triplec2195 wrote: ↑Fri Apr 18, 2025 7:47 am
Wags wrote: ↑Thu Apr 17, 2025 12:18 am
ZMAN3 wrote: ↑Wed Apr 16, 2025 6:18 pm
I hate to say for the first time I'm seriously considering cancelling my season tickets - I've had them since Jay was the coach. I'm not sure Hofstra has given up but there's little evidence they haven't.
It would be interesting to hear the feedback if you told them this.
This pains me. Longtime, loyal fans like you deserve better, and it's just painful to see such a sudden, sharp decline. This program was a top-four seed in the CAA seven straight years before this past season. They only got the one title and were robbed off the opportunity to dance anyway, but in a normal world, they were more often than not always in the mix with realistic hopes to cut the nets each year. Plus, whether they ultimately won titles or not, all of those CAA POYs the program produced. Can't even imagine getting close to that now.
Sadly, it seems they're just not built to compete in this new era where it's now more like the pros than college. In a way, it's no fault of their own and bad luck. Yet in another way, they're in the same boat as others and their rivals are finding ways to stay relevant and competitive, and even improve because they saw this coming and they positioned themselves in advance to handle the new landscape a lot better than Hofstra's program has. It's sad to see right now. I'm not sure that changes anytime soon if they can't spend enough money on the program, but time will tell. It's very frustrating to see the impact this new landscape is having on what was routinely one of the more competitive programs in the conference for a number of years.
So don't think that all these negative posts aren't finding their way to the right eyes because I've been told that some powers that be have accounts on this board and I'm sure reading about the fan base' unhappiness with the state of our basketball program which is supposed to be our "Flagship Sport". Whether that will manifest itself into some fruitful results remains to be seen. After all it was about a year and a half ago I was told by Rick Cole that a tribute to the 2020 team would be forthcoming in the form of a display at the Mack. We're all still waiting for that to happen and it's long overdue. There needs to be a liaison between the athletic department and the fan base to keep us in the loop as to the goings on with the sports programs here. Once in a while you could get the ear of one of the coaches and you could find out information on players etc but this is infrequent.
At this point, they may as well wait for 2030 and do a 10th anniversary celebration of the 2020 team. They had a chance, at five years, to do it this year, but that came and went. It really should have been done long before that (maybe it's difficult to get people together for it, I don't know). To do it now, would seem strange. The opportunity to do that when it felt like it would have meant a lot more has come and gone, so an anniversary celebration at 10 years would make more sense by now.
I'm still waiting for Wright-Foreman's number to be retired and placed in the rafters. It's kind of crazy that hasn't happened either. One of the best scorers and players in program history. That too, has lost what it might have meant since it's way overdue by now. Those are just a couple of examples of what (at least on the surface) seems like a lack of urgency at times.
As for the state of the program, everybody obviously wants to win but urgency at every level is exactly what it takes, and now, obviously NIL money too. I would hope the urgency is there. They've had more CAA POYs than anyone and other talent in the past, and have won CAA regular season titles. Until this past season, they had the string of top-four finishes. It has been far from doom & gloom. They've been one of the best CAA programs for several years. They have done some nice things with upgrading the locker room and other facilities, they have a great arena and nice media room, and do a good job of making games very fan and family friendly, especially for younger kids (when they draw, which is another issue).
But we've entered a different era now and as far as keeping pace with others, with what it will now take to do so (different from before), it seems that either the urgency or money - or both - are lacking (at least on the surface). UNCW is blowing them (and the majority of the rest of the conference) out of the water, Charleston is still ahead of them, and now they've allowed Towson to surpass them. And even Delaware (thanks to keeping football, unlike they were able to do) is leaving them behind and likely going on to bigger and better things with men's hoops in a new league.
We see the handwriting on the wall with this new NIL/portal landscape (big drop-off this season and not much happening, it seems, to correct course), and we want the program to succeed as much as they do. It would help if they communicated with the public to let people know what their plan is and exactly what specific steps they've been taking, are taking, and will continue to take with regard to NIL and how to keep pace with the likes of UNCW, Charleston, and Towson. I think we'd all much rather hear that directly from them than to speculate about it here. Even if they're doing all they possibly could otherwise, but they're hands are simply tied with NIL money that's not there, that would be good to hear and to know.
