HUGE WIN over #12 ranked St Mary's. 65-51

On the road

Oddly enough, its the first time they've ever beaten a Top 25 team.

The Belt now has 2 teams in the top 30 in the Real Time RPI now. http://realtimerpi.com/rpi_sbelt_Men.html

Thank you much. A lot like Texas, we have come close over the years, but our basketball history is filled with disappointments. Still have an all-time winning percentage of about .450, so we sported some bad teams over the years. Thankfully after years of saying meh, we got a president who saw some value. We went from playing our basketball on a theater stage to one of the most state-of-the-art places in all the NCAA. Our current coach is the only one to sport a winning record at Texas Hall and now that he has College Park Center, he's hit more 20-win seasons (2 than losing ones (1). Prior to Cross, we had 11 winning season in 41 tries. At Texas Hall, 14 seasons were above .500, out of a grand total of 46 years.

Unlike a lot of people, I don't fault President Nedderman for pulling the plug on football. What I do fault him for is not making every effort to give basketball its necessary tools to succeed. Ever effort should have been made into securing an arena. President Spaniolo proved that it is possible if it is a priority.

Anyway, it's a long-winded way of saying why it is our first win over a top 25 team. Appreciate the love.

(12-09-2016 03:36 PM)FoUTASportscaster Wrote:  Unlike a lot of people, I don't fault President Nedderman for pulling the plug on football. What I do fault him for is not making every effort to give basketball its necessary tools to succeed. Ever effort should have been made into securing an arena. President Spaniolo proved that it is possible if it is a priority.

Anyway, it's a long-winded way of saying why it is our first win over a top 25 team. Appreciate the love.

Well, yes, but UTA had a lot more money to work with by the time of Spaniolo. During Nedderman's presidency, tuition was regulated by the state and it was low. The state paid a much higher proportion of costs. UTA was a lean affair.

By the time of Spaniolo, the situation had reversed. The state percentage drastically decreased, and the students were paying a much larger share. Tuition pricing was handed to the boards of regents, and they jacked prices up. Net, UTA had significantly more cash flow and bond capacity during Spaniolo's term. For instance, you could see it with all the new Vice Presidents for this-and-that. Also, and secondarily, Spaniolo had natural gas income to play with. Consequently, UTA was flush with cash compared to the Nedderman era.

Nedderman did have a second chance at building an arena (the first time only needed regents' final approval, but the ad valorem tax was suddenly declared unconstitutional which took away a dedicated building fund for YEARS), but, by the time dedicated building funding became available again, he chose a nursing building instead. Go figure.

I get he had struggles, but my point was simply if it was a priority, it would have gotten done. A little creative ability could have accomplished that. Much of College Park Center was built with donations. When I was a student, the idea was we couldn't fund raise so we aren't gonna try. Spaniolo comes in and says, let's try and guess what, people did give money.

I do find it ironic that a 10,000 seat arena was proposed with Maverick Stadium, they built the football venue first, the funding is declared unconstitutional and we disband the football team after six years. UTA had substandard facilities for decades cause of that, unless you were on the track team.

(12-09-2016 09:52 PM)FoUTASportscaster Wrote:  I get he had struggles, but my point was simply if it was a priority, it would have gotten done. A little creative ability could have accomplished that. Much of College Park Center was built with donations. When I was a student, the idea was we couldn't fund raise so we aren't gonna try. Spaniolo comes in and says, let's try and guess what, people did give money.

We raised about $10 million for College Park Center. $5 million came from the company that has natural gas drilling rights on campus which became available during Spaniolo's term. That money was possible only because of the business relationship (which is fine). So, $5 million came from numerous individual donors. A nice amount, but hardly decisive. The vast majority of the cost took university financing, which we had the capability to do at that time. Don't get me wrong, Pres Spaniolo accomplished a great thing with CPC. It took him years and showed a lot of creativity. I am merely pointing out that UTA was significantly richer during Spaniolo's term than Nedderman's term, which makes it a heck of a lot easier to be "creative" and push multiple priorities including College Park Center.