Conference realignment discussion - v. 2015

[marquette]

I think we can all agree that it would be nice if DePaul and St. John's made the tourney every other year or so and made a run to the S16 or E8 every 5 or so, but that's an issue for another thread. Nobody cares about Buzz Williams, he ain't here anymore.

[Fieldhouse Flyer]

UD makes no sense due to its location and TV market.

Nielson - Local Television Market Universe Estimates - Effective September 26, 2015

64. Dayton
74. Omaha

No comment.

[GoldenWarrior11]

No need to speak in a condescending way, Demon. I, too, drive past the site every day. Fact of the matter is, the arena is being delayed because the city wants the casino approved first. Without a casino and hotel in the area, a brand-new arena will be a waste of space and money if there aren't amenities in the area to drive business. Lord knows that DePaul students won't be able to get to see home games anywhere in the vicinity of campus.

You're right, Chris Mullin hasn't coached a single game yet. But, unlike DePaul under Leitao, Purnell, and Wainwright, he has already recruited top prospects to his program. In that regard, and that regard alone, he has a higher standing than Dave Leitao (who, again is in his second run at DePaul - after he bolted for greener pastures before).

If you want to bring up Buzz Williams, why don't you bring up Tom Crean, Kevin O'Neill, Rick Majerus, Hank Raymonds or Al McGuire? Because, other than the great Ray Meyer, and his son, Joey, DePaul has not hired a single head coach that has consistently had the program in a position to reach the NCAA tournament. Zero.

I want DePaul to succeed - I really do, and the Big East wants them to too. Unfortunately, the athletic administration has proven that they don't care about men's basketball. Chicago is one of the top areas in the country in basketball - it's a shame that it's taken over 20 years for the program to "bounce back". Perhaps more pushback from alumni will help convince the program to change for better. But it may be too late, as far too many of the "young people" you so eloquently described don't even know about the golden days of DePaul Men's Basketball - because it's been so long since the school has had a winning program.

[MUBoxer]

MU,

You do not understand how marketing and TV works, do you? Of course, DePaul should have been added! Chicago and New York NEED to be the anchors for this conference to reach its fullest potential.

You must be a younger fan.

Yes, DePaul has been down for 20 years but the opportunity to get back is big with this program.

They will figure this out.....they need too.....with a new state-of-the-art facility coming right around the corner. A new AD may be required.

I will say this again.....you ALL should hope that St. John's and DePaul pick up their programs. If you don't believe me, then contact Val Ackerman and Stu Jackson and ask their opinion.

Me MU? I understand how TV works well enough. Though if your entirely confident you know how it works go to MUscoop and argue with Chicosbailbonds, dude was a Comcast executive and I'm guessing old enough to garner your respect as opposed to my class of 13 self.

JLP needs to be gone, sadly I don't see it happening since she's married to former star who's a big booster and was a former star herself.

I do hope Depaul picks up their program. Till ND starts playing us again every off season you guys are our only historic rival. SJU likely will be back soon. DPU not so much, if you're lucky Leitao will get you an extremely senior laden class to make the NCAA tournament. I dated a DPU girl for almost 3 years we went to loads of DPU games and there was nobody there, a new arena isn't going to fix that for anymore than one game without actually winning.

In this day and age of college ball where Blue bloods run the world, I'll stick with hoping the closest to the strongest historic programs being successful. To your other comment on Buzz running a dirty program, what proof do you have? The only dirtiness was driving players out to let new ones in.

[Jet915]

No need to speak in a condescending way, Demon. I, too, drive past the site every day. Fact of the matter is, the arena is being delayed because the city wants the casino approved first. Without a casino and hotel in the area, a brand-new arena will be a waste of space and money if there aren't amenities in the area to drive business. Lord knows that DePaul students won't be able to get to see home games anywhere in the vicinity of campus.

You're right, Chris Mullin hasn't coached a single game yet. But, unlike DePaul under Leitao, Purnell, and Wainwright, he has already recruited top prospects to his program. In that regard, and that regard alone, he has a higher standing than Dave Leitao (who, again is in his second run at DePaul - after he bolted for greener pastures before).

If you want to bring up Buzz Williams, why don't you bring up Tom Crean, Kevin O'Neill, Rick Majerus, Hank Raymonds or Al McGuire? Because, other than the great Ray Meyer, and his son, Joey, DePaul has not hired a single head coach that has consistently had the program in a position to reach the NCAA tournament. Zero.

I want DePaul to succeed - I really do, and the Big East wants them to too. Unfortunately, the athletic administration has proven that they don't care about men's basketball. Chicago is one of the top areas in the country in basketball - it's a shame that it's taken over 20 years for the program to "bounce back". Perhaps more pushback from alumni will help convince the program to change for better. But it may be too late, as far too many of the "young people" you so eloquently described don't even know about the golden days of DePaul Men's Basketball - because it's been so long since the school has had a winning program.

It begins and ends with their shitty AD, until she goes, the team wont go anywhere....

[MUBoxer]

DemonLS Get this for how long it's been. The current senior recruits weren't even born when Aguirre retired from the NBA. Next year's recruits won't have even been born when Cummings was retiring. At a certain point you've lost so much of your brand and value it's no longer viewed as a comeback. That's how I feel Depaul is now, if Wainwright had turned that 07 season into an NCAA year with Wilson Chandler it might be different but nope.

[falcon]

I do not know the people in charge at DePaul, but fixing things might best be served by replacing the Vincentian president with a talented layman. The rebirth at SJU started the day they got rid of the incompetent, grifting Vincentian, Harrington. The right president will appoint the right AD, who will hire the right coach. This conference needs all ten members being competitive, drawing good crowds, which will make for better TV ratings. Any talk of expansion, division configuration, etc. should be delayed until all the current programs are healthy. Best wishes for both DePaul and Seton Hall. We will sink or swim together.

[NJRedman]

I do not know the people in charge at DePaul, but fixing things might best be served by replacing the Vincentian president with a talented layman. The rebirth at SJU started the day they got rid of the incompetent, grifting Vincentian, Harrington. The right president will appoint the right AD, who will hire the right coach. This conference needs all ten members being competitive, drawing good crowds, which will make for better TV ratings. Any talk of expansion, division configuration, etc. should be delayed until all the current programs are healthy. Best wishes for both DePaul and Seton Hall. We will sink or swim together.

Stop bringing up divisions, they aren't happening. Seriously, no respectable conference uses them. Not even when they were at 12 members, and once again we had divisions for a very short time and no one liked them and they were done away with.

[NJRedman]

Jesus Christ X fans calm it down. Like or not Dayton is in the mix and will be until the day we announce our additions if we ever do. They are a quality program and would definitely add value to the conference.If they were in Detroit, Baktimore, Boston or Pittsburgh they'd be a slam dunk.

I love how it's always about Xavier fans having to "calm it down" when it comes to this topic.

You need to understand a couple things, if you don't already:

1. Xavier doesn't fear UD. UD has been referred to as Xavier's "Little Brother" for years and for obvious reasons. This isn't about that.

2. UD absolutely has positives as a program, including a loyal fanbase, but a lot of the rest of it is yet to be proven.

First and foremost, I really don't need to read about the UD market being valuable for television purposes. It just isn't in the scheme of things - - specifically when looking at the bigger picture of what this conference wants to achieve with its media partner. UD obviously isn't located in any of those other cities you mentioned, so they're no kind of "dunk" as far as that goes.

Secondly, UD has ZERO track record - actually, it has a negative record - when it comes to replacing coaches. Archie Miller is not long for that program, probably especially given the fact that UD has kept law enforcement officials in Montgomery County busy now for three straight years. I believe they lost their AD a while ago, so, assuming they've announced a new one, that individual will have to prove himself on the next hire. Until Archie, they've been horrid at that very important function.

I haven't commented much on this topic lately because I truly believe we're locked into a 10 member conference situation for the foreseeable future. It's just that this isn't about always being automatically about a Xavier/UD pissing match. If a UD fan wants to come on here and spout out hundreds of words of justification that heavily rely on two years of data, I'd say he wasted his time.

If you want to consider UD as being one of the top non-football candidates, I'd say knock yourself out; it's a free country.

Otherwise, if a Xavier fan wants to spend a few minutes shooting holes in that guy's drivel, as a Xavier fan and a Big East fan, he has every right to do that.

You just completely pulled this out of your ass. No where in my four sentence post did I say X was scared of Dayton or anything remotely like that.

"Jesus Christ X fans calm it down. Like or not Dayton is in the mix and will be until the day we announce our additions if we ever do. They are a quality program and would definitely add value to the conference.If they were in Detroit, Baktimore, Boston or Pittsburgh they'd be a slam dunk."

[NJRedman]

Golden,

You are a little ignorant and probably younger too. The groundbreaking has already begun! I have driven by there. Yes, politics is a little different in Chicago but it has already started.

St. John's has completely underachieved so far. Lets just see how great of a coach Chris Mullin is first before anointing him.

And BTW, Buzz Williams was running a very dirty program but MU did a wonderful job "hiding" all those problems up there in little Milwaukee.....but MU won games and that is all that matters.

We've been to two NCAA tournys in the last five years. Not great but not DePaul level of underachieving.