towson2006

8 hours ago, TuTigers2012 said:

I'm not saying it's the best course. But unofficially if they were to mention that there's a game, and who they are playing, etc it wouldn't hurt. I might be generalizing, but isn't their following mostly young fratty guys who are into sports? If so, that would be a target demo to get butts into seats/more interest in the program. 

If we had a following this thread doesn’t exist. It’d be cool to see it happen.

19 hours ago, TuTigers2012 said:

I'm an asshole who likes to complain, but I'm an asshole who likes to complain and wants desperately for TU athletics and the University to succeed.

 

Back on the topic of what can be done better... I noticed on Twitter that JMU has a barstool sports page (sports is used lightly now, I know) and they were trash talking with Monmouth's one before the playoff game last week. Looking at the page, it seems they are really into promoting the schools sports programs, whereas ours doesn't. Maybe someone can reach out and try to improve ours? Having an unofficial TU athletics fan's twitter wouldn't be a bad idea either, IMO.

Barstool might not be the best place to go to promote the institution...but whatevs. I don’t mind trying to win, but I think we’ve demonstrated that, in rare circumstances only, does winning really matter that much. All that being said I’m helping recruit someone today.

Newton makes a lot of sense at Towson. No idea what kind of student/person he is, but the not quite big enough for BCS yet talented enough to win seems to do well in the FCS.

We have to schedule 2 and 1s and have been reluctant to do so since the mid 90s...outside of temple and Oregon state. We also need a dance partner. The game now seems to be tournaments.

Uhhh who could forget that big win over East Tennessee State after taking out USC-Upstate in 2014? Seriously though this isn’t a Pat Skerry thing. Since we moved to DI in 1980 what is our signature OOC win? Louisville in 1996? 

16 hours ago, Tgr4life said:

The bottom line is either you care about sports and want to go.....or you don't.  Other than giving away free stuff, which will get kids to come until they get the free stuff and then leave, there is nothing that is going to change the situation. Planning meetings, coming up with new ideas (which are really old ideas in new wrapping) and pretending we are somebody we are not are things that keep administrators busy as well as their salaries in a category that makes no sense. 

Maryland, with all of the money thrown at athletics, is still the same school it was in Lefty Driesell's day. With rare exception (an occasional decent football year) it is still a basketball school that has no ability to become a football power. Duke...the same way. 

Towson is a school, despite the demographic changes is till of the mindset of a commuter school. Sports just does not matter at Towson. THEY JUST DON'T! All of the excuses, fees, kids away during the winter break, lack of funding are all easy to point out. But, if the students cared at all, they would come....and it is their school. Not the coach's school. Not the AD's school. It is the kids school and they are telling you they barely care. 

this board and thread are not meant for such a mindset...we need to dream and spend big and then one day we will be just like Alabama 

16 hours ago, TuTigers2012 said:

I'm not going to get into it with our resident sports management professor, but college is expensive and the athletics fees suck. But 2006, your employer nickle and dimes its students for almost everything (as does every other college), and there are some fee's for services that other students don't use buy are stuck paying.

Fees per year of similar and conference schools:

Towson $998 in state $956 out of state (2019)

University of Maryland $812 (2018)

William & Mary $1,980 per year (2018)

James Madison $2,058 (2019)

VCU $828 (2018 not sure if per semester or yearly)

College of Charleston $1,236 (2016)

UNCW $750 (2017)

George Mason $1,752 (2019; other items included, not solely athletics)

UMBC $1,074 (2017)

Univ of Albany $582 (2017)

Univ of New Hampshire $1,075 (2019)

Stony Brook $572 (2019)

We also have construction fees @ $1200 or so, and every other school does too. The point wasn’t to complain about the fees, that’s just what colleges charge to register for classes. Rather, it’s the idea that if more students knew just how much athletics and construction was costing them maybe they would be more inclined to go to games. We’ve legit tried just about every strategy to get people to games over the years and it hasn’t worked maybe straight up telling them you are being charged X per year for athletics and Y for construction (SECU is like on a $56 million bond that will get paid off by the students over the next 25’years) may as well go.

This thread asked for ideas so how about the athletic department makes a big deal out of the fact that the games are not actually free to students but that they are paying $2100/year for SECU and to be season ticket holders for every single team on campus? Instead of looking at it as the games being “free” maybe more students would be inclined to go if they looked at it as “well I’m paying for it anyway may as well go”? 

3 hours ago, Blazer49 said:

What the heck is going on in that Athletic Office/Ticket Office?  With attendance and season ticket bases being so low it should not be hard to cater to those who do have season tickets.  Plus the second the phone rings it should be answered.  There is no way someone like TSU86 should have to call multiple times in order to try and buy tickets.  Not surprising but although they should I am sure no one from that department follows this board.  With everything else it makes no sense.  Unfortunately we do not have a huge following, but because we do not have a huge following it should be easier for that department to tend to those with interest.  I spent over 20 years working in the sales/ticket office for a professional sports team with I am sure five times the size of Towson's football and season ticket base combined and not returning any call was inexcusable.  I know it cost money to advertise but you know what doesn't cost anything?  Email.  Students have email addresses, they have alumni email addresses that is a quick and inexpensive way to get the word out.  You can't build something if the people tasked to build are not building.  The last two post are frustrating and sad. 

That office is largely staffed by interns...e.g students who are paying for the privilege to work for free to sell tickets to teams that they pay for in student fees in stadia that they pay for in student fees in return for academic credit. Oh yes and by doing a job for free that someone should get paid to do they also undercut their entry level salaries...Do you really think they care about one of the 274 season ticket holders needs? Would you? I get that it sucks not to get the care you should for the money you pay but that’s going on as well.

On 11/7/2019 at 8:26 AM, El Tigre Oro said:

What is the vision of Towson Athletics? When Caret/Waddell were together, their vision was to make Towson 1a to College Park being the 1 in Maryland College Sports. Is that the current vision of this regime? Do we need a new regime? How do we separate from the other Division 1 schools in the area and not get lumped in.

How do we become Colorado State?

The problem with this vision was Caret/Waddell wanted to make Towson to UMD as NC State is to UNC or Michigan State is to UM which is basically an impossible analogy to fulfill. We are in the CAA with a $70 million endowment whereas they halve endowments at or near a billion and play in the ACC and BIG. They are also R1 institutions and Towson is not, which means big grants and nonsense that matters to them doesn’t to Towson as much. Plus the USM would have to approve of us being a true sister school to UMD which wouldn’t go over well with other institutions in the consortium. 
 

My favorite part of this whole thing is Caret and Waddell also often said sport was the front porch to this school, but the former presided over our largest period of student population growth in 30 years and we sucked at the “revenue” sports. Must have been the reverse front porch or something...or sport means jack all to Towson students outside of the select few who post here, go to games, etc. There really isn’t a lot that can be done about that.

The fact that the michigan game was in 1997, and marked the first time we had hardwood floors, is one of the most amazing things to me. It means we beat Louisville on Kemturf (and they agreed to come play us) as well as went to the tournament by winning at least once on that floor.

15 hours ago, mat1992 said:

Not saying year's team is making the playoffs but there's a 1% chance that one of the quarterbacks on this roster will be the starter next season barring injuries. If RA is going to go out, it's not with one of those quarterbacks. He's bringing in one or two transfers. He has to or it's over. Whether he finds another Flacco or someone better, remains to be seen and with his history of getting guys like Joe Brennan, Kevin Olsen, etc., he better not whiff. Not saying Stover and Miller are horrible. Could they be as good as Peter Athens? Sure, if we had a great offensive line and a once-in-a-lifetime back. But no, we need a great signal-caller to get to the next level and it wouldn't hurt if added a very good big back.

There is another little brother out there who is looking to transfer and prove himself at the DI level with immediate playing time, and a major that Towson has.

2 hours ago, Tgr4life said:

Coach Skerry has proven that you don't have to do your job to get a bonus

Have you read his contract?

But if history shows, relative to energy and expense spent, no one really cares about football or basketball at Towson as evidenced by the myriad posts on here with the same explanations for why: beds on campus, bad coaching, no outreach, no connection with Greek life, administration shutting down any fun to be had at tailgating, students historically behaving in ways that lead to tailgate shutdowns (burning a band float in the 80s leading to a decade of no tailgating, throwing beer cans at cop cars in the mid 2000s, backflips off trucks and landing on your face, etc), then why don’t we, at Towson, enjoy and celebrate success in all our sports.
 

Then again actually knowing this history and understanding that we’ve literally struggled with an apathetic fan base since the inception of sport on this campus with numerous failed attempts at fundraising, threats to cut teams (sometimes successfully), and the absurd amount of money students are charged to pay for the teams they don’t care about in buildings they don’t fill for an athletic department they pay money to work for in return for college credit makes me a know it all. We aren’t a private institution that can do super shady stuff like Grand Canyon, we aren’t the number one show in town with college park to the south, and a better band to watch across town, there’s a ton of fun stuff to do around here besides watch fcs football or mid-major basketball. There’s no magic elixir that is ever going to change that. 
 

Given the aforementioned, I’d rather enjoy the cool stuff we have going on here. If it’s a 7-win football team that occasionally makes the playoffs in a tournament that almost always ends with NDSU as the winner great, if it’s a MBB team that wins 16-23 games a year in a middling conference that literally has no teams in it now that have reached the Final Four fantastic, win a CAA tourney in WBB and get smoked by UConn that’s actually our ceiling. When you change the metric for success to something that is reasonable and achievable it’s easier to enjoy what’s going on around here that’s all.

1 hour ago, BoogerJ said:

Don Metil may be one of the best coaches on campus, along with the lacrosses, track and field, and women's hoops.

Now, if we can only put some much needed resources into the Field Hockey Program... things would really take off.  

 

"This is the Golden Age of Towson Athletics" 

Towson2006

What an excellent post to celebrate the first undefeated VBall team in CAA history!

2 minutes ago, Tgr4life said:

The problem is that AD's and Assistant AD's are brought in to make changes. They are paid significant monies to do so. Our AD has had no problem spending monies on new fields, facilities, etc. Those expenditures were and remain necessary.  However, anyone can spend money. We needed and still need someone to bring in significant monies. Our AD was a "fundraising hero" at his previous schools. To say fundraising is at a new high, may or may not be true, but it was so low that anyone could have improved on previous numbers and still leaves us well behind the 8 ball. His assistant AD's, we were told, were great at their jobs. But there has been no increase in attendance at either sport. Therefore, the AD and fundraisers and those assigned to be "fan development" folks have not done their job and we are counting on them to hire and fire coaches, who others see have not done their job. This is not a stab at anyone or any level of administration, but rather what I perceive as a statement of where the athletic department stands. 

But, we do lead the nation in community service. Who gets a raise and extension for that.

Like the AD before and the AD before...and, as I’ve said previously this is as good as Towson sport has been across the board in 50 years. A few crappy losses don’t change that.

21 minutes ago, Tgr4life said:

If the kicker makes the field goal instead of missing it, does that make RA a better coach? Everyone would be jumping for joy about making the playoffs again

Don’t let facts get in the way of a good poutfest. We need new coaches and a better AD and a better student section and Greek life to care and the Baltimore media to cover us and THEN Towson sports will be what it has always destined to be...

4 hours ago, AtlantaTiger said:

I love the people who try to argue that since Towson basketball was a complete dumpster fire before Skerry arrived that his mediocre results should be celebrated.  What good are 18-20 wins a season if you don't go to the NCAA Tourney?  As a one bid conference, the only thing that matters is winning the conference tourney.  Having 20 win regular seasons in the CAA means NOTHING.....except maybe a trip to the "prestigious" CIT.

Also, this defeatist attitude of "who could we hire to do better than Skerry", is comical.  Fear or uncertainty about who or what the next coach might be is NOT a reason to NOT make a change.  You know what would be nice?  A new guy comes in and actually improves the program, gets to the Big Dance a time or two.  Maybe that coach gets plucked away from Towson...….but because he's elevated the Towson program, he will have made it a more desirable gig for another successful coach.

How has that worked out for VCU, George Mason, Loyola (Chi), and all the other schools where the coach left? It’s not fear of the uncertainty that I have...rather I am certain that if we spend money to fire Skerry AND then someone comes in and gets us to the dance (something only 1 coach has ever done for us) Towson will not be in a position to get a markedly better coach nor be a more desirable job. I support our teams as much as anyone, and I don’t see that understanding as defeatist so much as being realistic with the hand we have been dealt.

...only $400k+/year left on contracts to go. Pretty much every school at our level deal with the fact that most years are considered good with 7 wins...unless we have forgotten that little 23 years straight of losing in basketball and that decade straight of losing badly in football. It sucks right now, and those were two bad losses, but at least these teams are worth watching. 

2 hours ago, TuTigers2012 said:

Be a loser with Tim pat and Rob. All are losers soft and can’t win. Stats say so. Clean house.  Either drop down to d2/3 or can these clowns and run a real program.  

Ok so who in our history would not qualify as losers, soft, and can’t win? Who do you hire that changes that image and stays? 

1. The attendance argument has been an issue since the inception of sport at Towson. The only time we ever sold out for a football game in Unitas was when Waddell got the ok from an Interim President to have the SGA pay the NCAA for student seats in 2011. Never before or since have we come close. The only time b-ball has come close to sold out is when we put in hardwood at the Towson center and we got Michigan to come play ... in 1997. Otherwise it’s Robin Thicke and Avril Lavigne that get people in our arenas

2. We will never become a basketball power. Our best hope is to catch lightning in a bottle for a couple years, and PS presents just as good a chance as most anyone we’d hire to complete that task.

It took Vince Angotti 6 years after a new stadium to start winning...plus it’s the extension that is a massive deterrent in the fire PS argument. What sort of improvement are we gonna see above and beyond where we are at that will justify paying him not to work and hiring someone else? How does that get past the board of regents who didn’t even want to fire DJ Durkin?

We were not making the dance with a guy making $300k and had his face plastered all over billboards on 83. 

So now the metric is not our athletics program broadly but just focused on MBB and some pretty lofty expectations given where PS picked this program up from. Im all for the critique of PS last night that would be fair, but how aware are you of just how difficult it was for us to hire ANYONE when we landed on him? Sure we can fire him and then pay $.5 million for the next two years while we pay someone else the same to do what exactly during that time? What is the expectation here at a school that has gone to the dance twice ever, given recruiting challenges, financial support challenges, and actually needing kids to do well in class (something that is actually happening now and is probably the final reason Tobias Howard is no longer with the team and something prior coaches who were less successful just ignored). I mean they generally do well enough to win 18-23 games a year...could they do better in the CAA tournament? Sure, but we aren’t that far from that ceiling.

1 hour ago, AtlantaTiger said:

Excuse me if I'm asking questions that have already been addressed extensively on this forum but....

1. Do we think Skerry's players respect him?  Do they have confidence in him?  Has he "lost" his team?  After 9 seasons of sub .500 basketball and 0 NCAA Tourneys I don't think it's unfair to question his coaching & recruiting abilities.

2. What is the relationship like between Pat & Tim Leonard?  Are they best buddies or do they hardly speak?

3. What is Tim Leonard's job status/security?  I don't get the impression the guy is DRIVEN to field championship caliber teams at Towson.  He seems to have a disturbingly high tolerance for mediocrity from his coaches.  Is he an absentee leader himself?

 

I desperately want GREATNESS for Towson sports teams and I just don't get the impression the leadership at Towson wants that for themselves.

GO TIGERS!!!

The arguments presented in this post do not make any sense. Historically speaking, this is the golden era of athletic performance for our teams at Towson. A possible 4th playoff berth in the FCS for football (3rd under TL), WBBall makes tournament, MLax goes to the national championship and competes year over year, MBBall is the best it has been since the late 80s (Skerry is at worst the 3rd best coach in program history and arguably the best relative to competition), WVball goes 16-0 in the CAA (first team to ever do that), and field hockey has an actual field to play on.