Wakeforest22890
Snowpom
"Stand up double" guy should out himself for posrep. OBVIOUS poster
I shoulda gone, at least for the free booze
pretty sure they charge for admission.
...
I had no expectations that Hatch or anyone else would address the basketball situation directly but it was definitely a topic of conversation throughout the crowd. I talked about it with members of the administration, board of trustees, alumni council, etc. My stock intro to the subject -- to see what they'd say -- was something like, "we're all on the edge of our seats waiting to hear who our new basketball coach will be. We've all heard the recent rumors, but I guess we'll just have to wait until something is official." Two different folks in the above groups responded with, "so, what do you think about Danny Manning?" Pretty telling. Someone else in the above groups said something like, "I hope our fans give whoever gets the job a chance." I hate the implication that Wake fans want the program to fail so I was pretty strong in response.
Edited to add: one other said, after I brought up Manning, that the hire would be a "stand up double."
I thought the event was very impressive and I like the message that a billion dollar campaign sends. We can debate whether the money will be put to good use, but it felt like we were playing in the big leagues for once.
And how did you respond when they asked you about Manning?
Trying to gauge whether I'm one of us or one of them?
I said he's not my first choice, that I was holding out hope for Shaka, that I don't like how public he's been about the whole process, and that I wish we were going after someone with a more established head coaching record. Also that I worry that he'll just jump ship in a few years for Kansas or otherwise if he's successful at Wake. I said that I think he'll be a great recruiter and is a solid upgrade from what we had. One person questioned all the hype around Shaka. I said that Manning might end up being as successful as Shaka would, but that landing Shaka would have made a statement that Wake is serious about turning around the basketball program.
Trying to gauge whether I'm one of us or one of them?
I said he's not my first choice, that I was holding out hope for Shaka, that I don't like how public he's been about the whole process, and that I wish we were going after someone with a more established head coaching record. Also that I worry that he'll just jump ship in a few years for Kansas or otherwise if he's successful at Wake. I said that I think he'll be a great recruiter and is a solid upgrade from what we had. One person questioned all the hype around Shaka. I said that Manning might end up being as successful as Shaka would, but that landing Shaka would have made a statement that Wake is serious about turning around the basketball program.
The person who questioned all the hype around Shaka - was he questioning the rumor/hype that we went after him (is that in doubt?), or questioning the hype surrounding Shaka's coaching ability?
Question answered... You ARE one of us. And good job. :thumbsup: