I agree too many don't care as long as they get their tailgates in the fall and a Centre for Travel bowl itinerary in December. Too many living in the past. With the playoffs expanding to 12 teams next year the PSU football bowl cycle of the past is dead. Why we care so much about wrestling is also puzzling. Hoops can make really good return on investment if managed well. Our fan base is clueless.
Lubrano must go...
- Thread starter Psugo823
- Start date
I can't imagine that's true. I CAN imagine that he wasn't willing to do it by taking available money from other sports.
The basketball coach up and left after just 2 years and it has completely destroyed the roster in just one week. Now people are debating whether it's the fault of the board of trustees, a poor NIL program, the athletic director, some combination of all these, or if the guy just left and there was nothing anyone could do about it. Thats how I see it anyways.
It was pretty well known around State College that he was far behind on his pledge but this goes back many years. I can't comment on anything more recent.
You basically have it, but people wonder if PSU could have made an offer compelling enough to convince him to stay (and if not, why not). Sounds like money wasn't an issue for him, he just got the offer he wanted and decided to make his move while he had the chance. Sucks for us.
Now we will see if the new AD cares about basketball, and how much. The coaching search will tell us allot.
🤔
Don't know about Psugo, but Gunsie had a hell of a "love crush" on Barry and BobPSU92.
Yes. Outside of a few rust belt regions the sport is off the radar. It is being dropped from the Olympics! What does that tell you? Get the hoops program to the appropriate level should be priority 1-A.
i don't get it at all. the implication seems to be that the BOT gets together and doles out NIL cash payments. Does not really make any sense to me
this doesn't make sense. NIL is coming from a 3rd party. how would Lubrano or anyone on the BOT be deciding how much or where it goes?
I'm clean and sober for over 11 years. And I hate to disappoint you but I'm not guns.
1-You mean rust belt regions like North Carolina, NY, Virginia, Maryland, Colorado, California? Take a look at where the current NCAA champions are from.
2-Wrong…not being dropped from the Olympics. In case you didn’t realize, PSU’s own David Taylor just won Olympic Gold! And 4 out of the USA‘s 6 medalists in 2021 wrestle out of the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club. This sport is immensely popular worldwide. On top of that, former PSU wrestler Bo Nickal recently opened an MMA gym outside of State College and is considered to be one of the most impressive, young fighters in the UFC in recent memory.
3-While you’re at it, take a look at the largest sporting attendance numbers EVER in the BJC. Hint hint…They ain’t from basketball. If all of the wrestling matches were held in the BJC, they would all sell out.
4-The reason for 3 above may have something to do with the fact that Penn State Wrestling is in the midst of the most impressive dynasty in all of collegiate sports…hell…all of professional sports as well. 10 championships in the last 12 years. Unheard of dominance.
…And you want to DE-EMPHASIZE PSU wrestling?!?
there is no reason to de emphasize anything
the reality of wrestling, though, is that one school dominates and wins all the titles . oklahoma state, iowa, psu now. a lot of people don't find it that interesting and few would argue that it is a fun sport to watch
Actually no, that's not the "reality" of wrestling or any other sport at all. There have been many different champions between 1997 when Gable retired and 2011 when Cael win his first at PSU.
What Penn State is doing in wrestling even surpasses what Gable did during any 12 year stretch. What Penn State has done in wrestling is not only the greatest dynasty in all of college sports currently but perhaps in the history of the sport when it's all said and done. Winning 10 national championships in 12 years is nearly unthinkable....
it is great what he is doing
but the reality is that Oklahoma St, Iowa and Penn State account for like 60 of the national championships
Well…agree that one school dominates, but many find that aspect interesting for the same reasons that fans either love (and root for), or hate (and root against) the dominant team.
Regarding your 2nd point, fan support at the annually sold out BJC, and a much more active wrestling (than basketball) message board would argue against this. Stop over…you’ll find a heathy hatred of Iowa that football fans can relate to as well!
When CBS and three other national networks begin televising in prime time the NCAA wrestling tournament at that point maybe I'll buy into the popularity. Very few people outside of the schools involved could tell you who just won the NCAA wrestling national championship. There is no doubt what Cael has done with the program is unprecedented and he and the student athletes deserve all the earned respect but I stand by what my opinion is just that... if it were up to me I would pour more money into hoops. It likely doesn't need to come from wrestling but many of the sports that are living off football need to be de-emphasized. NCAA March Madness is the one of the most popular events every year and millions are engaged, Why not find a way to put PSU in the middle of that?
it is kind of obvious that if basketball was winning it would generate more revenue. and i mean winning, not finishing in 10th place and then finding your way into the dance in the final 4 days
and it already makes a surplus
no justification to keep neglecting it so much
Clean and sober for the past 11 yrs.?
God Bless....
This is a football board to vent like or dislike of current athletic situations.
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Gunsie you dope! You are the OP who started the whole BOT is to blame horse shat. smh
Oh…I agree that hoops needs more support…money…something, but when wrestling was brought into the discussion as a sport needing to be de-emphasized, I raised objections. I’m glad you walked the wrestling de-emphasis back.
Wrestling certainly doesn’t live off football. There are probably 20 other sports at PSU that sponge off a lot of football money and only get a handful of supporters…mostly family and friends. As I previously mentioned, wrestling sells out the BJC! Sometimes I feel the hoopster contingent is jealous of that.
Maybe our basketball program should follow wrestling’s lead. Bring in the best possible coach…recruit the hell out of our region…start winning and dominating and the fans will follow. Then keep the coach happy!
Basketball and wrestling are apples and oranges especially at a school like Penn State.
The issue is that there are a handful of schools that care about wrestling enough to break the bank for that coach, while the competition in basketball is 10-fold. To hire the basketball version of Cael, we’d be north of $10 million/year…simply not realistic.
Totally agree! Not sure why wrestling was brought into the discussion originally. The overwhelming success of the wrestling team has NOTHING to do with the failure of the basketball program.
i have not heard anyone suggest that we de-emphasize wrestling. No idea why we would need or want to do that. When it comes to wrestling, there are people who love it and people who don't care at all. there is really nothing in between. nobody thinks this is a competition between basketball and wrestling
he is correct about getting the best coach. Prior to Sanderson there was some other guy who the wrestling people really didn't like. We went out and got the best guy. We were just willing to pay Shrewsberry more than the IU and Purdue coaches, so we have already shown our hand. Actually relieved he left if we can do that. We can get a far better coach for basketball
The earlier post by BB is what brought me into the discussion. Why was wrestling singled out? Because it’s popular and successful at PSU? Seemed very sour grapesy.
But you said PSU basketball should follow wrestling’s lead and bring in the best coach, recruit the hell out of the region and dominate. That’s never going to happen in basketball because it’s not the same situation that wrestling has.
it should happen. a very high level coach. the "best coach" is not even a real thing in basketball. so if we can pay 4 million per year, which it appears that we can, we can get a pretty high level coach. it needs to be somebody who knows Philadelphia. Shrewsberry being an indiana person was probably a strike against him for this job, IMO
i dont know i guess i missed it. this has absolutely nothing to do with wrestling. makes no sense
I think you're overestimating what level of coach that 4 million/year will get us.
I have...we offer $4 million and we might be able to convince Ben Johnson to leave Minnesota (and that's a big "might", as my guess is he'd end up getting a bump and staying there). The other 12 coaches turn us down and stay at their current jobs.
not the point
i am not saying hire away the worst one, or any of them
i am saying we have just shown that we are willing to pay more than Painter and Woodson are making. we are in the market for coaches at that level
if we turn around and hire our own assistant for half of that, forget this program for good
Honest question...in your opinion where does the nation generally see Penn State basketball in The Big Ten. Top third, mid-third or bottom 4? If the answer is bottom 4 wouldn't that be thought of as a joke?
And those guys have all of the built in advantages of coaching at Purdue and Indiana...if we want the same level of guy to come here and build things, we're paying a multiple higher...unless you're talking about hiring Matt Painter of 20 years ago that basically had the same resume as Ed DeChellis and Pat Chambers.
When I hear "we should just do what Wrestling did and hire the best coach in the country", I'm thinking it means hiring Mark Few from Gonzaga, offering Cal enough to leave Kentucky, Self enough to leave Kansas, etc. And that's probably looking at a 6 year/$60 million deal at a minimum (and that's before getting into all of the other money that would need to be pumped into the program to make it feasible).
When we hired Cael he had only been at Iowa State for three years. People knew he would be a star so PSU paid him a lot. They didn't go out and hire a coach who had already won 10 national titles and was near retirement. i'm saying i think we should follow the model used when they hired Cael
so you are saying we can't hire Self away from Kansas. No, and nobody can, plus he may be ending his career soon due to health.
$4 million will get us someone extremely good, though
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