I realize we probably have a pretty well-balanced situation. But if you were forced to choose between playing in a weak conference where you won regularly, or a more glamorous conference where you rarely won big, which would you choose?
I would take winning big in a weaker league. That being said I would expect a tougher non conference schedule to test the team. Watching losing basketball is no fun no matter how good the competition.
(02-07-2018 02:14 PM)Karl B Wrote: [ -> ]I would take winning big in a weaker league. That being said I would expect a tougher non conference schedule to test the team. Watching losing basketball is no fun no matter how good the competition.
I agree. I enjoyed the TAAC more, even though it wasn't as strong as the Sun Belt. As Karl says,
winning big is more fun than having a winning program for one year, every twenty years.
I was extremely excited when we moved to the Sun Belt, from the old TAAC, even though I knew winning would be a lot more difficult. I think we have faired quite well in the Belt, although winning it has been a huge challenge. I realize we won't win the Belt, very often, but I am okay where we are since I believe it is good, solid, midmajor basketball. I obviously would not want to move to a more difficult league because that would be suicidal. But, I really don't want to move down either, even if that would mean a few more wins.
Other than being a winner almost every year in the TAAC, those years were the most exciting years in my 30 plus years as a fan. We had good crowds, I remember one time we took about four charter buses to Centenary. Since then, we've been lucky to fill up one bus to take to ASU.
Many of our games were televised either live or tape delayed. We began to see big crowds toward the end of Coach Beards one season, with several sell outs. So in my book, even if we were in a lesser conference, that's the only time we saw that kind of excitement since we left the TAAC. Had Coach Beard stayed, I believe we might have seen the second coming of the excitement that Mike Newell brought here.
(02-07-2018 05:56 PM)LRTrojan Wrote: [ -> ]Other than being a winner almost every year in the TAAC, those years were the most exciting years in my 30 plus years as a fan. We had good crowds, I remember one time we took about four charter buses to Centenary. Since then, we've been lucky to fill up one bus to take to ASU.
Many of our games were televised either live or tape delayed. We began to see big crowds toward the end of Coach Beards one season, with several sell outs. So in my book, even if we were in a lesser conference, that's the only time we saw that kind of excitement since we left the TAAC. Had Coach Beard stayed, I believe we might have seen the second coming of the excitement that Mike Newell brought here.
You are right that in this town winning, even in a piss pour league, would get us more attention and bigger crowds. However, we aren't dropping down leagues at this point regardless. The only league that would be a drop down option is the Southland, and I'm not sure we'd do a whole lot better there.
(02-07-2018 08:56 PM)mjs Wrote: [ -> ] (02-07-2018 05:56 PM)LRTrojan Wrote: [ -> ]Other than being a winner almost every year in the TAAC, those years were the most exciting years in my 30 plus years as a fan. We had good crowds, I remember one time we took about four charter buses to Centenary. Since then, we've been lucky to fill up one bus to take to ASU.
Many of our games were televised either live or tape delayed. We began to see big crowds toward the end of Coach Beards one season, with several sell outs. So in my book, even if we were in a lesser conference, that's the only time we saw that kind of excitement since we left the TAAC. Had Coach Beard stayed, I believe we might have seen the second coming of the excitement that Mike Newell brought here.
You are right that in this town winning, even in a piss pour league, would get us more attention and bigger crowds. However, we aren't dropping down leagues at this point regardless. The only league that would be a drop down option is the Southland, and I'm not sure we'd do a whole lot better there.
I think the subject of this thread is missing one important calculation. Unless your program is spending a lot more, or less, than other programs in whatever league you're in, or has significantly better or worse facilities, etc., you are going to get players that for the most part belong at that level. Therefore, it is a false assumption in my opinion that it is a given that LR would win more in a lesser league. We won more in the TAAC because we played under two of the best coaches in the program's history- Kestenbaum and Newell. We have had many more coaches and many more years in the SBC which makes our experience in the two leagues very different for comparison purposes.
(02-08-2018 12:23 PM)PTJR Wrote: [ -> ] (02-07-2018 08:56 PM)mjs Wrote: [ -> ] (02-07-2018 05:56 PM)LRTrojan Wrote: [ -> ]Other than being a winner almost every year in the TAAC, those years were the most exciting years in my 30 plus years as a fan. We had good crowds, I remember one time we took about four charter buses to Centenary. Since then, we've been lucky to fill up one bus to take to ASU.
Many of our games were televised either live or tape delayed. We began to see big crowds toward the end of Coach Beards one season, with several sell outs. So in my book, even if we were in a lesser conference, that's the only time we saw that kind of excitement since we left the TAAC. Had Coach Beard stayed, I believe we might have seen the second coming of the excitement that Mike Newell brought here.
You are right that in this town winning, even in a piss pour league, would get us more attention and bigger crowds. However, we aren't dropping down leagues at this point regardless. The only league that would be a drop down option is the Southland, and I'm not sure we'd do a whole lot better there.
I think the subject of this thread is missing one important calculation. Unless your program is spending a lot more, or less, than other programs in whatever league you're in, or has significantly better or worse facilities, etc., you are going to get players that for the most part belong at that level. Therefore, it is a false assumption in my opinion that it is a given that LR would win more in a lesser league. We won more in the TAAC because we played under two of the best coaches in the program's history- Kestenbaum and Newell. We have had many more coaches and many more years in the SBC which makes our experience in the two leagues very different for comparison purposes.
I agree. Eventually the players even out. The players you sign will be equal to the other players in the league. If they were better they would sign with a school in a better league. The grass is not always greener. By Newell's 4th year TAAC competition was more balanced.
I never went to any TAAC gym other than Centenary, so I don't know how our poor facilities affected our recruiting. Just guessing I'd say that not many TAAC schools had anything much better than us. Maybe Peter or Mickey have seen some of the old TAAC gyms.
(02-08-2018 05:31 PM)LRTrojan Wrote: [ -> ]I never went to any TAAC gym other than Centenary, so I don't know how our poor facilities affected our recruiting. Just guessing I'd say that not many TAAC schools had anything much better than us. Maybe Peter or Mickey have seen some of the old TAAC gyms.
Barton Coliseum, although a dump, was comparable to NE Louisiana (now ULM which still plays in the same arena as then), and was better than the little crackerbox that Samford played in then. UTSA's wasn't any better than ours, and other than having the fans closer to the court, neither was Centenary's. Didn't make it to any others. We were all on about the same level, and as I mentioned, I think the difference was Coach Kestenbaum and Coach Newell.