Open letter taken out in Omaha paper.
- Thread starter NUpolo8
- Start date
Husker John
Well-known member
I think we Husker fans do care about basketball, but we are not as passionate about basketball as we are about our football.....if Husker football had a dismal season like our basketball team......Chaos would reign throughout Corn Nation....
Count 'Bility
Banned
I saw some things that made me wonder "hmmm?" Some small things and some big things. 1st. Barry Collier was fired? I thought he left for the AD position @ Butler, correct me if I'm wrong. Spending and commitment to basketball. This guy is the same tool that would complain (or will complain when the new facilities are up) that we spend to much on basketball and are taking too much away from what drives the state-football. This always has been a football state and always will be. Not that basketball cant be a little more respectable, but he's basically calling for what has already been done. Comparing spending on basketball to Creighton? Creighton doenst have football. Enough said. Sometimes I wonder how these guys make all their money. Doc is a great guy and such and I like many others would love to see him succeed but his time is up now. He's had his chance. This is not one bad year in with 1 or 2 good ones. This is the 2nd bad year in 3 while having 6 years to establish the program. His time is up. It's time to go in a different direction. I just dont think we have the population base or the economical substance to provide such massive support to both football and basketball. We are doing what we can, but we dont exactly have unlimited funds, as much as it seems so. We are not Texas or Ohio St. Many people are either football fans or basketball fans. A total devotion to each is probably much fewer than most realize, and in a state with this kind of population and history, much of that total devotion is directed to football. As said in the following post, and as we have experience recently, if the football team would have this kind of year, there would be chaos. But since the basketball program is experiencing it, everyone's just "meh". But I guess that's the whole issue after all. I just dont see the attitude going through a drastic overhaul. Just making the bball program respectable and competitive again should be the number 1 goal. Asking it to fill trophy cases is calling for too much.
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Count 'Bility
Banned
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Comish
Well-known member
knapplc
International Man of Mystery
People support a winner, pretty simple. If the men's team starts winning, they'll get more support. But when the university itself doesn't care, there's no way the fans will.
Nebraska is also a Volleyball school, and fan support here is among the best in the nation, with only Hawaii putting more butts in seats over the past decade than us (although look for that to change when the team moves to the Bob).
We've had some awesome fan support for baseball when they were playing well, but the last few years have been pretty dismal, and support once again fell off.
Football does reign supreme in Nebraska, and that's not likely to ever change. But other sports could make their own noise.
As far as the site goes, we've had subforums for other sports (most notably Volleyball), but traffic to those other forum isn't always high, so when we redesigned the board a couple of years ago we axed the individual sports forums. Maybe if/when interest builds we'll bring them back.
Ratt Mhule
Well-known member
Comish
Well-known member
I do too.............and I will even more when we hire a guy who can "get r done"...............
gratefullred
Well-known member
If NU basketball had a chance to finish top half of the conference Nebraskans would care enough to fill an arena. They have before.
Could I ask you, Bucky, about Wisconsin's commitment to baseball?
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PaulCrewe
Well-known member
You want Larry the Cable Guy to be the nect coach?!?!?!?!?
I know the answer, so I won't put up the emoticon
Comish
Well-known member
funhusker
Well-known member
I'll put my money on "if"
This isn't to say that people don't want a respectable basketball program, but I don't believe any reasonable Husker fan (NU in general, not sport specific) will ever hold "Nebrasketball" to the same standards as Husker football. I feel like getting into the NCAA tournament is similar to getting to and winning a bowl game, any bowl game, in football. Annually, about 20% of teams can say they accomplished that goal.
Imagine the football team winning 6 bowl games (I'm talking like the "Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl" variety) in the last 30 years... :dunno
EDIT: Sorry, potty training my daughter and lost train of thought. What I'm saying is this : As fans, we generally expect our football program to compete and play for National Championships. We are disappointed after a 9/10 win season because we weren't in the BCS picture. Can you (I'm asking each Huskerboard member) ever picture the day when the message boards are upset because the basketball season left us outside of the top 2 seeds in the NCAA tournament?
I only see this happening if the football program slides back to national irrelevance. Then we might have a chance to be just like Kansas, Duke, North Carolina, or Kentucky. Probably still a pipe dream for a basketball fan...
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HuskerShark
Banned
While I agree that the basketball budget could be increased, I don't attribute our lack of success on the court to that at all. Here's why:
Nebraska - $4,104,289
Ohio State - $4,554,908
Not that big of a difference, yet OSU gets it done in bball. That's why I'm not 100% buying this guy's argument.
Nebraska - $4,104,289
Ohio State - $4,554,908
Not that big of a difference, yet OSU gets it done in bball. That's why I'm not 100% buying this guy's argument.
JJ Husker
Well-known member
I agree. The spending "commitment" is not a valid issue. By that rationale, all we have to do is increase bball coaches salaries about 5 mil per year and we would arrive at the promised land. There is so much more to it than how much you spend on it. The only salient point Hawks made was about getting some recruiting help. tom Izzo makes about $3.49M per year and Doc makes about $900K. Does anybody think the only difference there is 2.5M dollars spent?
VectorVictor
Well-known member
Question--Does anyone know how much of DoNU's budget is inflated this year because of residual from getting the new Olympic sports complex open, and how much more are we spending in travel this year vs. our Big XII days.