LB trying to make SMU the next Georgetown

[whitwiki]

P:-) 8

[coloradoStang]

When he came to talk to the fraternity houses he told us his plan was to make SMU into something like georgetown.

[gostangs]

totally agree. why would we move to the big east, when the AAC is a better conference today, and probably even after Louisville leaves? Most of the big East schools are drafting off of old reputations, and will not be contenders.

We don't have to limit ourselves to one or the other - we can be good at both. And for those that think we have given up on football you are just going to have to be patient for about 8-9 more months.

[GiddyUp]

Or how about we just do what TCU did with football and have a great hoops program. Yeah, that sounds nice. I don't want to be known as hoops school. I want to be known as the school with the best revenue sports program in the country.

duke decided to be both about the same time Cutliffe was hired. Realized both is possible. Most didnt even know duke had fball until recently

[ojaipony]

Do both. Bball is doing all the right things and it's starting to happen. Fball is a bigger fish to fry but has much bigger upside. Just takes commitment and starts with hiring the right coach. I honestly believe SMU will have both soon . . . Fball started it all with bowl games and winning records, then Bball taking it up a notch, now Fball has to catch up. When they both sync up in the top 25 consistently, SMU will be in the national conversation and I think that will happen in the next 5 years (Bball first of course).

</sunshiner>

[Pony81]

PonyinNC is correct. If we get to the sweet 16 then SMU games will be cool and Dallas will pack Moody at much higher ticket prices.
LB will be shocked at the positive reaction.

How can anybody blame the non SMU fan for not supporting the team before LB. Remember the last Doh year. We not only lost but we lost ugly. It was just awful basketball.

[gostangs]

i don't think we have to hit sweet 16 for that. I am getting calls and email now for tickets. People are starting to get it. Memphis, Louisville, Cinn and Houston are for sure sell outs - and maybe more.

[ponyinNC]

PonyinNC is correct. If we get to the sweet 16 then SMU games will be cool and Dallas will pack Moody at much higher ticket prices.
LB will be shocked at the positive reaction.

How can anybody blame the non SMU fan for not supporting the team before LB. Remember the last Doh year. We not only lost but we lost ugly. It was just awful basketball.

Thx for the shout out.

We have to take advantage of the positive momentum of the BB program and the pub we are getting - now is the time to market SMU basketball, while we are on the upswing.

One deep run, and the LB / SMU story would be all over ESPN and CBS. Remember that many of the mid-major "power" programs in BB were schools that most of the country hadn't really heard of until they made a deep tourney run: VCU, George Mason, Creighton, Valpo, Butler, etc.

We have the added advantage of being in a power conference (for BB anyway) with Louisville, Memphis, Cincy, UConn, Temple. All great BB schools.

[dcpony]

Very interesting analogy. Georgetown --> SMU. We need to accept that we are not a big school with a huge alumni base. We need to somehow market our school to recruits and fans as a smaller, private, elite school with a strong commitment to education and athletics. Please let me stress "Elite and Strong Commitment".

When you think of Georgetown you think of "Basketball". It would be nice that when you think of SMU you think of Basketball. I really would not mind at all having SMU being known as a "Basketball School". I know that this is a work in progress... Wish that we could somehow reconnect with the Dallas/Fort Worth Area Fans, Coaches, Recruits, Alumni... Selling Out Moody Regularly! More local advertising. More coaches visiting local schools, AAU games.

Coach Brown and his staff have done an incredible job giving our program an identity. Our Basketball Program is really starting to take shape and have an identity. Next step is somehow correlating our school with our Basketball Program on a National Scale and then joining an elite conference (Maybe a Basketball Only, See "Big East"). Definitely a work in progress. Very exciting!

On side note, besides winning a big part of how Georgetown got DC to embrace the Hoyas was its outreach and appeal to the locals, especially the African-American community. It'll be interesting to see how SMU handles this.

Notable excerpts from The Washington City Paper's oral history of "Hoya Euphoria"

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/arti ... -thompson/

THE BRAND

Love them or loathe them, with Ewing around, the Hoyas were a phenomenon, both in D.C. and beyond.

Nnamdi: Washington was always a good basketball city, but we never had a good basketball college in the city. There was Maryland, but it was outside of the city. We never had a good basketball college in the city that African Americans could really relate to.

Duren: Washington, D.C., at the time was Chocolate City. You’re talking about a black coach, and at the time, eight or nine black players.

Esherick: I got from a lot of people, “Is it an all-black school?”

Nnamdi: Because in large measure they were being so heavily criticized by other coaches and the media, the feeling developed in the city in general, the African-American community in particular, that, “They’re ours. We have to circle the wagons. We have to defend them. We have to protect them. And therefore, we have to adopt them.”

Hancock: We were more popular than the Bullets at the time. We just didn’t have any money.

Tillmon: [Thompson] probably could’ve run for mayor and won.

Ted Leonsis, Captials/Wizards/Verizon Center owner, Georgetown alum (’77): When the Patrick Ewing era came that was just kind of a pinnacle, if you will. It just seemed that Georgetown became this iconic university with an iconic men’s basketball team.

Feinstein: When Ewing gets there, it changes everything. [The Hoyas had] been in the Big East for a few years by then, and they play that classic national championship game against North Carolina, and I think it was after that that you saw them become sort of cultural icons, not just in Washington. They were black America’s team. There were so many white people who resented Thompson, who were frightened by Thompson. They didn’t like the fact that Georgetown was all black and they played rough-and-tumble basketball. There were a lot of black people out there going, “Yeah, that’s my guy, that’s my team, that’s my school.”

Leonsis: The brand started to stand for: “Strong. Proud. I have a very strong point of view and I’m really true to myself and authentic.” That has kind of stayed with it and yeah, during the height it was a transcendent brand. It was like a preppy brand. It was an inner-city brand. People who had nothing to do with the university were wearing it, because it had this cool swagger about it, and all that came from the basketball team.

Nnamdi: I made a trip to the Caribbean and I saw people in Barbados wearing Georgetown T-shirts.

[StandUp]

This is a Great Thread! What other realistic Basketball ==> School Models can follow to continue the positive momentum of our Basketball Program? Georgetown, Butler, Stanford...any others?

We have to recognize that our conference, The American Athletic Conference, will be losing some key basketball schools next year. Louisville to ACC, Rutgers to ACC (in June 2014) That leaves SMU, UCONN, Memphis, Cinci, Temple, and maybe Houston as possible legitimate basketball schools. All of our posters who want to continue to say that our Conference is a better Basketball Conference than the new Big East are mistaken. We still need to reposition SMU into a legitimate Basketball and/or Football Conference. Settling for the AAC is unacceptable.

Let's Compare...The New Big East vs The American (for Basketball Only)
The New Big East
Butler
Georgetown
Marquette
Creighton
Xavier
Villanova
St. Johns
Providence
Seton Hall
Depaul

The American Athletic
Connecticut
Memphis
SMU
Cincinatti
Temple
Houston
Central Florida
South Florida

[ponyinNC]

you lost me when you stated that Rutgers was a key basketball school. LOL

[StandUp]

I am with you. I should not have listed Rutgers as a Basketball School. Rutgers is not much of a Basketball School. I was really just trying to point out that we will have some schools leaving our conference later this year. If you really compare our The American to The New Big East. The American only goes about 5 maybe 6 deep compared with The New Big East which goes about 6 maybe 7 deep. Louisville is going to be a big loss to The American. Hoping that Memphis and Connecticut do not leave. Our conference will turn once again turn into Conference USA.

[ponyinNC]

I am with you. I should not have listed Rutgers as a Basketball School. Rutgers is not much of a Basketball School. I was really just trying to point out that we will have some schools leaving our conference later this year. If you really compare our The American to The New Big East. The American only goes about 5 maybe 6 deep compared with The New Big East which goes about 6 maybe 7 deep. Louisville is going to be a big loss to The American. Hoping that Memphis and Connecticut do not leave. Our conference will turn once again turn into Conference USA.

yeah, LV is a huge loss...especially when you are replacing them with ECU, Tulsa and Tulane - all schools with an RPI of 150+ (guesstimate)

[ponyinNC]

Wow, I was close on that one:

Updated RPI
East Carolina 140
Tulsa 157
Tulane 276

[Nacho]

ru used to be a bball school but that was a long time ago.
now they are neither but are still going to the big 10.