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Shaka

Things have changed dramatically over the past two years. You can't get around this fact.
 
VaDeac said:
I don't think anyone expects Shaka to come to Wake, not for the reasons 88 states, but because our AD isn't forward-thinking enough. It isn't because we can't afford him or because he wouldn't be interested.
So just because Shaka wont be coaching here in 14-15 won't mean 88 is right.
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Exactly.

He's basically saying something that has a 5% chance of happening actually has a 0.001% chance of happening. It's likely not going to happen anyway, but there's no way to prove that he was right or wrong.
 
wakedeac98 said:
The only way VCU could "match" an offer by Wake would be for wealthy alumni to donate/pay for it out of pocket.

VCU doesn't come close to the annual conference revenue, income from home games/ticket sales, or have a football program to contribute. It's super risky for an AD to give a huge contract based primarily on donations, because if the team starts to suck the donations may not be there which would cause a huge problem.
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You may be right. I don't know how much money our football program and an almost empty BB&T Stadium have contributed toward funding our basketball program the last three years - it seems unlikely to have contributed any, but maybe it has.

It is my recollection that the Joel seats 13,000+, although they're planning on reducing to 8-9K (which I don't understand). It appears that VCU's present gym only seats...8,000.

I would think that we would have substantially larger annual conference revenue than VCU. I am not sure how much of that is going to be immediately available, but surely some of it could and should be. I also don't know what the transitional costs are going to be concerning our former football coach and our hopefully soon-to-be former basketball coach.

RJ's estimate is that it would take $3.5M to get Shaka to consider moving. Perhaps his estimate is off, but it presently is as good a guess as any. Maybe VCU can't raise $3M to keep him. Seems unlikely.

I don't know that Shaka would be that good a fit at Wake, but I'd be tickled to see them try. And if Shaka can fill the Joel as often as Skip did, that alone would make a huge difference. Perhaps then the powers that be might reconsider the plan to reduce the seating.
 
wake20 said:
Why will it continue to fall? They add Davidson next year, which should improve the conference, but they could also lose some coaches along the way (Archie, Lonergan, etc), which would hurt. Is this what you're referring to?
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Other leagues are getting stronger. The A-10 will inevitably lose top coaches and their TV presence will continue to wane. If Shaka leaves, it will hurt them even more.

Getting Davidson is a huge yawn. The only reason Davidson has been relevant in the past forty years was lucking out to get Steph Curry. It's the only time since 1970 they won a game in the NCAAT. They are as close to nobody school as you can get.
 
1976Deac said:
You may be right. I don't know how much money our football program and an almost empty BB&T Stadium have contributed toward funding our basketball program the last three years - it seems unlikely to have contributed any, but maybe it has.

It is my recollection that the Joel seats 13,000+, although they're planning on reducing to 8-9K (which I don't understand). It appears that VCU's present gym only seats...8,000.

I would think that we would have substantially larger annual conference revenue than VCU. I am not sure how much of that is going to be immediately available, but surely some of it could and should be. I also don't know what the transitional costs are going to be concerning our former football coach and our hopefully soon-to-be former basketball coach.

RJ's estimate is that it would take $3.5M to get Shaka to consider moving. Perhaps his estimate is off, but it presently is as good a guess as any. Maybe VCU can't raise $3M to keep him. Seems unlikely.

I don't know that Shaka would be that good a fit at Wake, but I'd be tickled to see them try. And if Shaka can fill the Joel as often as Skip did, that alone would make a huge difference. Perhaps then the powers that be might reconsider the plan to reduce the seating.
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~35% reduction in seating capacity=LOWF
 
BeachBumDeac said:
I think he meant the part about reducing it to 8-9K
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Thanks.

I hope I was wrong, because I like the Joel fine the size it is.

One of the supposed "problems" with the Joel that was discussed on the boards, and I think maybe in news, when Wake was considering buying the Joel, was that the existing seating was too big and would need to be reduced in some manner to something close to Cameron's size, to increase homecourt advantage. What made more sense to me was to have a basketball program that could fill it, rather than reduce seating.
 
The best chance Wake has of getting Shaka will be in 5 years when we have a new president and athletic director.
 
Georgia State stole Lefty Driesell from Maryland and Bill Curry from Alabama. And did it with no TV money.
 
1976Deac said:
Thanks.

I hope I was wrong, because I like the Joel fine the size it is.

One of the supposed "problems" with the Joel that was discussed on the boards, and I think maybe in news, when Wake was considering buying the Joel, was that the existing seating was too big and would need to be reduced in some manner to something close to Cameron's size, to increase homecourt advantage. What made more sense to me was to have a basketball program that could fill it, rather than reduce seating.
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I agree. But this would probably require a new AD who is willing to build success and flush the LOWF attitudes .
 
The Joel is way too fucking big. Even when we were good, it was only filled for big ACC games (and would often have a lot of opposing fans there). Especially nowadays, when every single live athletic venue (even the best run ones with successful teams) is struggling with attendance.

Gotta make the live experience something better than you can get in your living room. And a cavernous 14K seat arena is not that.
 
FWIW, the A10 is getting more teams into the NCAAT this year than the ACC.

I don't think it's a terrible conference (or suffering in any way compared to years past).
 
wake20 said:
VCU is currently a 6 seed. They were a 5 last year and a 12 in 2012. Perennial power vcu is not.
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How does increasing time from Shaka's last final four affect his asking price? Shaka is a very good coach and I would love to have him for many reasons. I also love much of what comes with Shaka (complete package).
I do feel like his philosophy and teams are a lot more like Odom than people here have recognized. I know Odom didn't employ "Havoc", but Shaka does try to win on the defensive end and not giving up easy baskets. The offensive end isn't quite as exciting. Now, if Shaka can be Odom with more consistent recruiting, we have something. My only point is (if not for Bz) many people wouldn't like Shaka's style as much once it is ours. It will be interesting to see how long the honeymoon lasts. I might just be reading too much into people's justified fervor to get away from the Bz error that those things are recognized and just not nit-picked at this point.
 
I don't understand why making the Joel smaller would increase our home court advantage. Isn't that the only place we've won at in several years?
 
1976Deac said:
Thanks.

I hope I was wrong, because I like the Joel fine the size it is.

One of the supposed "problems" with the Joel that was discussed on the boards, and I think maybe in news, when Wake was considering buying the Joel, was that the existing seating was too big and would need to be reduced in some manner to something close to Cameron's size, to increase homecourt advantage. What made more sense to me was to have a basketball program that could fill it, rather than reduce seating.
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Part of the problem has always been that, even when the Joel was filled, it was filled partly by opposing school fans that lived in the area and corporate seats given to those fans. Not so evident for big out-of-conference games, but very clear for UNC, Duke and NCSU games.

However, how many Deacon fans came to those games and not others? I support shrinking the number of seats (which can be done at reasonable cost) and trying to make the arena more intimate, but are the opposing fans well entrenched enough in the seats that doing so would rob us of our own more casual fans?
 
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Good point. If we keep winning and more people start showing up we should expand the Joel so well still have 9,000 empty seats.
 
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