For all the heat Herbst has taken here...

[kemba]

Before you savants chirp, "what do you want her to say", guess what she can say nothing. As soon as she speaks "quite the contrary, no hard feelings", I mean WTF? She's happy they left, because that's what she says?

No she can't just say nothing. Major changes have been happening that affect the future of UConn over a period of years, and you think people will just accept that the president of the university has nothing to say about it?

 

[The Viking]

Jesus.

Herbst doesn't have any tricks (the B1G) up her sleeve like half of you here think. She and Warde tried just as hard as Louisville to get UConn into the ACC the last time around..

Well we don't know that for sure.

One thing is for certain if she and Warde only gave 80-90% instead of 100% they sure as hell better have learned from the Louisville debacle because Cincy is telling the world everyday they are willing to kick us in the nads while we're helping their elderly mother if that's what it takes to get to a better conference.

I swear to god if we get passed over by Les Nesman - I mean Mick Cronin - thenI don't know what I'll do.

 

[Pudge]

Villanova ... sheeesshhh!!!

I am in a Club of One. I still burn over the Marquette AD Larry Williams opening his Big Mouth and saying Tulane was the straw that pushed the C-7 to leave; and a few other disparaging remarks. Williams, a Notre Dame guy, has been in this Conference for 5 minuts; Marquette for 25 minutes. There is soooo much crap in this reconfiguration going back to adding WVU and Rutgers; the Miami deal; Syracuse staying in 2003; bringing in Marquette and DePaul as favor in order to get USF, Louisville, Cincy; TCU's tie; the entire angst of Boise, SD State and expansion nationally.

I have just wanted this Conference I loved to do things that made sense and for a few institutions to behave like we were fiduciary partners. Over and Over ... we see BS. So ... we are where we deserve to be (frankly). And, our hard work of the last 15 years getting competitive in Football ... I believe ... is going to get us a slot higher in the Food Chain (until the reconstructed Food Chain barely includes the ACC). But, Villanova playing in the MSL Soccer stadium in Chester, PA? Friends ... I am far more certain that Tulane has a spark of a chance to be good in Football (they were at least one year) than Villanova ever would have.

 

[Skiblets]

Seems like she has gotten too much of a pass from the Horde IMO.

1. Replaces the asshat Hathaway with a bigger ass hat Pendergast. If you don't know what I'm talking about google St. Francis Hospital Restates Financial Statements. Oh and Pendergast was in that seat when Cuse and Pitt left under the cover of darkness. No accounability laid at her feet

2. Louisville outsells us for the last bid

We kill her and Warde on here for item 2 but the Horde seems to just whistle in the wind about this and our head coaching issues ne. lack of talent

 

[Pudge]

You are all a bunch of brick throwers.

Someone posted a very straightforward description of some of Warde Manual's actions in the last 8 months ... and I feel far more critical of Manual than Herbst ... but I had to agree ON THE 2 KEYS:

• Manual deftly handled a very tough situation with Calhoun leaving and Kevin Ollie "guided" into the MBB HC role. I thought, in hindsight, that it was well-done;
• Pasqualoni clearly would not have done anything with DeLeone. Manual also brought that to a head. I don't like the continued existence of GDL on campus; but, Weist seems to be the Profile I would hope we would get into;

Public Presense? He is awkward and clunky. He still has a ways to go to be at the Big Boy table. Unfortunately, I do believe Jurich of Louisville was a clear factor in the ACC taking Louisville; but, Jurich was a factor for 10 years. I am not sure any Newbie, save a UNC guy, would have turned the tide as momentum built.

Big Picture? We got nothing from Hathaway when he had a Huge Opportunity, IMHO. Warde Manual seems to not be out trying to do the core things I want him to in order to build the Fanbase up & back up. We need a major guy ... AND ...

 

[J187Money]

Seems like she has gotten too much of a pass from the Horde IMO.

1. Replaces the asshat Hathaway with a bigger ass hat Pendergast. If you don't know what I'm talking about google St. Francis Hospital Restates Financial Statements. Oh and Pendergast was in that seat when Cuse and Pitt left under the cover of darkness. No accounability laid at her feet

2. Louisville outsells us for the last bid

We kill her and Warde on here for item 2 but the Horde seems to just whistle in the wind about this and our head coaching issues ne. lack of talent

1) Can you post a link? I googled it and got nothing at all related to what you are implying.

2) When I spoke to guys from the UCONN Foundation on this, they told me that LV spent $400 million over that past 15 years on upgrading every facility so that EVERY sport (even stuff like field hockey) had its own home. UCONN has a great set of football facilities, and lots of mostly unfunded plans. So unless she had a time machine not sure what she was supposed to do about that.

And that assumes that "selling" was going to get it done. Which is an opinion, but not one that all of us hold. In my mind, the only thing that "might" have been a slam dunk would have been to promise to take NO TV money for enough years to buy our way in. And if you do that, and this is really about money, what do you gain?

 

[CL82]

Jesus.

Herbst doesn't have any tricks (the B1G) up her sleeve like half of you here think. She and Warde tried just as hard as Louisville to get UConn into the ACC the last time around.

No, no they did not.

 

[Chief00]

They didn't do it because she lost a game of darts. They did it for a number of different reasons -- some because geopolitics trumps anything you can do (Rutgers for example) and some because they had decades of a head start creating a public image both by playing football at a higher level than us and, until very recently in the history of the U.S. state university system, having better and more prestigious universities. None of those are things you "fix" in eighteen months.

The only thing she could have done better is engage in better PR with the FSU fanbase, but the thought that anyone could have believed 18 months ago that conference realignment would be changed by one school's fanbase is just dumb. And I'm not sure you could have changed the impression in that time even if you had tried.

I don't agree this is the best we can do. The Big East was a collection of mediocre football programs and strong basketball traditions. The brand was created by basketball but the money today comes from football. West VA was the only football program that was significantly better than ours in recent years. Head to head, we beat Pitt, Cuse, mix bag with Rutgers and Louisville was a little better. Cincy actually pounded us a few times yet they remain. BL our leaders just were ineffective and did not get it done.

 

[Fishy]

No, no they did not.

Nonsense.

You've been paying too much attention to the halfwits here.

 

[Chief00]

I remember over 30 years ago when I started out in business and I was in a meeting with a senior executive and someone was presenting the results of their assigned project. They had a series of excuses or reasons why things hadn't worked out better. The senior leader sat and listen and only asked one question. "What are you going to do when you run out of excuses?"

I don't know if this was fair or not but the thing it made me realize was you need to learn to overcome the disadvantages that most folks have of some kind or another ........and ultimately most get judged on what you accomplish...... absence some real slick public relations or folks who keep moving before things implode.

 

[jostar1]

1) Can you post a link? I googled it and got nothing at all related to what you are implying.

http://articles.courant.com/2013-02...0207-20130206_1_paul-pendergast-pledges-audit

 

[UConn990411]

I remember over 30 years ago when I started out in business and I was in a meeting with a senior executive and someone was presenting the results of their assigned project. They had a series of excuses or reasons why things hadn't worked out better. The senior leader sat and listen and only asked one question. "What are you going to do when you run out of excuses?"

To quote a famous person in the state of Connecticut, "Shut up."

 

[CL82]

Nonsense.

You've been paying too much attention to the halfwits here.

Lol. true enough, and I've been doing that for well over a decade.

How about this? "Not by any objective, measureable standard from the information publically available; but in the imagination of many, I'm sure they tried every bit as hard."

 

[Rumrunner]

The halfwits here have only the following to base our halfwitted opinions on:

Louisville is in the ACC. UConn plays in a conference with no name, no exposure, no revenue and in the collegiate world, no relevance.

I'm still waiting, patiently, as Herbst often likes to say, to see any reporting of the heroic efforts of Herbst and Manuel to advance UConn's position during that very short window when MD/RU left and the ACC acted. All I know is that Herbst and Manuel were in the USVI for the great bulk of this period.

Since we can't trust the result (after all UConn lost to Lvile), and there are no other facts to refute the position that Herbst and Manuel did everything possible (in fact while absence of evidence isn't the best evidence, it is still evidence), how do you know we halfwits are wrong?

Is it based merely on the supposition that any president in Herbst's position would have done everything possible to advance UConn, ergo Herbst did it, or do you possess secret facts of these heroic efforts? I for one would love to be privy to it, seeing as I am a bit of a dullard. It won't make me smart, but I'll be an informed dullard.

Lastly smart alecs here like to throw out the, "well tough guy, what do you want her and manuel to do" card. As i wrote before, that is a canard. THEY are the institution's leaders. THEY are paid to have a plan, not me, nor other dimwits. THEY have the resources of a $2billion organization to draw on.

Nonsense.

You've been paying too much attention to the halfwits here.

 

[Skiblets]

http://articles.courant.com/2013-02...0207-20130206_1_paul-pendergast-pledges-audit

Yup. There's the link. Dude booked a lot of 'wink wink' pledges as revenue when the prospective donors had no intention of actually going through with their donations. Dude is slimy.

She hired him and billed him as a rock star. To her credit she moved him out quickly excep the timing sucked. This all went down around the time of Cuse and Pitt's departure and we were left rudderless until Monitor Manuel was hired.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Seems like she has gotten too much of a pass from the Horde IMO.

1. Replaces the asshat Hathaway with a bigger ass hat Pendergast. If you don't know what I'm talking about google St. Francis Hospital Restates Financial Statements. Oh and Pendergast was in that seat when Cuse and Pitt left under the cover of darkness. No accounability laid at her feet
I don't know enough about St Francis to comment but I still believe that a major reason we lost out on the ACC when Cuse & Pitt were added was due to Hathaway's believing (as he had for more than a couple of years leading up to that point) that the ACC adding UConn & Cuse when they did decide to expand once again was etched in stone and it was only a matter of when.

2. Louisville outsells us for the last bid
I personally believe that this was more due to Pasqualoni's performance as head football coach (compounded by the all too often repeated commentary by the local press that we had no talent) than anything the school's administration did or did not do (after maryland announced it was leaving the ACC).

We kill her and Warde on here for item 2 but the Horde seems to just whistle in the wind about this and our head coaching issues ne. lack of talent

 

[husky91]

So far Herbst gets a D and that Manual an F. Both are terrible hires to date.

 

[UConnSportsGuy]

So far Herbst gets a D

From an Athletics point of view, that may be true. But from an academic side, she gets an A. Athletics is probably about 5% of her job evaluation from those in power. I know it is 99% of our evaluation, but that is not what University Presidents are hired for or evaluated on (unless you are an SEC school).

Even if we end up in the MAC 5 years from now, if her plan on academics, endowment, and the rest of her goals come true...she will be one of the best UConn Presidents in history...despite that she will be hated by everyone on the Boneyard. Unfortunately, that is the real world situation. While athletics is our #1 priority here, that is not the reality. Would she love for us to be in the B1G or ACC...of course...but it is not as important as the rest of her objectives and plan for the University.

 

[RegisteredUconn]

Been reading your posts avidly since the Fall of 2005. And I can't recall a single instance where you were critical of someone in an Executive/Decision Making role. Tranghese, Marinatto, Herbst, Aresco, Manuel etc.

Sounds like both you and Biz subscribe to the "Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right" philosophy. It's just that he takes "can" and you take "can't."

 

[Rumrunner]

All true on the academic front. Jackson, storrs tech park, prof hiring binge/cherrypicking, new billion plus infusion, STEM iniative, endowment focus, research, research, research,. Maybe the neanderthals that root for athletics wouldn't be so harsh if one of these grand ideas would sneak over to the athletic side just once, especially with respect to conf realignment. I don't count hockey east- that was a gift from HE based on geography, nor the bb facility, that was well underway before her.

Maybe all (or at least some) of the academic stuff is part of the grand strategy for the Big Ten. But that's when we have to start looking over our shoulders for the men in white coats bearing straight jackets, or so we're told.

 

[Alum86]

Maybe Susan could say something like "We will work in conjunction with the state to increase seating capacity at Rentschler Field."
Maybe even a new arena for hoop/hockey to replace that shathole XL.
A classy lady like her would not say the latter, so It's not in quotes.

 

[freescooter]

From an Athletics point of view, that may be true. But from an academic side, she gets an A. Athletics is probably about 5% of her job evaluation from those in power. I know it is 99% of our evaluation, but that is not what University Presidents are hired for or evaluated on (unless you are an SEC school).

Even if we end up in the MAC 5 years from now, if her plan on academics, endowment, and the rest of her goals come true...she will be one of the best UConn Presidents in history...despite that she will be hated by everyone on the Boneyard. Unfortunately, that is the real world situation. While athletics is our #1 priority here, that is not the reality. Would she love for us to be in the B1G or ACC...of course...but it is not as important as the rest of her objectives and plan for the University.

I htink if you grade her on things other than athletics, she gets very good grades. On the sports front, I just don't think she gets it nor does she really care. She'll send out emails composed by some jerkwad pr guy talking about winning winners winningly winning, and she'll show up on Joe D as long as she doesn't have to answer tough questions (what's you favorite sport, President Herbst? Lacrosse, Joe. I love to watch the Blue Devils, oops...oh myUConn doesn't sponsor mens lacrosse...and they aren't the Blue Devils...oops! Well, maybe someday...). As far as Manuel goes, I continue to think he is A. pretty much following the company line; B. has been given his priorities (bl would like him...he is not pushing beyond what he has been told to do) and they are more along the lines of making sure everyone meets academic standards and obeys the NCAA rules than going to the Big or the ACC or anywhere else. I also continue to think that his days at UConn are numbered. He will leave for to become Associate Commissioner of some conference or some other job like that which can be spun as a step up within the next 12 months. This isn't the job he signed on for and on top of that he can't even make the decisions he wanted to make with respect to coaches. Plus he took most of the heat for the Louisville/ACC debacle.

 

[Nostical]

So your assessment is Ms Herbst gets a D? Please. I won't waste time recounting all she's been accomplishing on the academic front. She gets an A for that by anyone's standards. And she gets the athletic "front porch" concept. She realizes the connection between our conference affiliation and all the rest. But she's a realist, pushing the things she can control, monitoring the things she can't and smart enough to know the difference. She attends lots of athletic events but rarely gets to see them. She's in the "corporate" box area talking to prospective donors, trying to increase our woeful endowment. Last year I asked her what she thought of our football team. She had the right response. " I'm not an expert, but I hear lots of good things about our defense, not so much about the offense"---lol.
There's no one I'd rather have driving the proverbial UConn bus than Ms Herbst. (Waquoit reply in 1-2-3.....)

 

[ZooCougar]

Don't tell me about the labor pains. Show me the baby.

 

[Waquoit]

She's... pushing the things she can control, monitoring the things she can't and smart enough to know the difference.

Whadya she learn that during her stint in AA?

I'm in full acceptance mode now, Nos. And I count on your periodic pep talks to keep me going. I'm not being sarcastic, Suzy and Warde are my guys now. I'm thinking that they still just might be able to pull this off.