Looking at the CUSA TV basketball schedule, almost all the games include teams leaving CUSA next year--of course the exception being Memphis!! Outside of Memphis, the only teams with any kind of National, NCAA Tourney reputation, are Tulsa and UAB and UAB not all that much!! So How Tulsa does this year could have a trememdous impact on Tulsa's long term BB prestige!! :eek: If Tulsa had a typical Tulsa year, typical for the last 10+ years, an NCAA invite, the odds that Tulsa would be on TV next year many, many times would increase dramatically. Even if ESPN cut back on the number of CUSA games by 50%, it would still leave a number of opportunities for another team besides Memphis. TV exposure could then translate readily into the quality of BB recruit we could get!!!!!!!!!!!! So in reality, what this team does this year could have a very long lasting effect on whether Tulsa is just another team or really, really big time for the forseeable future. It would be nice if Rice, SMU and UTEP also had good years and by the way I think they will, but they don't have any kind of recent BB history!!

Well.... you need to give more props to UTEP than THAT. They were a name 10-15 years ago. After a decade of hard times, they turned it around last year. Whether or not that's a long-term situation remains to be seen, but they should have a good season this year and go into next year with some momentum.

So the teams we should have to market are:

- Memphis
- UAB (gotta keep the momentum)
- UTEP (ditto)
- Tulsa (turn it around after one-year hiccup)

What we REALLY need is for Penders to resurrect Houston. Nobody expects Phi Slamma Jamma, but that's a name program the conference could really use for reputation.

Teams with potential:

- Central Florida (NCAA last year, new arena being built)
- Southern Miss (Eustachy. Nuff said)
- Rice (solid program for several years)

Who knows?

- SMU
- Tulane
- ECU
- Marshall

There could be some good teams down the road, but the opportunity is NEXT year and those decisions, obviously will be made before the season even starts by ESPN. ESPN doesn't put too many teams on the tube that haven't done something in the last 10 years. UTEP has been in the the NCAA tourney one time in the last 10 years and their NCAA Championship was not even under the UTEP name almost 40 years ago, if youger viewers tried to find it. UTEP could end up with the advantage if they have two straight years in the NCAA and Tulsa has none. All I'm saying is this might be a one year shot, that becomes long term if we did good, because you are right some other teams might have a bright future.

Sorry guys, but the delirium train stops here. Tulsa will not rebound this season like everyone expects. JP needs to climb aboard the next aircraft out of town. I honestly didn't think he was a good hire the day it was announced, and I still don't. Sometimes it takes more than being a good guy, i.e. David Rader.

You maybe exactly right, I wouldn't argue that but I will give him the better part of the season before I put him on that rail headed out of town!! Most fans seemed to want a coach that wasn't going to leave after a year or two but I don't think they wanted one that wasn't going to leave because no one wanted him!!! Unfortunately a big time coach today has to be like a politician, looks good on camera and talks good on camera. This is the TV and computer generation they're recruiting and image is everything unless you were a legend already and then it's still that image. I'm going to hope for the best and see who plays and whether they are going to play an 80 point offense or a 60 pt offense. By January 1st if they are avg 65 points a game or less, I will begin greasing that rail myself, but I won't finish greasing it until half the conference season is over!!!

jfisher Wrote:You maybe exactly right, I wouldn't argue that but I will give him the better part of the season before I put him on that rail headed out of town!! Most fans seemed to want a coach that wasn't going to leave after a year or two but I don't think they wanted one that wasn't going to leave because no one wanted him!!! Unfortunately a big time coach today has to be like a politician, looks good on camera and talks good on camera. This is the TV and computer generation they're recruiting and image is everything unless you were a legend already and then it's still that image. I'm going to hope for the best and see who plays and whether they are going to play an 80 point offense or a 60 pt offense. By January 1st if they are avg 65 points a game or less, I will begin greasing that rail myself, but I won't finish greasing it until half the conference season is over!!!

Fair enough. I just hope it is not too late to rebound to greatness. To add salt to the wound, even we have recently picked up a NACDA, I'm starting to join the Judy rail as well. Burns was a debacle as was the length of Rader's tenure, JP is the latest of miscues. I used to defend her, but the money sports aren't what they should be.