Conference thread

Dear Season Ticket Holder,

I hope this note finds you well. I wanted to reach out to clarify where we stand regarding men’s basketball postseason competition. Below is my official statement regarding the NIT.

We understand that ESPN posted a graphic regarding the selection of the NIT Tournament field on air Tuesday night.

Reaching the NCAA Tournament is the goal for St. Bonaventure basketball each year. We unfortunately came up short of that goal. Considering the logistics of what would have been an NIT road game, we made the proactive decision Sunday afternoon to inform the NIT selection committee of our concerns regarding roster uncertainty given injury and the transfer portal that would have left us at a competitive disadvantage. Together, athletics department administration and the coaching staff made the decision in the best interest of our student-athletes.

No invitation was extended prior to our conversation with the NIT committee. We respect the NIT and not only its history overall, but what the tournament has meant to our program. We look forward to future postseason competition.



We’ve heard from you and understand your strong feelings. Your passion for St. Bonaventure in good times, and frankly, also in difficult times is what drives our place. We are indeed grateful for that passion. You should have known of our actions and the reasons behind them much sooner, and for that I apologize. We will learn from this and in the future pledge to be more transparent and timely in our communication on issues that matter most to you.



Thanks for all you do.







Athletics Director​
Joe Manhertz​
 
3rdShayCripSet said:
That doesn't burn your redshirt
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www.daytondailynews.com

Anthony Grant on college basketball redshirt rule: Itâs âantiquatedâ and âneeds to changeâ

The NCAA changed the redshirt rule in college football in 2018, allowing players to appear in as many as four games without losing a year of eligibility.
www.daytondailynews.com www.daytondailynews.com

www.heartlandcollegesports.com

Jamie Dixon: Basketball Redshirt Rule is 'Hurting Kids' Careers'

TCU head basketball coach says that he doesn’t get on too many issues publically, but there’s one that’s been on his mind lately: the redshirt rule in college basketball. “I don’t get on too many things publicly,” Dixon said according to Jamie Plunkett at HornedFrogBlitz. “But that one I have...
www.heartlandcollegesports.com www.heartlandcollegesports.com

I can send more, but playing in a single game 100% burns your redshirt. Rose is a sophomore.
 
Like anything, you can appeal. That kid from Longwood burned his red shirt to play minutes in their championship game. They said he plans to appeal
 
commie21 said:
www.daytondailynews.com

Anthony Grant on college basketball redshirt rule: Itâs âantiquatedâ and âneeds to changeâ

The NCAA changed the redshirt rule in college football in 2018, allowing players to appear in as many as four games without losing a year of eligibility.
www.daytondailynews.com www.daytondailynews.com

www.heartlandcollegesports.com

Jamie Dixon: Basketball Redshirt Rule is 'Hurting Kids' Careers'

TCU head basketball coach says that he doesn’t get on too many issues publically, but there’s one that’s been on his mind lately: the redshirt rule in college basketball. “I don’t get on too many things publicly,” Dixon said according to Jamie Plunkett at HornedFrogBlitz. “But that one I have...
www.heartlandcollegesports.com www.heartlandcollegesports.com

I can send more, but playing in a single game 100% burns your redshirt. Rose is a sophomore.
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Thank you, Commie. Looks like I had an outdated rule. I remember a similar issue with Simmons and Davenport, but that was health related, so it makes sense here.
 
3rdShayCripSet said:
Thank you, Commie. Looks like I had an outdated rule. I remember a similar issue with Simmons and Davenport, but that was health related, so it makes sense here.
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That's what makes Schmidt's decision even more asinine. If the plan was to redshirt him all along (like Thompson), he should've never seen the floor, especially in a 40 point blowout. And since it is burned, you now have another player in your disposal to play in the NIT. Seton Hall's best player opted out of the NIT, but the team still played.
 
My read between the lines is that nobody, players remaining, players leaving, staff, or the athletics department wanted any more of this season. And that's pathetic. The statement is a word salad for "we were done".

Boosters put together NIL packages for you to wear the uniform, gtfo there and play. Boosters and the U. are paying you 1.8M plus a staff, gtfo there and coach.

And what's ridiculous is that this all could have stayed in house if they read the NIT cards and simply kept their mouths shut. They were proactive, and proactively exposed exactly who they were from top to bottom. IMO, for the less than 2c it's worth they'd have made better face if they'd gotten an invite and had to turn it down.
 
I cannot criticize the decision not to play.

Injuries: check
Getting shipped off to some shitty P6 home job if we did play (“logistics”): check
Team members that had checked out (even before this): check

No brainer in my mind.

What’s understandably open to criticism is the communication / PR aspects. I always told my team members to tell stakeholders any bad/disappointing news and deal with the reactions on that basis because it will be worse if they find out on their own. I think is a good illustration of that.
 
sbu79 said:
I cannot criticize the decision not to play.

Injuries: check
Getting shipped off to some shitty P6 home job if we did play (“logistics”): check
Team members that had checked out (even before this): check

No brainer in my mind.

What’s understandably open to criticism is the communication / PR aspects. I always told my team members to tell stakeholders any bad/disappointing news and deal with the reactions on that basis because it will be worse if they find out on their own. I think is a good illustration of that.
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Yea I'm with you here. It was completely botched but the decision was right. What's really dumb is the portal is open now. It shouldn't open until after the season is over. We would be playing if the portal was closed.
 
Decision not to play- I’d rather see us play, but the argument is logical.

Communication and handling of the situation- shitty, but we can move past it. Nothing that’s worth seeking retribution on at the cost of pulling support from the program.

As the dust settles, what’s hard to swallow is the fact there were at least 3 guys ( to say nothing of any seniors who were checked out) who would have rather gone straight to the portal than to play another game for this team. The way that reflects on the HC, program, and the state of the sport as a whole is what’s going to be hard to shake.
 
Community Bank 3Pt Tee said:
As the dust settles, what’s hard to swallow is the fact there were at least 3 guys ( to say nothing of any seniors who were checked out) who would have rather gone straight to the portal than to play another game for this team. The way that reflects on the HC, program, and the state of the sport as a whole is what’s going to be hard to shake.
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See this is what I dont get. You speculate that at least 3 guys quit, and while I hope you are wrong, you might not be.

But why do we bend over backwards to blame the head coach, everyone involved in the program and the sport at large for that, instead of... the quitters themselves.

Can we have some personal responsibility
 
tastylicks said:
See this is what I dont get. You speculate that at least 3 guys quit, and while I hope you are wrong, you might not be.

But why do we bend over backwards to blame the head coach, everyone involved in the program and the sport at large for that, instead of... the quitters themselves.

Can we have some personal responsibility
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I think there has to be a lot of blame placed on Schmidt. It would be crazy not to do so.

Evans, Venning and maybe Luc were all but guaranteed to start or at least get major minutes next year. So why did they leave? I imagine

MAW put up OK numbers in a mediocre basketball conference, but there was a LOT of bad blood & turmoil at Cincy under old Bona assistant John Brannen. Maybe it was on Brannen, but it looks more like it was on the players at UC. In addition to that, Cincy was never even close to an NCAA team despite all that is afforded that program. Kind of shows you who he truly was.

And I know, MAW's numbers were very solid, but he led an offense that just was not that good. To top that, MAW was supposedly going to Ole Miss for more $$$ but that fell apart at the last minute. I guess with what transpired with him after the NU game makes sense. He was in it only for the $$ and it showed.

Anyone from the Syracuse area that has some connections to the high school level knew Pride was a liiiitle shady. Was Schmidt willing to put that on the back burner because of their great stats? Possibly.

To summarize, player retention and roster continuity has not been a strength of Schmidt in this portal area. Schmidt brought in these guys, and he should have known their makeup. He's making the big bucks to figure this out.
 
tastylicks said:
See this is what I dont get. You speculate that at least 3 guys quit, and while I hope you are wrong, you might not be.

But why do we bend over backwards to blame the head coach, everyone involved in the program and the sport at large for that, instead of... the quitters themselves.

Can we have some personal responsibility
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That's a fair question. I do blame them. In an attempt to be somewhat concise, that would be included in the ‘to say nothing of the seniors’ and the ‘state of the sport’. This sort of thing is enabled if not encouraged today. And I would/do blame them for not respecting the efforts of those who made the season possible enough to play things out. I put blame on them for going into about 1/3 of their games this year looking disinterested.

But they’re gone, and I care about who’s left which is basically just the staff. If we want to talk personal responsibility? Any good leader needs to look inward. Even if this was the most rotten bunch of apples Schmidt ever had (and I think there’s something to that), as the HC there is culpability for him to look inward and understand why guys would rather leave than play under his watch. Any leader within any organization should be expected to do the same in the face of unrest.

This is not to mention the optics. Blame whoever you want, fair or unfair- doesn’t matter. It’s not a good look.

You are right, I am speculating. There’s an abundance of signs however pointing to the notion that, as BI said, they were simply done.
 
3rdShayCripSet said:
I think there has to be a lot of blame placed on Schmidt. It would be crazy not to do so.

Evans, Venning and maybe Luc were all but guaranteed to start or at least get major minutes next year. So why did they leave? I imagine

MAW put up OK numbers in a mediocre basketball conference, but there was a LOT of bad blood & turmoil at Cincy under old Bona assistant John Brannen. Maybe it was on Brannen, but it looks more like it was on the players at UC. In addition to that, Cincy was never even close to an NCAA team despite all that is afforded that program. Kind of shows you who he truly was.

And I know, MAW's numbers were very solid, but he led an offense that just was not that good. To top that, MAW was supposedly going to Ole Miss for more $$$ but that fell apart at the last minute. I guess with what transpired with him after the NU game makes sense. He was in it only for the $$ and it showed.

Anyone from the Syracuse area that has some connections to the high school level knew Pride was a liiiitle shady. Was Schmidt willing to put that on the back burner because of their great stats? Possibly.

To summarize, player retention and roster continuity has not been a strength of Schmidt in this portal area. Schmidt brought in these guys, and he should have known their makeup. He's making the big bucks to figure this out.
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good points. I can't disagree there. It concerned me early in the season with Pride, when he would come out of the game he would sit next to Valentine in between the coaches and not next to his teammates. I thought maybe I was reading into it too much and maybe I was but come on, sit with your teammates
 
I don't how much players leaving is a Schmidt thing vs just the landscape now. Bonas isn't the only A10 team to lose players nor is it just an A10 problem.
From JP's article it sounded like Barry and Luc had one foot out the door and were going to enter the portal ar 1st chance, and maybe Venning was on the fence. If this is true with Venning I wonder what he wanted to stay and what Bonas was willing to promise.
 
1946TobaccoBowlMVP said:
I don't how much players leaving is a Schmidt thing vs just the landscape now. Bonas isn't the only A10 team to lose players nor is it just an A10 problem.
From JP's article it sounded like Barry and Luc had one foot out the door and were going to enter the portal ar 1st chance, and maybe Venning was on the fence. If this is true with Venning I wonder what he wanted to stay and what Bonas was willing to promise.
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I heard Venning would stay if the rest of the league promised not to double team him anymore.
 
1946TobaccoBowlMVP said:
I don't how much players leaving is a Schmidt thing vs just the landscape now. Bonas isn't the only A10 team to lose players nor is it just an A10 problem.
From JP's article it sounded like Barry and Luc had one foot out the door and were going to enter the portal ar 1st chance, and maybe Venning was on the fence. If this is true with Venning I wonder what he wanted to stay and what Bonas was willing to promise.
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I get that, but losing your entire roster two out of three years seems like an outlier.

It's more than understandable to lose 2-4 players to the portal each year, but we lost 12 two years ago, I think six last offseason and are already at 4 right now.
 
3rdShayCripSet said:
I get that, but losing your entire roster two out of three years seems like an outlier.

It's more than understandable to lose 2-4 players to the portal each year, but we lost 12 two years ago, I think six last offseason and are already at 4 right now.
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I feel like we’re being a little revisionist here. Last offseason Schmidt kept all the important pieces, including guys like Luc, Assa, Evans and Banks who were all facing new playing time challenges. It was a miraculous feat in this greaseball era.

So far this year Evans is the only loss I care about and we all knew it was going to be a complete rebuild anyway.
 
BF, there's some truth to that but 3rd isn't wrong either. And look back to mid to late 10s and there were 2-4 guys leaving annually already. There were guys we'd gladly have taken a few more years, Winston and Vasquez come to mind. We've got an HC with a really abrasive personality and that didn't fly then and certainly won't in this era.
 
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