New article (we need facilities and updates bad)
Mar 25, 2024 11:26:35 GMT -5
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motorcitysam likes this
Post by udshawn on Mar 25, 2024 11:26:35 GMT -5
I agree with some of this. But we need facilities and updates now. U can't recruit if kids have to live in slop, nothing to do, and no amenities. It's not longer a want. They're needs. Need now to get kids to win now.
From todays paper from Tony Paul:
The top selling point for both Washington and Mann, of course, is recruiting. Both are very well-regarded on that front, and that's been a big problem for Detroit Mercy for a long time, predating Davis, who brought his son, Antoine to town — and that was a boon, with Antoine going on to become the NCAA's second-all-time leading scorer, just three points behind "Pistol" Pete Maravich — but did little to make inroads on the trail in Metro Detroit.
Davis, as good of an X's and O's coach as he is, struggled with recruiting, and blamed that on the inferior facilities at Detroit Mercy. It's a fair gripe. Calihan Hall is a cool barn, but the surrounding infrastructure is lacking. Davis said he liked to sign recruits before they got to campus and changed their mind. That's all fine, but Davis knew full well what the facilities were when he took the job, and there could've been no illusions of that changing on his watch.
It's also worth noting, no Horizon League team is exactly playing in the Taj Mahal. Oakland doesn't have a practice facility, though one is finally coming, and was watching film of Kentucky on a roll-out projector screen inside the O'Rena last week before departing campus for Pittsburgh and its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2011.
Detroit Mercy needs a coach who can come in and be laser-focused on recruiting, and rather than whine about they don't have — if it ain't rough it ain't right, right? — sell what they do, which is a footprint, albeit ever-shrinking, in a major city, and a whole lot of tradition. Detroit Mercy's a proud basketball school, with a whole bunch of banners in those Calihan Hall rafters, and a court named after Dick Vitale. Detroit Mercy, frankly, needs another Kate Achter, a young, hungry coach who focused on recruiting, recruiting, recruiting in taking over a team that had won 11 games in five seasons before she arrived. In her second season, her team just won 17 games, and she landed a long, fat extension.
Now, Achter has told me in the past that it's easier to recruit women players from the area to stay home and play for Detroit than it is for the men to do that. Lots of parents want the women to stay home, while the men often have more of a desire to get away, she said. But Oakland finds a way to get them; Oakland shouldn't win every local recruiting battle, out of high school or in the transfer portal.
But what Oakland has, that Detroit doesn't, is an avid fan base, and a passionate community at large, built by 40 years of Greg Kampe — and now, by the way, it has a major NCAA Tournament win. Detroit Mercy has lost the community; it can't even get the students to come watch for free. On Davis' Senior Night last spring, when the school retired No. 0, the crowd should've been full; it was pathetic. Isaiah Jones transferred from Detroit Mercy to Oakland after seeing the wild crowd at the O'Rena late last season. He never saw that at Detroit Mercy.
That has to change. A whole heck of a lot has to change — if Detroit Mercy is going to get back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2012 and, most importantly, get people to give a damn.
It starts with winning, which leads to engagement, which leads to dollars.
Money, of course, a big issue there, and president Donald Taylor, hired in 2022, has spent much of his tenure looking for every last buck, in large part to help the athletic department. Such a sports fan that he really wants to bring back the baseball team someday, Taylor is playing a big role in this coaching search, though Vowels, looking for his third men's basketball coach in 10 years on the job, is said to be leading it.
Vowels' phone calls and interviews are under way. That's the start.
But the end game is a long, long way away.
From todays paper from Tony Paul:
The top selling point for both Washington and Mann, of course, is recruiting. Both are very well-regarded on that front, and that's been a big problem for Detroit Mercy for a long time, predating Davis, who brought his son, Antoine to town — and that was a boon, with Antoine going on to become the NCAA's second-all-time leading scorer, just three points behind "Pistol" Pete Maravich — but did little to make inroads on the trail in Metro Detroit.
Davis, as good of an X's and O's coach as he is, struggled with recruiting, and blamed that on the inferior facilities at Detroit Mercy. It's a fair gripe. Calihan Hall is a cool barn, but the surrounding infrastructure is lacking. Davis said he liked to sign recruits before they got to campus and changed their mind. That's all fine, but Davis knew full well what the facilities were when he took the job, and there could've been no illusions of that changing on his watch.
It's also worth noting, no Horizon League team is exactly playing in the Taj Mahal. Oakland doesn't have a practice facility, though one is finally coming, and was watching film of Kentucky on a roll-out projector screen inside the O'Rena last week before departing campus for Pittsburgh and its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2011.
Detroit Mercy needs a coach who can come in and be laser-focused on recruiting, and rather than whine about they don't have — if it ain't rough it ain't right, right? — sell what they do, which is a footprint, albeit ever-shrinking, in a major city, and a whole lot of tradition. Detroit Mercy's a proud basketball school, with a whole bunch of banners in those Calihan Hall rafters, and a court named after Dick Vitale. Detroit Mercy, frankly, needs another Kate Achter, a young, hungry coach who focused on recruiting, recruiting, recruiting in taking over a team that had won 11 games in five seasons before she arrived. In her second season, her team just won 17 games, and she landed a long, fat extension.
Now, Achter has told me in the past that it's easier to recruit women players from the area to stay home and play for Detroit than it is for the men to do that. Lots of parents want the women to stay home, while the men often have more of a desire to get away, she said. But Oakland finds a way to get them; Oakland shouldn't win every local recruiting battle, out of high school or in the transfer portal.
But what Oakland has, that Detroit doesn't, is an avid fan base, and a passionate community at large, built by 40 years of Greg Kampe — and now, by the way, it has a major NCAA Tournament win. Detroit Mercy has lost the community; it can't even get the students to come watch for free. On Davis' Senior Night last spring, when the school retired No. 0, the crowd should've been full; it was pathetic. Isaiah Jones transferred from Detroit Mercy to Oakland after seeing the wild crowd at the O'Rena late last season. He never saw that at Detroit Mercy.
That has to change. A whole heck of a lot has to change — if Detroit Mercy is going to get back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2012 and, most importantly, get people to give a damn.
It starts with winning, which leads to engagement, which leads to dollars.
Money, of course, a big issue there, and president Donald Taylor, hired in 2022, has spent much of his tenure looking for every last buck, in large part to help the athletic department. Such a sports fan that he really wants to bring back the baseball team someday, Taylor is playing a big role in this coaching search, though Vowels, looking for his third men's basketball coach in 10 years on the job, is said to be leading it.
Vowels' phone calls and interviews are under way. That's the start.
But the end game is a long, long way away.
