Did not think I would be as depressed as I am today. In what was called sub districts in Colorado I called time, set up a double screen curl play, our kid hit the shot and we took a one point lead. Unfortunately 3 seconds remained and the other team banked in a game winner from half court at the buzzer. Still feel the pain after 40 some years. I get the portal for playing time/coaching jerks and changes and NIL for walking around money but it has morphed into guys wanting a million to transfer. We likely have behind the scenes trades between the big money power brokers for these "students" We will see what happens with my beloved ISU. With the divisions in our country A has quit talking to B EXCEPT about sports. With the publicity ISU has garnered due to the style of play this year (almost a beautiful game Brazil type comparison)and historic nature of the school with the Bird/Magic link a coach/team buy to a fellow mid major is going to generate quite a bit of publicity. Maybe people will wonder why.
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Fudōtokuna: $chertz to $LU
- Thread starter Jason Svoboda
- Start date
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A few thoughts....
1) Yeah this sucks and it's going to be tough.
2) With ISU being the low end of the MVC coaching pay scale the past 10+ years, this was always how this situation was going to turn out. Doesn't matter if it was Schertz or anyone else...as long as you are at the low end of the MVC in terms of pay, which is below lots of other conferences we would like to be competing with, you're going to lose talent.
3) This (hopefully) doesn't always have to be the case. If the school gets serious about fundraising, paying a competitive wage to find and retain talent...we have a shot. But this relies on continued fan and community support. This year has shown that the fan base is there...we can fill arenas, we can raise money, we can sell merch. It can't rely on a once in a generation run to drive that though.
4) CoC...while they have been working hard for sure...needs to modernize and get competitive FAST. Social media presence, fundraising ideas (outside of just asking for money), partnerships...whatever. If we want this to avoid being a 3-4 year rebuild, NIL is going to be the absolute biggest key and we need every dollar we can get. The university also needs to buy in. I see lots of excuses on social media about why "well ISU technically can't help with promoting X, Y, and Z". That's crap. Other schools find ways to do it...so can we. Hell...get some marketing students on the case. Get some MBA grad students working on strategies. Get two 19 year old comms majors to run socials as an internship.
5) IF, and that's a very massive if, we can keep the funding we raised to go to a new coach...and IF the NIL fund has actually been raising money over the last few weeks/months like it has been rumored, there's no reason we can't compete in the Valley next year. Something like 50+ of the top 60 scorers in the MVC from last season are going to be in the portal. The team may look very different next season, but every Valley team is going to look very different next season.
6) All of this for the foreseeable future is going to come down to funding. Program funding, coaching salary funding, and NIL funding. You have to have all 3 parts. You can be willing to pay a coach top of MVC money, but if you don't have the NIL to recruit and retain players it won't do you any good. On the flip side, you can have all the NIL money in the world but if you don't pay to get a quality coach, you'll have a lot of solid players that don't have direction.
7) This will be where we see what ISU and the fanbase is actually made up of. If we can continue raising money during the off season, hopefully bring in some decent transfers or keep some of the current guys, nail the coaching hire, and pack in at least 5k+ the first few games of the 24-25 season? I think the future can still look very bright. If we flail on any of those and by the 3rd home game next year we have 2,400 people in the stands because insert excuse here....yeah it's going to be rocky.
1) Yeah this sucks and it's going to be tough.
2) With ISU being the low end of the MVC coaching pay scale the past 10+ years, this was always how this situation was going to turn out. Doesn't matter if it was Schertz or anyone else...as long as you are at the low end of the MVC in terms of pay, which is below lots of other conferences we would like to be competing with, you're going to lose talent.
3) This (hopefully) doesn't always have to be the case. If the school gets serious about fundraising, paying a competitive wage to find and retain talent...we have a shot. But this relies on continued fan and community support. This year has shown that the fan base is there...we can fill arenas, we can raise money, we can sell merch. It can't rely on a once in a generation run to drive that though.
4) CoC...while they have been working hard for sure...needs to modernize and get competitive FAST. Social media presence, fundraising ideas (outside of just asking for money), partnerships...whatever. If we want this to avoid being a 3-4 year rebuild, NIL is going to be the absolute biggest key and we need every dollar we can get. The university also needs to buy in. I see lots of excuses on social media about why "well ISU technically can't help with promoting X, Y, and Z". That's crap. Other schools find ways to do it...so can we. Hell...get some marketing students on the case. Get some MBA grad students working on strategies. Get two 19 year old comms majors to run socials as an internship.
5) IF, and that's a very massive if, we can keep the funding we raised to go to a new coach...and IF the NIL fund has actually been raising money over the last few weeks/months like it has been rumored, there's no reason we can't compete in the Valley next year. Something like 50+ of the top 60 scorers in the MVC from last season are going to be in the portal. The team may look very different next season, but every Valley team is going to look very different next season.
6) All of this for the foreseeable future is going to come down to funding. Program funding, coaching salary funding, and NIL funding. You have to have all 3 parts. You can be willing to pay a coach top of MVC money, but if you don't have the NIL to recruit and retain players it won't do you any good. On the flip side, you can have all the NIL money in the world but if you don't pay to get a quality coach, you'll have a lot of solid players that don't have direction.
7) This will be where we see what ISU and the fanbase is actually made up of. If we can continue raising money during the off season, hopefully bring in some decent transfers or keep some of the current guys, nail the coaching hire, and pack in at least 5k+ the first few games of the 24-25 season? I think the future can still look very bright. If we flail on any of those and by the 3rd home game next year we have 2,400 people in the stands because insert excuse here....yeah it's going to be rocky.
AzHoopsjunkie
The Blue Level
In that case, hire someone else. Monied programs are too lazy and chickenshit to do their own work. Screw SLU
bent20
The Odum Level
Agree with the sentiment that people need to keep funding and supporting the program, absolutely agree on that, but in terms of attendance what you're describing isn't limited to Terre Haute and Indiana State. Even Big 10 teams struggle to fill their arenas when they're average to below average. Looking at SLU's attendance numbers this year (a losing one obviously) they were at 5,600, so nothing exceptional. But they have more money, as is often the case with private schools, and the Big 10 schools have more money, as is often the case with larger state schools. Harder for us, but Schertz and the team just gave us a big boost this year, we need to seize this opportunity and not let go of the momentum.
As a COC Board Member put it to me, it's a lot easier raising significant funds from an alumni base made up of Dr.'s and Lawyers than it is from an alumni base made up of nurses, teachers and starving artists.
southernindianaballer
The Starter Level
May have been shared? If so ignore... Interesting 
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JMV tweeted at Coach and Coach replied those are coaches words. Given I’m in sales I pay pretty close attention to the words that people use, how they use them and where they fit.
You can’t say our program if you’re leaving it’s not our program anymore. So he’s either staying or he needs help.
niklz62
The JSW Level
ironically, less than a week ago some people were standing in line to give him a hand job about how well he was using social mediaJMV tweeted at Coach and Coach replied those are coaches words. Given I’m in sales I pay pretty close attention to the words that people use, how they use them and where they fit.
You can’t say our program if you’re leaving it’s not our program anymore. So he’s either staying or he needs help.
sneaky long
The White Level
thanks. I hope he is staying. I'm proud of the entire ISU community, we have made it a hard place to leave. no way any coach or team could ask for or receive more love than what has been given this season.JMV tweeted at Coach and Coach replied those are coaches words. Given I’m in sales I pay pretty close attention to the words that people use, how they use them and where they fit.
You can’t say our program if you’re leaving it’s not our program anymore. So he’s either staying or he needs help.
I have never been one of them… I can assure you. The same guy getting hand jobs over his usage of social media has said in post game interviews that he’s not a big fan of social media or not good at social media.
all of these things can’t be true!! Which is probably why his usage of the word “OUR” should probably be taken to mean absolutely nothing about his future plans.
The guy talks too much… He’s enjoyed having two programs in the palm of his hand courting him. When you’re a D2 guy and this is your first go at this - then you tend to respond exactly the way he is I would suspect. D2 gonna D2.
While true, now was the time to go radio silent. Continuing to show possessive ownership of the job while publicly stating you are deciding whether or not to stay is a bad look no matter how anyone tries to slice it.
Shut it down.
Make your decision.
If you go, drop the singular lip service post like all of the coaches do. If you stay, then you come back and rally the base.
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niklz62
The JSW Level
I didnt think it was you
Bub
The White Level
100% agree. The ISU community showed up and showed the love to these guys. Unfortunately love doesn't pay the bills. We can only hope ISU and its donors are making a last-ditch effort to retain him and this team, but $12m/6 plus incentives is a tall order for ISU.
niklz62
The JSW Level
Its reasonable that this is a very tough decision that he possibly hasnt 100% made yet. especially with potential counter offers and jobs that opened after he originally had a SLU offer. I cant say what I would do in his position. Ive seen staying blow up for a personal acquaintance and ive seen leaving end up being the bad decision (football jobs). If I knew which players he could get to stay with him, I think I could give a better opinion.
That’s really well said.
Eleven
The Wade Level
Maybe I'm naïve - but I think it has less to do with salary - and more to do with Program Funding... That includes practice facilities, travel perks, player perks (weight rooms, nutritionists, etc), recruiting budgets, NIL options, deep pockets when needed, etc.
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I didn’t think you did - I was just expanding. I noticed that love he was getting - all love for JS he’s the best! Perfect.
Very well said
He might not come out and say it but the NIL will be the reason…
But I’ve maintained that once committed they will raise the needed funds to keep everyone but maybe Conwell and Conwell ain’t going with him to SLU anyway (I don’t think anyway).
As for facilities - yep the practice facility / Hulman Center has been an on going issue and concern. It’s something Indiana State needs to address if they want to be serious about hoops in the future.
Eleven
The Wade Level
I'm hoping that he is thinking beyond this group - for that decision...