Tre Mitchell

[businesslawyer]

Worse version of our AD to be honest.

Football's killed them. Decisions around football's killed them worse.

As for McCall, I think he'll be fine. Year-1 is a wash. Year-2 wasn't much better but what are you going to do when you were playing guys on the football team the year before? Most of the guys leaving have been pushed out or were Kellogg guys.


Ask anyone in that athletic department what their #1 wish would be - and that'd be to shrink Mullin's Center by 3,000 seats. Even when they draw well, it seems empty. It doesn't have the character of Gampel by any stretch - but it's a nicer from a nuts and bolts standpoint. Roomier seats, an actual concourse, etc. If we're talking ammenities, it's nicer than Gampel.

I still prefer Gampel.

In '11 or so I saw GW play there on a Sunday afternoon -- just thought I'd break up the drive home after skiing in Vermont. There were more UMass students there who were involved in the game -- players, cheerleaders, pep band -- than there were UMass students at the game as fans. Literally.

 

[Engineer90]

I love the UMass board being so surprised that the college basketball community thinks their new situation is slimy.

Have they started a thread about Hurley being afraid to play umess yet?

 

[Scrutineer]

I lived in WMass during the Calipari years and for some time after he left and the best take I can offer on UMass is their fans are the ultimate wannabe's. They had the idea they could be what UConn had become and Calipari whipped them up by saying things like "I know why UConn doesn't want to play us".

Their fans took Calipari to mean that Calhoun was afraid of them and that made the resumption of the series so much better, especially the Civic Center game where UMass had the 30-9 lead at the half in December 2002. We couldn't believe it but it made the 59-48 final for the good guys even better.