• Welcome to OGBoards 10.0, keep in mind that we will be making LOTS of changes to smooth out the experience here and make it as close as possible functionally to the old software, but feel free to drop suggestions or requests in the Tech Support subforum!

Wake Forest Twitter Thread aka Coach Scheier wins the Internet

They already think students should come to games. They probably think most Wake students are self-entitled rich kids, and for the most part they are right. Why on EARTH would they want to be told to do certain things differently by people that they probably don't hold all that much regard for in the first place?

And I know you are probably decent friends with a few of the players since you started talking to them before they got on campus, so you had that relationship already established. Most other students do not. I lived in a suite in North (or whatever it is called now... the one beyond Polo) with a bunch of football players my sophomore year. We sucked ass then. They sure as shit didn't care what most students thought the football team should do to encourage attendance. Most of them thought students should go to the games anyway. And they sure as shit didn't want to be lectured to, and it will feel like a lecture, by fellow students telling them what they needed to do to increase attendance. Do you realize how self-important that students will look to the players if they do that?

"Yeah, I know we get in for free, but that's not good enough. Here is some other shit you guys have to do to get my friends and me to come to your games...." Yeah, brilliant idea. Pure brilliance.

Win games and people show up in big numbers. Don't win games and people show up in small numbers. Everyone knows this and no stupid gimmicks put out there concocted up by 5 Screamin' Demons and a couple basketball players is going to change that at the Joel. And forgive my rj-esque absoluteness here, but it is a fantasy world to think otherwise.
 
Win games and people show up in big numbers. Don't win games and people show up in small numbers. Everyone knows this and no stupid gimmicks put out there concocted up by 5 Screamin' Demons and a couple basketball players is going to change that at the Joel. And forgive my rj-esque absoluteness here, but it is a fantasy world to think otherwise.

This sums it up well.
 
I agree that winning is all that matters. I don't fault them for trying to reach out and connect with the student body either though.
 
Pretty sure the "orchestrating of the Screamin Demons" to the school's alma mater was a guarantee to fill seats. Bulletproof idea!
 
I agree that winning is all that matters. I don't fault them for trying to reach out and connect with the student body either though.

Then just have the coaches do the bullshit that doesn't matter and nobody seriously thinks will have any impact on anything.

Don't force the kids playing to listen to shit they don't want to hear just because you think it would be super neat if some Screamin' Demons got to throw ideas at the players of the Wake Forest Men's Basketball Team. Fuck that noise.


It's a PR gimmick at best from the coaching staff to even bring the possibility up -- although it does coincide with what a poster said about [Redacted]'s answer at one of the DC events about what can be done to raise attendance at games. Paraphrasing: "The players aren't currently doing enough." Because, as we all know, it's never [Redacted]'s fault. Always the victim. It's never his fault.
 
So we criticize the administration and staff when they don't listen to anyone and say that they need some common sense. When they finally reach out to people the same people then say why the fuck would they ever listen to what anyone has to say about increasing attendance.

That's pretty objective and fair of some of you guys.

I'm not defending [Redacted]'s coaching but of the thousands of things to actually complain about I cannot believe that the fact that sports marketing and the basketball team are reaching out to try and increase attendance is viewed negatively. That's just fucking nuts. Some of you guys have really lost the plot.

Not to mention people bitch about sports marketing all the time, myself included, because we think they're out of touch with the fanbase. Well I think a good way of getting in touch with the fanbase is to tap into the current student population and actually try to cultivate a fanbase. That's pretty logical to me. Maybe I just don't understand what you guys are talking about.
 
Last edited:
Then just have the coaches do the bullshit that doesn't matter and nobody seriously thinks will have any impact on anything.

Don't force the kids playing to listen to shit they don't want to hear just because you think it would be super neat if some Screamin' Demons got to throw ideas at the players of the Wake Forest Men's Basketball Team. Fuck that noise.


It's a PR gimmick at best from the coaching staff to even bring the possibility up -- although it does coincide with what a poster said about [Redacted]'s answer at one of the DC events about what can be done to raise attendance at games. Paraphrasing: "The players aren't currently doing enough." Because, as we all know, it's never [Redacted]'s fault. Always the victim. It's never his fault.

Well that's not what [Redacted] was saying at all last night. He said that he realizes winning games will increase attendance, just like everyone in the universe who knows anything about sports knows. He was also saying that maybe he's not able to get the same points across to the team that guys that they go to school with might be able to get across: that reaching out to students and talking to them would increase attendance (of course it would) and not being a general douchenozzle to kids would make them want to go and support friends. There were a lot of Alpha Sigs who went to games this year because they're friends with Brooks and CJ.

[Redacted] was actually saying that he might be the issue in terms of not getting through to guys in this regard. That's how I took it at least.
 
numbers, I know what it looks like now. Trust me as someone who has seen higher education from many different perspectives, you're getting worked. You're doing exactly what they want you to do. They turned you.
 
Just sounds like an incredibly awkward, obviously staged "conversation." From the perspectives of both the athlete and the student. I would think it would create more resentment of the student body on the part of the athlete. But I wouldn't expect Bz to understand social nuance.
 
They haven't turned me at all. I've said time and time again that [Redacted] is a nice guy and I think we're on an upswing (because of how far we fell) but that he needs to prove it on the court. No one cares if you're the biggest dick in the world or the nicest guy in the universe as long as you're winning. That's what ACC athletics are about.

I don't really see what the ploy is anyways. I'm already a huge fan, I contribute to a Wake blog, I post on the message boards, and I've been one of the most critical of the [Redacted]-era. I don't see how going to a dinner, listening to the guy and what he has to say in an open forum and casual social setting, or even if I get to go talk to some of the guys on the team, is going to change anything in the world.
 
So we criticize the administration and staff when they don't listen to anyone and say that they need some common sense. When they finally reach out to people the same people then say why the fuck would they ever listen to what anyone has to say about increasing attendance.

That's pretty objective and fair of some of you guys.

I'm not defending [Redacted]'s coaching but of the thousands of things to actually complain about I cannot believe that the fact that sports marketing and the basketball team are reaching out to try and increase attendance is viewed negatively. That's just fucking nuts. Some of you guys have really lost the plot.

I don't criticize the staff or administration (sports marketing) for going to students and asking their opinions. I don't think it really impacts much of anything for the staff, but probably does if sports marketing people actually do their jobs (for the record, I don't think they do their jobs very well.) The staff were there for appearances, and I don't fault them for that at all. They really didn't care what you guys had to say, but I'm glad they put in the effort to pretend like they did. You honestly think professional men are seriously interested in what 18-22 year old kids have to tell them about basketball and/or attendance at basketball games? It was a nice gesture on their part to meet with you guys. No doubt about it. But they didn't take it seriously, you cannot honestly think that they did.


I do, however, criticize the staff for volunteering their players to listen to other students tell them what they need to do to as a team to get students to get to go to games which are free to them. How the hell is that any responsibility of the student-athletes? Here's a hint: it isn't. At best this is [Redacted] and his staff delegating out a responsibility that they kinda have, and at worst it is [Redacted] trying to stamp his authority over his players making them do things that he damn well knows they don't want to do and for no real tangible reason and just for the purpose of showing who is in charge. (See: what he did to the Denver Nuggets players. Also see: Napoleon Complex)



Oh, and a quick heads up. The notes they wrote down last night are already in the Winston-Salem dump. It was still a nice move of them to meet with you guys. But that's all it was, a gesture of good will.
 
I'll take BSD selling out for $1000, Alex.

Disgusting.

Oh, and doofus. Please make it a little bit more obvious that you want a job with the AD. Thanks!
 
Maybe I'm looking at this the wrong way, but I'm looking at everything that's happened up to this point as sunk costs as far as the fanbase goes. So right now we're coming off 21 wins in two years. That's pitiful. Everyone knows that's pitiful, there's no question about that whatsoever. We have low attendance, so sports marketing is looking into trying to increase attendance. Let's say that through these kinds of Q&A sessions they can get just a handful more fans to come to some games. Wake is not going to go 8-24 again anytime soon, so we've hit the lowest low and are on the upswing. I think if we can get even a handful more of fans at games that it's a positive. Once again, I might be off base on that, but I think that having a home court advantage in the ACC is very important.

So there are two ways to look at this sudden outreach from the marketing staff and the basketball staff:

1. They genuinely want some input and are trying to improve things in any way possible
2. The staff is acting on orders from Wellman, media relations, and sports marketing and attempting to get some good publicity out about the staff. So we can call this the "information management" option.

I choose to lean, hesitantly, more towards option 1 at this point. Look no one has more contempt or disgust for a lot of things our media relations department or marketing has done over the past couple of years than me. I'm very cynical and I'm entering events like this with eyes wide open.

I just fail to see how this is a bad idea to try to reach out while at the same time generate at least some positive press.
 
Maybe [Redacted] is going for a new recruiting pitch?


"At most schools you will have enormous responsibilities in the classroom as well as on the basketball court, but if you want a bigger challenge? Then Wake Forest is the place for you. Here at Wake Forest we will make you sit in a room with your teammates and have other students come in and tell you all the little things they think you guys should do so that they would feel like coming to see you play the game of basketball. No, they don't have to pay anything! Don't be silly. It's already free for them. But it is now your responsibility to listen to their suggestions on what you need to do extra to get them to actually give up 2 hours of their time during a 168 hour week. Time is money. And that's a good thing! Because them going to the games doesn't cost them a dime, unless you count gas money of course. By the way, a suggestion might be to pay for their gas money. Then again, it might not be! Who knows what those crazy kids will come up with. So here is the Letter of Intent and if you would just si.... where did he go?"
 
Maybe I'm looking at this the wrong way, but I'm looking at everything that's happened up to this point as sunk costs as far as the fanbase goes. So right now we're coming off 21 wins in two years. That's pitiful. Everyone knows that's pitiful, there's no question about that whatsoever. We have low attendance, so sports marketing is looking into trying to increase attendance. Let's say that through these kinds of Q&A sessions they can get just a handful more fans to come to some games. Wake is not going to go 8-24 again anytime soon, so we've hit the lowest low and are on the upswing. I think if we can get even a handful more of fans at games that it's a positive. Once again, I might be off base on that, but I think that having a home court advantage in the ACC is very important.

So there are two ways to look at this sudden outreach from the marketing staff and the basketball staff:

1. They genuinely want some input and are trying to improve things in any way possible
2. The staff is acting on orders from Wellman, media relations, and sports marketing and attempting to get some good publicity out about the staff. So we can call this the "information management" option.

I choose to lean, hesitantly, more towards option 1 at this point. Look no one has more contempt or disgust for a lot of things our media relations department or marketing has done over the past couple of years than me. I'm very cynical and I'm entering events like this with eyes wide open.

I just fail to see how this is a bad idea to try to reach out while at the same time generate at least some positive press.

So you don't agree with the crazy idea of involving the players on the team and forcing them to listen to some random students then?

K, we are in agreement for the most part if that is the case.
 
I don't criticize the staff or administration (sports marketing) for going to students and asking their opinions. I don't think it really impacts much of anything for the staff, but probably does if sports marketing people actually do their jobs (for the record, I don't think they do their jobs very well.) The staff were there for appearances, and I don't fault them for that at all. They really didn't care what you guys had to say, but I'm glad they put in the effort to pretend like they did. You honestly think professional men are seriously interested in what 18-22 year old kids have to tell them about basketball and/or attendance at basketball games? It was a nice gesture on their part to meet with you guys. No doubt about it. But they didn't take it seriously, you cannot honestly think that they did.

I don't know why they wouldn't listen. I'm not saying they do or are currently framing my advice and praying to it as their deity, I just don't know why they would discard information they received from people who actually go to games. If you want more people to go to games, you want to see why people who do go to games go. You also want to ask students who have friends who don't go to games why their friends don't go to games, and how to get their friends to actually go to games.

I'm sure there's some good business moral in this story somewhere about using all possible pieces of information to make an informed decision moving forward, but maybe not.
 
The answer to all of it is that we suck at basketball. That's it. There isn't something deeper. It isn't because the players walk around wearing headphones. Jeff Teague & Al Farouq Aminu did that too.
 
Yes. The players will think about this as a business decision. Very likely.
 
Back
Top