AtlantaTiger

A good win for sure. All “must-win-game” wins are good. Credit to the players and the coaches for finding a way to get it done today. However, I’m not quite ready to let Pat off the hook. Anything short of the big dance will just be more of the same. I don’t care that it’s CofC tomorrow. Let’s not consider consecutive wins in the CAA Tourney meaningful progress. This isn’t year 2 or 3 of his tenure.

This is where Pat can actually start to earn that extension he received.

Skerry is the Jimmy Hoffa of college coaches, they’ll love him.

As luck might have it, I think I have a winning scenario for us! Dartmouth!! Dartmouth is a basketball graveyard in the Ivy. If they can just go ahead and sack David McLaughlin it opens up an absolutely fantastic opportunity for Coach Skerry to get back to New England and to a prestigious university. He gets them to respectability, we get a new coach…..it’s a win-win-win scenario!!

That would be poetic, wouldn’t it!? Also, I’m thinking our neighbors down the street at Loyola might be in the market for a new coach sooner than later….maybe they like what they’ve seen from PS over the years?

Cal Poly, Pepperdine, DePaul and Pacific, among others, will all be looking for new head coaches for the 24-25 season….any chance one of them (God willing) takes an interest in Pat Skerry? Have to give the guy credit, he knows how to take a dismal program and get it to a respectable level. He just doesn’t know how to take it from respectable to great.

The unfortunate thing is that you could change half the team….tinker with the starting roster all you want, until the head coach is replaced, the end result will never change. He’s had far better teams in the past than this one and he didn’t do squat with them.

Death, taxes and underachieving Skerry basketball teams.

If the reality is we have Skerry until the end of his current contract and he’s absolutely convinced that his philosophy and coaching style is the only way to do it, then we’re essentially cooked as a program for a while. Having said that, if he could do ANYTHING at all to change the trajectory of this program and get us over the hump in the future, perhaps he needs to consider a full-time sports psychologist. I’m beginning to believe that our program suffers from an inferiority complex. These are reasonably athletic and capable players as we’ve seen in several of their wins this season. They just seem to shrink in certain games and situations….including free throws. It’s as if they fear prosperity. One step forward, two steps back. They could maybe benefit from some time with a good shrink.

Love it! Let’s get more of these Georgia boys in the mix!

Yet again, I will repost my thoughts from two weeks ago as I think they are still relevant.

While you may not have seen this loss coming, you also shouldn’t be the least bit surprised by it or any of the future embarrassing losses we’re bound to suffer with Skerry at the helm. This loss is far more indicative of who & what we are as a program than any of our wins this season.

I just asked Hofstra. They said they still found a way to win.

-Mid Atlantic Christian -FGCU -VA-Lynchburg -Mary Baldwin -Howard -*TOWSON* All of Hampton’s wins this season. An absolutely UNACCEPTABLE loss. No way to spin it. No credit for clawing back into the game. Unacceptable.

No need to craft a new reply when I can simply cut & attach my response from after the Hofstra game. My thoughts remain unchanged after last night’s game.

Say what you will about his first season W/L record (I happen to think it was an encouraging performance) but I don’t think anyone can deny that Shinnick and his staff have shown a much better approach to recruiting than the previous regime. They’re casting a much wider net geographically and clearly marketing the program to more high schools across more states than we’ve ever seen before. His ties to Florida are extremely helpful.

I'm trying my best to not be a "prisoner of the moment". In the week or so prior to the Hofstra game, we looked like world-beaters playing some of our best basketball of the season. Lots of reasons for excitement and optimism for the last few weeks of the season. And then Hofstra happened. At Hofstra we were flat and looked uninspired missing several chip-shot baskets and made some frustrating mistakes. It was THIS version of the Towson Tigers that has been showing up to the CAA Tournament the last several years. There needs to be a heightened sense of self-awareness among the team that they are capable of beating EVERYONE in the CAA and that they are seemingly capable of losing to EVERYONE in the CAA when they're not playing optimally. Every year that we've been bounced from the CAA Tourney most of us lament the fact that Towson teams have lacked a *KILLER INSTINCT*. Let's hope that someone on this team, with the help of Patrick Skerry, recognizes the need for someone/anyone, to step up and put their foot on the gas the rest of the way through so we're not limping into the tourney.

They just referred to Nic on the broadcast as “the transfer from Towson State”. Towson State. Not since 1996. Shameful.

You’re pulling my leg, right?

Being a Bergen County “kid” myself I’m not gonna hate on this QB at all but if Shinnick is still looking to bring in more arms I really think he needs to send someone down this way to check out my boy Jackson Davis. As far as I know John Carroll University is the only competition we would have for his services. Offer him a PWO. This kid is a stud. Can anyone here pass this message along to Coach Shinnick?

Now with the 49ers having locked in to the SB, the two week media blitz really takes off with every possible story being written and produced. No doubt Kristin Juszczyk will be getting a TON of press around her lifestyle design brand. I would imagine plenty of media outlets will mention her connection to “Townson” as they give her bio & background and the story of how she met Kyle. Towson needs to strike while the iron is hot and find a clever and creative way to get on her fame-train. Any and all publicity, no matter how much of a stretch it is, should be welcomed. Again, I think Pat would look like a total G walking the sidelines of the CAA Tournament or, dare I suggest the NCAA Tournament, in a custom suit from Kristin.

Blue Hens? More like Blue Hairs. Looked like the majority of that crowd was 70+…..which actually might not be a bad marketing angle to take. Bus in a bunch of folks from some of the local senior living facilities and fill up the arena for TV purposes. Gives new meaning to “Senior Night”.

Happy Friday, fellow Tigers. Going a bit off-topic here but with respect to Towson’s historic sports marketing challenges and missteps, I think there could be the potential for a timely and relevant earned media boost in the near future. Now that Towson alum Kristin Juszczyk has new found fame as being a fashion design icon, with clients including Taylor Swift, I think Pat Skerry should send his measurements to Kristin for a custom Towson “fit” to be worn in future post game press conferences, particularly in the very, very, very, unlikely chance we qualify for the NCAA Tournament. The program would get a lot of nice coverage and Pat would look like a total boss. In all seriousness someone needs to contact her and ask for her to design some new Towson swag. The Juszczyk line exclusively for Towson. Go Tigers!!

My initial reaction is that this could be a meat-grinder schedule with a rough slate of road games. I will be making the trip for the Cincy game as my in-laws live in Cincy and I have a nephew at UC. I’ve been to a Bearcats game before and it’s really not a bad game day experience. If you’ve not been to Cincinnati before, I would recommend it. Maybe not a place you’d want to live but a great weekend spot. A *fantastic* food & craft beer town.

This win could possibly lead to a five year extension for Skerry. Let’s lock up this HOF coach through 2040!!