(06-29-2017 03:21 PM)GaryMatthews Wrote:  

(06-29-2017 11:31 AM)NJDuke97 Wrote:  There is an article about how App State is trying to/about to get into the Puerto Rico shootout because Florida State had to withdraw. This is an ESPN sponsored early season tournament. The article mentions App State leveraging their brand to get in the tournament. I just sent Jeff Bourne an email. JMU has as strong a brand overall and on ESPN as App State does and this would be a huge win for the MBB rebirth. Aside from being televised the tournament includes Iowa State, South Carolina, Boise State, UTEP, Tulsa, and others. This is a fair criticism of Bourne that he missed out on this type of opportunity.

I suggest we hammer Bourne on this so that when the next opportunity comes along to be bigger picture he considers taking it. Coaches typically work on schedules but ADs can be creative and get involved. A CAA example is the creativity of Northeastern leveraging Hockey to get a home game against Michigan State in MBB (a game that they won).

I am usually pretty fair when it comes to Bourne but this is IMO an example of where he deserves criticism. No excuse for this- just like when he was on ESPN being interviewed during half time of a football game and he didn't even mention aspirations to be FBS. Another missed opportunity to brand the school and our athletics program to where we want to be in the future.

If we were reading the same article, it stated ESPN reached out to Gillin, not the other way around. So it's not like Appy's heroic AD was blowing up ESPN's phonelines in the middle of the night and moving heaven and earth to lead his basketball team to glory while Bourne was just brainstorming ways he could piss off BleedingPurple and company.

ESPN just found a team it wanted and reached out. Sucks that it wasn't us. Maybe instead of raising money to fly "GO FBS" banners above Bridgeforth this year, we should be raising money to fly our athletic dept's phone number above ESPN's offices in Bristol.

Hey, I'm simply stating facts. Read his bio. He is who he is and an assertive forward thinking individual he is not.