Pete24
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RE: Some 2017 Predictions for Our Tribe Athletics
(01-02-2017 07:51 AM)BigTribe3 Wrote: No inside info here but what better time than New Year's to make some predictions for 2017 Tribe athletics...I'm sure my cohorts on this board will have their own comments and ideas. The following is just one man's
guesses.
FOOTBALL
*Jimmy will retire after the 2017 season. He's back for one more year for two solid reasons: (1) he would never leave after a disappointing losing season, (2) with the arrival of our heralded young freshman quarterback, Shon Mitchell, Laycock, a former qb, wants to coach him for his inaugural season.
*The qb battle between Mitchell (who is entering W&M later this month)
and the also-heralded Dean Rotger will be the much-watched story this spring practice.
*If his knee is ok and he stays healthy, running back Albert Funderburke will establish himself as a great W&M player.
MENS BASKETBALL
*The direction of men's basketball for the next four or five years will be decided by how Tony allocates his seven open scholarships. Transfers?
Eligible graduate student transfer? Additions to 2017 entering class?
All seven for 2018 entering class?
*Next several years schedules will pick up rotating home and homes with old rivals Richmond, VCU, George Mason and George Washington.
*If one of Tony's staff leaves I'd look for Tony to pick up an assistant
with experience developing big men to focus on Nathan Knight.
BASEBALL
*Look for a very good Tribe team this spring if some of the young pitchers develop as hoped and one or two of the very good incoming freshman hurlers can make it. Infielder Kevin Large is one of the nation's best. Team faces perhaps the most difficult schedule in
memory.
ATHLETIC PROGRAM:
*Incoming athletic director, whomever it is, faces the following:
-hiring successor to Laycock, perhaps as soon as after next season
-getting funding for much-anticipated basketball building
-countering the ODU media advantage with emphasis on media
relations, pr and advertising, and communications
-Looking at 1.2 million we spend on consistently bad women's volleyball
program and seeing if it can be spent elsewhere within Prop 9 rules,
or eliminating it altogether with a similar men's sport to save the
money.
Great post with a lot of interesting insight!
Brings to mind the following questions & comments ...
* If/when Laycock retires, is anyone on the current staff even a candidate? Kevin Rogers has the background but he admits to being/feeling a bit long in the tooth these days.
* Hearing lots of Shon Mitchell-Russell Wilson comparisons. Besides both being 5-11, seems like the same physical package, smarts & savvy.
* Tommy McKee (a soph) was the backup QB on the depth chart this past season. Is the consensus around the program that Mitchell will likely beat him out this Spring?
* Great point about the men's basketball program's scholarships in the coming year (7? Wow). Shaver has set the bar high with back-to-back 20 win seasons and seems to have raised everyone's expectations around the program.
* Men's Basketball has added 2 impact transfers over the last 3 yrs -- Cohn & Millon (eligible next season). Let's hope that trend continues.
*Yes, would be great to see Richmond, VCU & GMU on the men's hoops schedule.
* Tribe baseball season Opening Day is only 7 weeks away. W&M returns their weekend pitching rotation (Powers, Brown & Sheehan) and have a LHP transfer from UNC -- Nick Raquet -- who red-shirted last year. Raquet was ranked as the 32nd best LHP in the country out of high school by Perfect Game & was recruited heavily by UVA before signing with UNC 3 yrs ago.
* Cullen Large, who you mentioned, is a pre-season All-America pick by Collegiate Baseball (3rd team). A switch-hitter, Large could be the top hitter in the CAA this year. If he plays all 4 years at W&M (as a junior, he is likely to be drafted this year), he's on pace to end up in the Tribe's all-time career top 5 in hits, doubles, runs & RBI.
* I respectfully challenge your comment about "countering the ODU media advantage with emphasis on media relations, pr and advertising, and communications".
While I agree there is significant opportunity for improvement, I have observed that W&M's sports information & promotions folks do a superior job to ODU. The Tribe Athletics website is much more informative, robust & timely than ODU's.
As for ODU athletics getting more media exposure, I think that's a fair case of the Hampton Roads media giving the people what they want. ODU has 3x the enrollment of W&M (25,000 to 8,600), so that means 3x more ODU alumni eyeballs seeking media content.
* Interesting comment about Volleyball. I'm wondering if that would produce a similar result to what happened in 1991, when W&M announced that 4 sports were being cut -- women's basketball, men's & women's swimming, and wrestling. The W&M community & alumni stepped up, with an anonymous donor pledging to match every dollar of endowment for each sport, up to $750,000 for each sport. As a result, women's basketball and the men's & women's swimming programs were saved. Today, women's basketball is in the midst of a big upswing, while men's & women's swimming programs are defending CAA champions.
(*Sad postscript is that the Tribe wrestling program was cut for good, along with fencing, four years later in 1995).
* Regarding Terry Driscoll's replacement as AD, anyone hearing news of any specific candidates? Ideal candidate in my book would be a W&M alum who has worked 10+ years as an Assistant AD, with current experience at a Division 1 college with similar academic priorities as W&M (i.e Ivy League, Public Ivy, Patriot League, or other top-notch academic D1 schools like Vandy/Stanford/Northwestern/Notre Dame/etc.). Is that wishful thinking? (Not a big Wood Selig/ODU fan, but when he was hired as AD at Western Kentucky he was Associate AD at UVA, where he served 10 yrs. Seems like W&M could/should attract that kind of candidate.)
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