in that I don't see WSU having the stomach for doing such a thing.
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Post by Raider Country on Dec 7, 2014 12:40:44 GMT -5
Playing a tournament at WSU in the future sounds like a great idea. I don't see that ever happening with our current coaching staff and AD. Organizing a tournament would require waaaaay too much effort when they can just continue to schedule a couple of D2 teams a year and get away with it. Pretty much sums up my thoughts |
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Post by wsuraider09 on Dec 7, 2014 14:04:41 GMT -5
We'd have no problem putting butts in seats...did you see the attendance figures for the tournament we just played in? We'd have no problem getting our average fan base...plus some of the other casual basketball fans from the area if we get a decent team or two to play. Get regional teams within a few hundred miles would be a huge plus financially.
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Post by Big D on Dec 8, 2014 14:19:55 GMT -5
I wouldn't hold my breath on this ever happening.
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Post by Doliboabros on Dec 13, 2014 13:02:05 GMT -5
Wright State did host a tournament several years in a row in the early 1990s. I believe it was called the USAir Classic. Those tournaments usually consisted of a few low majors, but it was a fun tournament to attend. |
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Post by mrose on Dec 13, 2014 18:09:45 GMT -5
I know this is a loooong shot, but…
Personally, I would like to see what I’ll define as the “Miami Valley 5” play a MTE; UD, Wright State, Miami, X, and Cincy. Treat it much like the Big 5 is handled in Philadelphia with home-and-home games.
I wouldn’t expect this event to occur every year as per the MTE rules, so every 4th year, and some of those other schools use the premier MTE’s as a way to treat their boosters with trips to destination resorts and test themselves against high profile programs--Nothing wrong with that and more power to them. But if they did agree to this it would be good to lock it down on a set rotation for several events in the future.
The benefit to the other programs is they get two home games, virtually sold out arenas, sans Miami (added benefit to those boosters that can’t go to Maui, L.A. area, Orlando, etc.), with the games effectively not counting towards their allowable scheduled games. In other words, they typically play 3 MTE games away at a neutral site that counts as “1 game” when then could have 2 home games (plus the 2 road games) count as 1 game. Additionally, for those that would otherwise have X, UC, and Miami on the schedule this allows them to keep those games, but opens free the schedule for another game.
Their downside is, as they may see it, a bad loss at home to a down team. However, they already have that now with some of their own scheduling. In addition, some MTE’s are now scheduling a 4th game for those other programs—a very low-major at home before their games at the Destination tournament.
Their potential upside? Typically, most MTE’s are still designed to have 3 games/team. However, the rule allows up to 4 games—so a 4th game against a top 100-ish(?) team on the road(?) may be a plus at the end of the season when it comes to the resume/RPI with the selection committee.
Oh, what the heck, I’ll send this to Santa as only he and the elves might be able make and deliver this gift!
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Post by uptempo on Dec 14, 2014 1:57:07 GMT -5
How about adding Northern Kentucky into the mix.
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