@ Green Bay 1/15/18

[ghostofdylan]

Speaking of the successful model of the two hires before Jeter ...

[Cactus Panther]

Jan 17, 2018 11:19:01 GMT -6 steveisback said:

Connect the dots as follows:

*Pearl leaves, Haidet does minimal if any search, abandons the successful model of past two hires and anoints Jeter
'2nd year in and with first year of his recruits we go 9-22
*Momentum and buzz fading....Rob recruits Harris, Torre Johnson, Kevin Johnson Tim Flowers etc -
*Team languishes in mediocrity - PR lags - Carlos Santiago does not continue Nancy's passion and support - Rob's charisma or lack of gradually leads his Full Court Club to fadeaway in apathy
*Athletic Director Merry Go Round - Koonce, Costello and others.
*Rob keeps getting one contract extension after another - WHY???
*Geiger - $200,000 flushed down the toilet and the horrible move back to the KC
*Once again, whoever was on the selection committee crapped the bed and hired Braun over Plinske. Will never forget the surreal press conference where Lovell and Geiger acted like giddy school boys.
*Kevin O Connor leaves - one of the few with any media savvy and personality including Jeter
*Braun begins her reign of horror. Turnover in AD intensifies , many good people leave
*Donors alienated and minimal relations with media on part of Braun
*We finally get some buzz back and almost immediately after the Academic Ban hits - very damaging to program and exodus of a number of season ticket holders and lousy season ensures with no post season hopes...whatever air was stil in the balloo was gone....some feel no fault or responsibility at all on Rob but hey, he recruited some of those vaunted student athletes like McCallum and the Boga brothers....
**MARCH MELTDOWN- Braun's horrible handling of post season bid and Rob's dismissal - horrible PR including her transparent lying and backtracking with the top 3 finish expectations etc
*Lost our great announcer Bill Johnson due to Braun's crap
*Whole Otzenberger fiasco
*Lavall hire which was fine but gone after one year
*Braun gets contract extension despite plunging attendance, loss of some key donors and lousy image for depr

So there you have it. We had lightning in a bottle and an almost once in a lifetime opportunity in 2005. We did not seize the day and made a knee jerk "safe coaching hire". What might have been...then a slow mediocre ride as the whole thing gradually grew stale. Rob two games over .500 COMBINED D-1 record over 11 years!!!! Opportunity lost...On life support and basically euthanized under Braun. It is somewhat amazing we even are still D-1. Ironic in that we have a BEAUTIFULLY branded home downtown and now it sits there with no one in it. The rot started after Pearl and I blame Haidet more than anyone though I really like Bud personally but they blew it. Now we have what we have....that being said will not quit supporting but it is really sad....we could have been Butler but here we languish in a diminished HOrizon League....

You da man, Steve! That's exactly what I have been trying to say, but you provided much greater detail.

The only thing I disagree with is off the main point - I liked Bill Johnson at first but he irritated me after a while with what I thought were some unprofessional comments about the opposition and officials. He also seemed unable or unwilling to set the audio so he would not cause distortion when he expressed excitement. Similarly, although I have no reason to disagree with your comments about Kevin O'Connor as the media guy, I disliked his analysis on radio alongside Johnson. His radio voice was fingernails-on-chalkboard to me, and he sometimes seemed to distract Johnson from simply calling the play-by-play. That's just me though. I know a lot of people liked having Johnson for the 15 years (or was it 17?) that he was the voice of the Panthers, and I respect that. I did enjoy Johnson's sports talk radio work when he was on ESPN540 and its predecessor frequencies.

Back to the main point, the slide does go back to the latter part of the Haidet era. Its been a downward slide since. The slide has not been perfectly linear. I have used this phrase on here before and i will use it again - for more than a decade, the program seems to have gone one step forward and at least two steps back. Nevertheless, like you and most everyone here, I will be cheering on the Panthers. C'mon Panthers, go get NKU Thursday night!

[steveisback]

Right on Cactus Panther!! GO PANTHERS!!!!!

[ghostofdylan]

I remember when this game was televised NATIONALLY. Now, it's not even televised LOCALLY! When's the last time that we had a nationally televised regular-season game?

[panther9193]

Jan 17, 2018 11:19:01 GMT -6 steveisback said:

Connect the dots as follows:

*Pearl leaves, Haidet does minimal if any search, abandons the successful model of past two hires and anoints Jeter
'2nd year in and with first year of his recruits we go 9-22
*Momentum and buzz fading....Rob recruits Harris, Torre Johnson, Kevin Johnson Tim Flowers etc -
*Team languishes in mediocrity - PR lags - Carlos Santiago does not continue Nancy's passion and support - Rob's charisma or lack of gradually leads his Full Court Club to fadeaway in apathy
*Athletic Director Merry Go Round - Koonce, Costello and others.
*Rob keeps getting one contract extension after another - WHY???
*Geiger - $200,000 flushed down the toilet and the horrible move back to the KC
*Once again, whoever was on the selection committee crapped the bed and hired Braun over Plinske. Will never forget the surreal press conference where Lovell and Geiger acted like giddy school boys.
*Kevin O Connor leaves - one of the few with any media savvy and personality including Jeter
*Braun begins her reign of horror. Turnover in AD intensifies , many good people leave
*Donors alienated and minimal relations with media on part of Braun
*We finally get some buzz back and almost immediately after the Academic Ban hits - very damaging to program and exodus of a number of season ticket holders and lousy season ensures with no post season hopes...whatever air was stil in the balloo was gone....some feel no fault or responsibility at all on Rob but hey, he recruited some of those vaunted student athletes like McCallum and the Boga brothers....
**MARCH MELTDOWN- Braun's horrible handling of post season bid and Rob's dismissal - horrible PR including her transparent lying and backtracking with the top 3 finish expectations etc
*Lost our great announcer Bill Johnson due to Braun's crap
*Whole Otzenberger fiasco
*Lavall hire which was fine but gone after one year
*Braun gets contract extension despite plunging attendance, loss of some key donors and lousy image for depr

So there you have it. We had lightning in a bottle and an almost once in a lifetime opportunity in 2005. We did not seize the day and made a knee jerk "safe coaching hire". What might have been...then a slow mediocre ride as the whole thing gradually grew stale. Rob two games over .500 COMBINED D-1 record over 11 years!!!! Opportunity lost...On life support and basically euthanized under Braun. It is somewhat amazing we even are still D-1. Ironic in that we have a BEAUTIFULLY branded home downtown and now it sits there with no one in it. The rot started after Pearl and I blame Haidet more than anyone though I really like Bud personally but they blew it. Now we have what we have....that being said will not quit supporting but it is really sad....we could have been Butler but here we languish in a diminished HOrizon League....

Exactly that!

[theDarkHawkReturns]

Jan 17, 2018 11:19:01 GMT -6 steveisback said:

Rob two games over .500 COMBINED D-1 record over 11 years!!!!

This may be virtually impossible for his successors to match going forward.  .500 vs. D1 teams right now is a VERY long way from where we are.


Hell, we are 2 games under .500 right now (vs. D1) while having a SOS ranked 293 of 351.  (EDIT:  We are also JUST .500 against NON D1 teams this year....ugh.)

We should all long for the days where we were 2 games over .500 for that long, not lament it.  We may come to find that we are 30 games UNDER .500 vs D1 9 years from now.  That is NOT hyperbole, either.

[steveisback]

Sometimes you get worse before getting better. In our case the problem is do not trust the current regime to partake on that journey

[theDarkHawkReturns]

And sometimes you get worse before getting "worser" (in the words of my Father In Law). See: Browns, Cleveland.

Anyone want to wager which one the UW-Milwaukee Panthers will be? (Hyphen now once again required, BTW.)

[steveisback]

optimist by nature which is why I still support this thing

[Spirit of Bruce]

Jan 18, 2018 8:49:02 GMT -6 ghostofdylan said:

I remember when this game was televised NATIONALLY. Now, it's not even televised LOCALLY! When's the last time that we had a nationally televised regular-season game?

Last year, at home against Valpo.

[ghostofdylan]

Jan 18, 2018 17:18:53 GMT -6 Spirit of Bruce said:

Jan 18, 2018 8:49:02 GMT -6 ghostofdylan said:

I remember when this game was televised NATIONALLY. Now, it's not even televised LOCALLY! When's the last time that we had a nationally televised regular-season game?

Last year, at home against Valpo.

That wasn't LAST year, was it?

[nickpanther]

the conference tourney final vs NKu was on ESPN.

[theDarkHawkReturns]

The only way the UW-Milwaukee Panthers make national TV at this point is if they play The Harlem Globetrotters on the South Lawn of the White House on the day after the MLB All Star Game (the only day f the year where NO sports are happening). Even then, it would be "nationally televised" on ESPN 12 or The Velocity Channel.

[Pantherholic]

Jan 18, 2018 8:49:02 GMT -6 ghostofdylan said:

I remember when this game was televised NATIONALLY. Now, it's not even televised LOCALLY! When's the last time that we had a nationally televised regular-season game?

DePaul game last year was on FS1 but I don’t know how one can find out if a game was a regional broadcast or national.

Edit: Big Ten Network is broadcasted nationally so this year’s Badgers game is technically the answer.

[nickpanther]

The Horizon League tourney will be broadcast nationally, I think.