Tgr4life

I have no idea what the "fans" are thinking here. Most are already giving basketball a pass this year because we have a below average team. If they had or will make it to post season, Skerry is King of the Hill. He got an eight year contract winning nothing of significance, but RA is held to an entirely different standard.....without a brand new venue to play in. Ambrose gets post season twice in five years, once to a national championship game and you want to get rid of him and do nothing but complain. You don't know how lucky we are to have him. 

Agree

13 hours ago, mat1992 said:

He’s not going  anywhere so you can squauk all you want but I don’t understand how people just don’t get college basketball at this level. The only way you can compete when you lose most of your team is to get transfers. Since there is no Benimon in the mix, this was going to be rough start. Blame him for Howard and Sanders. Fobbs is going to be fine and hope he gets better by conference time.

Who cares if we beat Wesley or Temple? This program was lucky to get 10 wins every season no matter who they played in the past.

The answer is to give your players reasons to stay. It is very easy to say the CAA has minimal TV or minimal national coverage or whatever reason a kid gives to transfer. Part of the job is to prove to your players that they can flourish under your tutelage. Again, you are giving a pass because that is not happening. All we want are results. After 8 years, that is not asking too much.

So many responses say, in various ways, we can’t expect him to win many games these guys. Except, he is the one that brought in these guys. He does not get a pass for bad recruiting. Reading about a victim of his own success is not an argument that I can understand. Earlier in the thread, the talk was the only thing that matters is three days in March. There has been no success there. 

20 win seasons which include wins over Rio Grande, NJIT, Goucher, Gallaudet and Wesley minimize that argument. It is time for meaningful results with no more excuses. 

I did not know that

Every effort needs to be made to fill the place. Giving away tickets to Pop Warner teams and other junior programs could be a good community outreach as well as filling the place.

That is all true

Sorry........cupcakes

The number of wins in college basketball is often determined by your OOC schedule. If you load up with +uptakes, 20 wins does not mean very much.

I agree. Skerry should get credit for getting a poor program back to average in the conference. You can only keep going back to that so often. Eventually you need to reach a top tier to keep a HC job in D1basketball for 10 years.

Skerry has been here 6 or 7 years. This is the team he put together. You dont get a free pass for putting together a below average team. 

Free Pass? Really?

1 hour ago, mat1992 said:

Funny but Rob is getting at least one due to a clause in his contract. He deserves at least two but I think they'll wait and see how we do in the playoffs.

Did not wait to see how we do in playoffs to give Skerry an 8 year contract

8 minutes ago, TSU88 said:

I’m trying to look at the glass half full, but I certainly understand the frustration of those who are projecting this to be a 5 win season, give or take.

The elephant in the room is that the transfer of ZM & Gorham set this program back at least 2 years in my estimation. Say what you want about ZM being a “me” guy, but he would have likely averaged 20+ppg this season, & Gorham might have been in the 12-14ppg range.

As tempting as it is to kiss this season goodbye, we’re going to have to wait until we have some conference games under our belt to make any conclusions. Personally, I think the best we can hope for this season is that the experience gained will make us better next year.

As for Skerry, his inability thus far to bring in a quality PG is disappointing, to say the least. Howard is only here through next season, & I don’t think he’s the answer in any event. Dottin does have strength and appears to have leadership skills, but I’m not sold on him as the long term guy either. I’d also like to see him recruit better pure shooters, a’ la guys at William & Mary, but I don’t think that’s going to happen. It’s great that he graduates guys & has made us a fairly consistent 18+ win team, but I don’t think it’s unfair to demand that he also get us to a conference championship game eventually, and, dare I say it, even the big dance. He has a multi year contract (which I wouldn’t have given him) so he ain’t going anywhere. The question is “is the program going anywhere, or have we plateaud with this guy”?

Don’t blame Skerry for taking an eight year deal. Anyone would take it. The thought is a contract of that length should be saved for those who “go beyond”, such as winning a conference championship or at least getting to a conference or national championship game.

9 hours ago, mat1992 said:

Skerry has an eight-year deal. There is no hotseat. Not sure what people expected. Even he said this is a work-in-progress, maybe even worse than he expected. You can't lose your best four players, two of them to transfer, and just reload. It is what it is. Hopefully, they improve as the season goes on.

If the players he recruited were as good as the agent he recruited, the one that got an eight year deal despite zero conference championships or appearances in either NCAA or NIT events, we would not be playing for 7th place in a mediocre field. Might be time to look for some results. 

2 minutes ago, mat1992 said:

Uggh no. They were just better period. Was Flacco great? No he was off target on several throws but we needed to be perfect to beat them. They dominated on both lines and that shows you were recruiting comes in. You need some 2* and 3* linemen to compete. Not just transfers. We do have a big kid coming who is 325 and supposedly legit to help the D-line but we also need more athletes and length on both lines. 

There is no question they were better.....today. Was UMBC better than UVA....no, but on that night they were. Towson is a talented football team and TODAY they were not as good as JMU........is the glass half empty or half full

TODAY JMU was the better team. That does not mean they would be the better team next Saturday

The Maine win over Elon is significant

The style of basketball Skerry coaches...does not appeal the top rated guards. The game has changed from center dominated to guard dominated. We play the former rather than the latter. Gonna make it tough to win. 

I just checked the point spread. UD is favored by 1.5.

i know there is a home field difference, but I am still surprised. You have to prove yourself every week. 

With TU football being where it is and U MD football being down in the dumps, this is the time for the powers at Towson to put on an all out blitz to win fans over. This is the best opportunity in a while.

If we deserve a higher ranking......we can prove it this weekend. 

I watched it this morning. Great documentary. It shows the value of loyalty to the University by the four head coaches. Go take care of The Citadel today!

11 minutes ago, sr16 said:

1. " Winning is something the administration has no control over." -- They definitely have some control over this whether it be just hiring. 

2. Also radio / tv / billboards dont work anymore. They need to get better at online marketing. 

3. Not selling alcohol definely has an impact. The turtle tent helps but not everyone can go down there. Selling beer in stands would help IMO. 

To a degree you are correct on point number 1. It is more on the coach than the admins. But, as you point out, the admins hire the coach

You are more correct than I on point 2.

IMHO, Tailgating would solve the booze issue for football. Not necessary during the game. Not a fan of alcohol in the venues as I dont think it makes a significant attendance difference. 

12 hours ago, TheGoldCrotchPiece said:

Yes! I hated Deb during my time at Towson and that was almost 10 years ago. She has single handily killed tailgating for students.

Other than Deb here is my list:

1. Make a NCAA bball run or return to FCS championship game - winning solves all problem
2. Better football and basketball scheduling. Play local power 5 teams more often.
3. Improve marketing of improved scheduling ^ people need to know about above
4. Improved perks for fundraising... I donate at least $200 each year and have football tickets + pakring and all I get is a Tiger Club sticker. How about a tshirt or % off in the team store/concessions. (take notes from the Caps, I'm a Caps season ticket holder and have gotten boat loads of stuff over the year)
5. Sell booze in the seats

As to point 1. this does not address the question as to what the athletic department could do to improve. Winning is something the administration has no control over.

2. Local Power 5 schools have to want to play you. You can not wave a magic wand and make those teams play you. This is something the administration has control over and an important piece.

3. I am not sure sure how much more marketing they can do. Signs on buses, ads on radio, coaches on Pressbox on TV. Maybe Baltimore is not a college sports town, but rather a professional sports town, though Oriole and Raven attendance could belie that as well. If Baltimore does support a college, it is Maryland. Terp Talk on the radio....Keith from Terrapin Times on all of the talk shows regularly. Towson is and will always be second fiddle. The goal should be not be Third Fiddle. 

4. I believe fundraising is the most critical of all of your points. If fundraising were to be successful, Towson could offered all of their student athletes a better experience, therefore getting better players, therefore meeting your goals in point 1. 

5. I don't think selling booze in the seats either brings in one more fan or keeps one fan away. 

In the end, it is all about the money, the fundraising folks need to step up and do a better job. Then we wouldn't have to raise the student fee, as we are doing this year by 5%. If we took that 5% out of the salaries of those in fundraising maybe folks might pay more attention.