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(03-25-2023 08:31 PM)BlazintheAtl1 Wrote:  A team of seniors winning the NIT means nothing.

Guess that means it means about as much as your thoughts on it meaning nothing.

Is it true that we will not see a dime from FAU's Final Four (and beyond) run? I read they would be bringing in millions of dollars to CUSA, but the AAC6 leaving won't see any at all. AND we wouldn't see any credits from Houston next year in the AAC either.

If that is true, then it's terrible when CUSA is the best it's been in a decade, the top teams that are leaving to make CUSA a top 10 conference won't see the fruit of their labor. I hope FAU at least gets a good chunk of their tournament run so they can keep Dusty and update their arena.
The teams leaving will actually make Judy stay afloat and able to buy a bigger Jeep...

Also, are the NIT credits different? How much will UAB get and how much will the conference get?

I was as critical as anyone about going to the NIT this year. I was extremely disappointed that we could not repeat last year's appearance in the NCAA tournament. I stand by my belief that it is vital to our program to start going regularly to the dance if we ever want to approach our glory days again. However, this run we are making in the much-improved version of the NIT is nothing to dismiss. I actually believe that it might be at least equal to making the NCAA tournament last year and losing handily in the first round. That is certainly debatable but my opinion. I think winning the NIT would be equivalent to a sweet sixteen appearance in the big tournament. Again, debatable but my opinion. Only 8 teams playing meaningful basketball after today and we are one of them. I'm very excited for our team. And proud. They could have rolled over after losing to FAU in championship and failing to make the NCAA tourney. They didn't! GO BLAZERS!

Don’t know about the AAC credits, but it’s true that we won’t gain anything (financially) from the FAU run

(03-26-2023 10:58 AM)randy22263 Wrote:  I was as critical as anyone about going to the NIT this year. I was extremely disappointed that we could not repeat last year's appearance in the NCAA tournament. I stand by my belief that it is vital to our program to start going regularly to the dance if we ever want to approach our glory days again. However, this run we are making in the much-improved version of the NIT is nothing to dismiss. I actually believe that it might be at least equal to making the NCAA tournament last year and losing handily in the first round. That is certainly debatable but my opinion. I think winning the NIT would be equivalent to a sweet sixteen appearance in the big tournament. Again, debatable but my opinion. Only 8 teams playing meaningful basketball after today and we are one of them. I'm very excited for our team. And proud. They could have rolled over after losing to FAU in championship and failing to make the NCAA tourney. They didn't! GO BLAZERS!

I think from now on, Sweet 16 in NIT should be our floor and making it to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA tournament should be our goal but not ceiling. Ceiling obviously should be National Championship, but our goal the last few years have been to make it to the tournament, and now it should be make it to at least the Sweet 16 and go from there.

The windfall that is helping the remaining CUSA teams because of FAU's run is in some ways justice for leaving them to a lesser CUSA. I like most of the new programs entering CUSA but I can understand the feelings of abandonment by the left out programs.
I know as new members to the AAC that UAB will get a lesser share of proceeds than current returnees. I think the exact number remains to be known until all the proceeds are in the bank. I think CUSA worked a similar deal with its new members. WKU, MTSU, UTEP, FIU and La Tech may be the primary recipients of the windfall earned by FAU. If so, good for them.
As far as NIT money goes it used to be negligible. Now that NCAA owns the NIT and makes so much money from the big dance that they don't know what to do with the cash that maybe, just maybe the NIT pays something more than nothing, but not much more.

(03-26-2023 11:27 AM)blazerblazer Wrote:  

(03-26-2023 10:58 AM)randy22263 Wrote:  I was as critical as anyone about going to the NIT this year. I was extremely disappointed that we could not repeat last year's appearance in the NCAA tournament. I stand by my belief that it is vital to our program to start going regularly to the dance if we ever want to approach our glory days again. However, this run we are making in the much-improved version of the NIT is nothing to dismiss. I actually believe that it might be at least equal to making the NCAA tournament last year and losing handily in the first round. That is certainly debatable but my opinion. I think winning the NIT would be equivalent to a sweet sixteen appearance in the big tournament. Again, debatable but my opinion. Only 8 teams playing meaningful basketball after today and we are one of them. I'm very excited for our team. And proud. They could have rolled over after losing to FAU in championship and failing to make the NCAA tourney. They didn't! GO BLAZERS!

I think from now on, Sweet 16 in NIT should be our floor and making it to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA tournament should be our goal but not ceiling. Ceiling obviously should be National Championship, but our goal the last few years have been to make it to the tournament, and now it should be make it to at least the Sweet 16 and go from there.

There is no such thing as a floor or ceiling in today’s game. Every individual season is its own thing and set of circumstances. This was an Elite 8 potential team this year that caught the misfortune of being stuck in a one bid league the same year FAU had one of the great teams ever out of of a one-bid league.

The AAC 6 had more teams playing late into postseason than the AAC contingent. 3 of the six still playing and Charlotte won the CBI.

(03-26-2023 10:53 AM)blazerblazer Wrote:  Is it true that we will not see a dime from FAU's Final Four (and beyond) run? I read they would be bringing in millions of dollars to CUSA, but the AAC6 leaving won't see any at all. AND we wouldn't see any credits from Houston next year in the AAC either.

If that is true, then it's terrible when CUSA is the best it's been in a decade, the top teams that are leaving to make CUSA a top 10 conference won't see the fruit of their labor. I hope FAU at least gets a good chunk of their tournament run so they can keep Dusty and update their arena.
The teams leaving will actually make Judy stay afloat and able to buy a bigger Jeep...

Also, are the NIT credits different? How much will UAB get and how much will the conference get?

Yes, the credits are conference credits and stick with the conference. What I don’t know is how they are distributed to the new teams. To me, you get the share of one credit for being in the conference, but anything that was earned before that stays with the teams that were in the conference.(ie, the CUSA members left next year split what FAU, UNT, etc have earned; the remaining AAC members split Houston’s runs amongst each other, not with us new members)

The deals have not been made public as far as I can tell, but we don’t deserve money from Houston’s run anymore than Kennesaw State deserves money from FAU’s run.

I also agree that this NIT run means something. There is no way to absolutely quantify it, but it in no way hurts our program to get exposure when games are coming to an end.

The NIT run for both UAB and UAB means a LOT. The CBI run by Charlotte also means more than it normally would. And certainly FAU going to the Final Four means more than can possibly be measured.

The reason is that the narrative was going to be set that the new AAC should be a one-bid league of Memphis and a bunch of mid-majors. This narrative was going to be a coordinated strike from above and beyond to shift bids toward the top and allow leagues lower in resources to claim equal status.

This has been blown up.

The narrative for the new AAC is going to be wildly different now. And unlike some other conferences, the AAC knows how to tell that story and scream it to the masses.

(03-26-2023 01:49 PM)DuelingDragon Wrote:  The NIT run for both UAB and UAB means a LOT. The CBI run by Charlotte also means more than it normally would. And certainly FAU going to the Final Four means more than can possibly be measured.

The reason is that the narrative was going to be set that the new AAC should be a one-bid league of Memphis and a bunch of mid-majors. This narrative was going to be a coordinated strike from above and beyond to shift bids toward the top and allow leagues lower in resources to claim equal status.

This has been blown up.

The narrative for the new AAC is going to be wildly different now. And unlike some other conferences, the AAC knows how to tell that story and scream it to the masses.

The only thing is, do we think either McCasland or Dusty will be gone after April, or both, or neither? If both go to a P5 school, then how well will UNT and FAU be next season?

I was mistaken…I thought the team got 100% of credits (i.e., paid to school not conference) after Sweet Sixteen but that doesn’t kick in until Final Four. So FAU has earned all they will for CUSA. The remainder is theirs and should go to renovating that basketball arena of theirs, IMO.

(03-26-2023 11:48 AM)DuelingDragon Wrote:  

(03-26-2023 11:27 AM)blazerblazer Wrote:  

(03-26-2023 10:58 AM)randy22263 Wrote:  I was as critical as anyone about going to the NIT this year. I was extremely disappointed that we could not repeat last year's appearance in the NCAA tournament. I stand by my belief that it is vital to our program to start going regularly to the dance if we ever want to approach our glory days again. However, this run we are making in the much-improved version of the NIT is nothing to dismiss. I actually believe that it might be at least equal to making the NCAA tournament last year and losing handily in the first round. That is certainly debatable but my opinion. I think winning the NIT would be equivalent to a sweet sixteen appearance in the big tournament. Again, debatable but my opinion. Only 8 teams playing meaningful basketball after today and we are one of them. I'm very excited for our team. And proud. They could have rolled over after losing to FAU in championship and failing to make the NCAA tourney. They didn't! GO BLAZERS!

I think from now on, Sweet 16 in NIT should be our floor and making it to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA tournament should be our goal but not ceiling. Ceiling obviously should be National Championship, but our goal the last few years have been to make it to the tournament, and now it should be make it to at least the Sweet 16 and go from there.

There is no such thing as a floor or ceiling in today’s game. Every individual season is its own thing and set of circumstances. This was an Elite 8 potential team this year that caught the misfortune of being stuck in a one bid league the same year FAU had one of the great teams ever out of of a one-bid league.

I agree. This was a team that had the talent and experience to make a deep run in the tournament. WE didn't take care of business. We didn't gel fast enough, we played a low basketball IQ, low acumen, sloppy style of play, we made horrible decisions late in games (see @FAU, @ FIU, @UNT, etc.), had multiple technical fouls in a game that was decided by 1 point, we pressed and imploded at multiple times when things didn't go our way, and I don't think the coaching staff held players accountable for their recurrent mistakes, or found the right lineups until late in the season.. There were multiple issues with this team that most people could see, as they were pretty obvious.

Despite all that, we were THIS close to getting to the big dance. We lost 5 games by a combined 11 points. We were never blown out once, until we didn't leave the hotel in the CUSA championship humiliation. We also had some bad luck, ranking 254/363 in kenpom's luck rankings.

Contrast that with FAU. They were absolutely lights out in close games. The close games were the difference.

I worried from game one that even with this team's talent and experience, we wouldn't be able to take care of business in close games and mistakes would cost us games we otherwise shouldn't have lost, and I was right.

The CUSA championship humiliation really caught me off guard. NO one from the ball boy to AK bothered to show up for that game.

All that to say is that this post season and this season shows me that there is a ton of parity in college basketball. A final four run isn't that crazy. We are right there. We have no one to blame or be jealous of this year. WE did not handle business like we should have. We could easily be in FAU's shoes if we didn't make as many mistakes as we did, and also got a bit unlucky.

Anyways... YES the NIT run means a lot. I was bummed about being in the NIT at first, but playing this deep in March and having this much exposure is really big for us. Beating an SEC team that many thought should've been in the NCAA tournament, in THEIR HOUSE, in what was pretty close to a packed building, with a good contingent of our own visiting fans, is really big for us.

The NIT run has been a bit of a salve for me for the hurt of not making the NCAA tournament and being flat out embarrassed in our championship game. Winning the NIT would feel GREAT.

AK can rebuild teams very quickly. We have a good core returning. We have positive momentum from two good seasons in a row. AK has us relevant again in March. I like where we are as a program, and have to take a deep look at ourselves to see what we need to do to build on this.

Despite feeling good about where we are, this season will always be a HUGE what if in my mind. This team had every tool is needed to make a deep March run. We just didn't handle business.

If parity of talent has increased this much, and apparently it has, that makes the value of head coaches soar. Their strengths and weaknesses are highlighted more and really do have a greater impact on floor performance relative to others.

Dusty May wanted to quit hours after signing FAU contract; now he's coached Owls to improbable Final Four run
https://www.cbssports.com/college-basket...-four-run/

TLDR: He signed his contract before looking at the facilities. When he got there he almost quit because the facilities and arena were terrible. Great location, bad facilities.

I hope NT, FAU, and UAB do everything to keep their head coaches. Heck the AAC should quietly work with them and Memphis to spin the narrative. Heck the ACC has already said they are doing it.

People forget that Dusty May was an assistant at UAB under Mike Davis. Knew him pretty well then- seemed like a really good guy with solid understanding of the game. Glad to see him being successful and helping boost not just FAU, but any conference they are associated with as well. He has certainly put in the work to get where he is now.

He certainly didn't learn anything from Mike Davis, which is a good thing.

(03-27-2023 12:50 PM)blazerblazer Wrote:  Dusty May wanted to quit hours after signing FAU contract; now he's coached Owls to improbable Final Four run
https://www.cbssports.com/college-basket...-four-run/

TLDR: He signed his contract before looking at the facilities. When he got there he almost quit because the facilities and arena were terrible. Great location, bad facilities.

Quote:"Wishing we were sitting back in Ruston together."

Probably the first, and last, time that phrase is used...