mercifully its over

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twisted3829
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mercifully its over

Unread post by twisted3829 »

with the loss to maine today the football season is over. the rams finish 0-11 and were outscored 432-105 on the season.
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Issac
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Re: mercifully its over

Unread post by Issac »

I lay the entire blame of this debacle at the feet of Thorr Bjorn. He has managed in his tenure to produce an dreadful record of ineptitude in not only football, but across URI Athletics. Volleyball, the once highest winning program at URI, suffered its eight losing season in a row. Golf which was a great program under Drennan turned in another a poor performance. URI's Adams Cup tournament, at one time a premier national event bringing some top notch programs to R,I turned into a Northeast event and this year URI finished 9th out of 12 teams, the poorest finish ever against this weaker field. Men's soccer coach was fired after a dismal season. Women's soccer fared only slightly better and finished in the A-10 below .500. Womens' basketball after a one win season last year, opened the season at home with a loss to an average Central CT State to extend their losing streak to 27 games. MBB has yet to win a game. Soon the village of Kingston will be renamed Loserville. Way to go Thorr!!
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Re: mercifully its over

Unread post by ATPTourFan »

Except for men's hoop.
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Ramblinrose
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Re: mercifully its over

Unread post by Ramblinrose »

I think Thorr deserves much credit for wooing Hurley. I realize Isaac still longs for Jim Baron. As for football, has more money ever been spent on something with so few results and such little fan interest? And it's been like that for a while.
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OBRAM
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Re: mercifully its over

Unread post by OBRAM »

How much have budget cuts hurt our AthleticPrograms. We cut men's swimming, womens Gymnastics, and field hockey. I think our budget at $7-10 million now was 75% to 100% larger a 7 years ago.
Does anyone have better data them me?
Can we attribute this to budget cuts?
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Blue Man
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Re: mercifully its over

Unread post by Blue Man »

Issac wrote:I lay the entire blame of this debacle at the feet of Thorr Bjorn. He has managed in his tenure to produce an dreadful record of ineptitude in not only football, but across URI Athletics. Volleyball, the once highest winning program at URI, suffered its eight losing season in a row. Golf which was a great program under Drennan turned in another a poor performance. URI's Adams Cup tournament, at one time a premier national event bringing some top notch programs to R,I turned into a Northeast event and this year URI finished 9th out of 12 teams, the poorest finish ever against this weaker field. Men's soccer coach was fired after a dismal season. Women's soccer fared only slightly better and finished in the A-10 below .500. Womens' basketball after a one win season last year, opened the season at home with a loss to an average Central CT State to extend their losing streak to 27 games. MBB has yet to win a game. Soon the village of Kingston will be renamed Loserville. Way to go Thorr!!
Um...I won't resort to name-calling, so I'll just say this is the dumbest thing I've ever read. Happily ready to take your troll bait, welcome back Isaac! How's Jim doing in NY?

Thorr hired the right guy for football. The NFL took him.
Thorr hired the right guy for basketball, it wasn't his fault that the previous administrations signed a mustached buffoon to an exorbitant 10 year contract.

Do you realize how much the university has slashed athletics' budget? How little he's had to work with? You can either cut programs, or hurt everyone. Thorr came in one year after our expanded conference share of NCAA money dried up thanks to sucking ass in basketball for as long as we did. That's an awful situation to come into.

So as an AD, he has turned his focus to the only program that can generate money, men's basketball. When that gets rolling again, everything will get better.

He's been there 5 years. So idk how you hang volleyball on him. More importantly I don't know who cares about volleyball, soccer, women's basketball, golf - I mean women's rowing and the track teams are good, but idk who cares about them either. None of those programs cost the university anything, and none of those programs bring in, or have the potential to bring in anything to the university.

Baseball has been in the mix nationally for the past few seasons, and they have a brand new field to speak of. Thorr got that done.

Golf..Tom Drennan was one of the greatest coaches/people we've ever had at URI. He was a hall-of-famer. He was the national connection. Won't even talk about the level of person it would take to replace him (or who has).

The way this state works, the amount (or lacking) of funding, yet complete oversight of the school is an immense handcuff to try and accomplish anything at URI. And Thorr is still finding ways.

You are as dense as a brick wall if you think Thorr Bjorn is the wrong man for the job. With basketball goes the entire athletic department. He was completely handcuffed until this year when it came to firing Jim Baron. And he made the best hire in the country for basketball this year.

Essentially, this is the actual beginning of Thorr's tenure here, and he made a great move. One that's going to pay off and bring this entire department back. That takes time.

We've been awful for a decade, and the administration finally gave Thorr a shovel to let him dig us out. We're on the way.
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OBRAM
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Re: mercifully its over

Unread post by OBRAM »

Good Post, plus I would add, you can't blame Joe Trainor for the football problems. He had the program going good 2-3 years ago. Great O-line and D-line until budget moves and the NEC decision.
Thorr pays a lot of attention to details, that nobody ever sees. Plus Thorr had to fix over the East Stands, it had to be done, but it was throwing good money after a bad facility.
If URI had any friends at Smith Hill, we would have a lot better facilities, outdoor track. The dunk was never as bad as the outdoor track and the state decided to fix over the Dunk, which they never owned for a team to be in the Big East conference that may not exist in a few years
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Re: mercifully its over

Unread post by Blue Man »

OBRAM wrote:Good Post, plus I would add, you can't blame Joe Trainor for the football problems. He had the program going good 2-3 years ago. Great O-line and D-line until budget moves and the NEC decision.
Thorr pays a lot of attention to details, that nobody ever sees. Plus Thorr had to fix over the East Stands, it had to be done, but it was throwing good money after a bad facility.
If URI had any friends at Smith Hill, we would have a lot better facilities, outdoor track. The dunk was never as bad as the outdoor track and the state decided to fix over the Dunk, which they never owned for a team to be in the Big East conference that may not exist in a few years
Completely agree. Love that the state has no problems upgrading the facilities at RIC, or the Dunk, but if anything were to happen at URI it would be like we asked to secede from the state.

No one has any idea how screwed up URI is - all the employees are state tenured, so it's an act of God to fire or get rid of any of the dead weight down there. Tom Mcelroy was a great guy for the AD job - but he came in there and said he was going to change things, and Rhode Islanders are apparently allergic to change. So they forced him out.

Thorr is doing the same that Tom tried to do - but he's so damn nice about it. He's such a genuinely nice guy..but under all that he is more competitive than anyone we've ever had down there. It is KILLING him that we're not winning in football or basketball, and it's worse because he can't do anything about it.

The Rizzi hire was genious, but apparently too good because he was plucked and it formed a vacuum that Trainor is trying to fill. Everything ties back to basketball because if basketball were doing well, we'd have had the money for travel, and the NEC drop down convo never happens. The reduction of scholarships never happens, and football is not where it is now.

I will stress this point: even though Thorr had been here 4 years, he was completely powerless to improve basketball under the weight of that Baron contract. The "2 year extension" happened because there was no money in athletics to make a change, no public support (because RI is full of pink hat morons who don't understand sports), and we were close enough to make an NCAA run that you couldn't hurt the recruiting pipeline by having a coach with less than 4 years there.

Finally when Baron made it completely apparent to the masses that he wasn't a competent coach (because they only see w/l) he was able to get out of here.

I don't think he drops football because an influx of bball money in the next 3 years will be enough to bring back football. This is the actual beginning to URI Athletics' rebuilding process.
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neil
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Re: mercifully its over

Unread post by neil »

I agree with it is not Joe's fault. His contract ends after next year. I hope Thorr doesn't quit on him. Joe could be 0 for 24 at that point. A change for a new coach might push recruiting even further behind. Thorr might be between a rock and a hard place to make that decision.
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Re: mercifully its over

Unread post by RF1 »

Isaac has a point. Thorr may do some things well but could some one name which sports are CURRENTLY in noticeably better shape now than when Bjorn took over in July 2007.

Men's Basketball
Men's basketball had just gone 19-14 reaching the A-10 Tournament final months before Thorr was hired. While the hiring of Hurley may end up a homerun and seems to have a lot of potential, it isn't a fait accompli yet. Program set to have back to back losing seasons for first time in over a decade.

Women's Basketball
Hiring of Inglese for some reason has not seemed to work out even with her great resume. Program in noticeably worse shape even though that may not have seemed possible.

Men's Soccer
Program has been declining last several years. Just fired the head coach.

Men's Golf
Longtime and very successful coach retired. Replaced by someone with no prior golf coaching exp. Program in decline.

Football
Was not good when Thorr got here. In even worse shape now. Musical chairs with conference membership changes added to woes.

Baseball
Was good when he got here and still good.

Other women's programs
None seem to be doing all that well


If you go sport by sport, I don't see a program that is appreciably better now than when Thorr took over. While this is certainly not all on Bjorn, it is a coldhard fact.
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Blue Man
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Re: mercifully its over

Unread post by Blue Man »

RF1 I agree. But my whole point is with basketball goes the entire department.

I give him an asterisk for football, because it was clear he had the right guy, so right that the pros grabbed him.

Thorr had zero chance to make any bball changes until this March. Bball is the only program at this school that has access to the D-1 big money that the NCAA tournament provides.

Money from that keeps the lights on. A good bball program here will help athletics across the board, and it's the only program that will. I look at every other program here as an also-ran or irrelevant to the conversation.

We could be great in every one of those programs and it wouldn't matter a bit. An elite FCS program will pay for itself, but an elite D-1 bball program pays for the department. Look what it did for Temple. All that money got them a better football program that cashed into the FBS.

Tough to point out what someone does when you give them absolutely jack shit to work with. Wait and see what he does once he has something. I don't think you can judge Thorr on anything until this Hurley hire has 3 years to take.
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Re: mercifully its over

Unread post by STC »

I have been a big critic of Thorr on here before to the point i didnt think he deserved an extension. However the Hurley hire was a great one his tenure will be made or broken on that hire. The Hurley hire also showed me he wasn't tone deaf which it looked like he was his first few years on the job. Thorr realizes the success of all URI athletics hinges on the success and in turn the revenue from mens bball.

With all that said, I think the Golf hire was as atrocious as they come. I couldn't care less about Golf but seriously what was the thinking behind that hire? Was he hiring the most qualified candidate or hooking his buddy up with a plum gig.

I'm encouraged about the rumors we might play the U in football or other D1 schools. Hell if were going to go 0-11 and get beat down by an average of 40-10 we might as well get beaten down with nice pay days.

Anyways URI football is dormant program and I have zero expectations for them. EVER.
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Re: mercifully its over

Unread post by Ramulous »

With the demolition of college football lately, and the A-10 hopefully being in good shape to withstand defections, I hope it is less important to be in the CAA to me.

If Xavier, Dayton, and some other Catholics in the A-10 decide to stay and not join Georgetown, Villanova and Marquette, the A-10 has the potential to be the best basketball-only conference in the country.

We won't need our football to play at the CAA level to protect basketball.

I wouldn't have a problem with football dropping to a lower competitive level in a smaller regional conference with less scholarships and a smaller travel cost.

It might be like old time small college football Saturdays again.
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Re: mercifully its over

Unread post by Blue Man »

STC wrote: With all that said, I think the Golf hire was as atrocious as they come. I couldn't care less about Golf but seriously what was the thinking behind that hire? Was he hiring the most qualified candidate or hooking his buddy up with a plum gig.
I am thinking (hoping) it's sunsetting and pushing that person away from athletic department oversight and into irrelevancy.
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Issac
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Re: mercifully its over

Unread post by Issac »

Blue Man, I'm going to ignore your childish rant and name calling to focus on some facts. You call me a troll in face of the fact that I have been a season ticket holder for 22 years and have been a contributor to the program for an even longer time, starting to give when I was in my senior year at URI even though I could afford very little at the time. So being a loyal URI supporter has many dimensions, not only painting your face blue and carrying signs.

But you show rank hypocrisy when you say my post was the "dumbest thing you ever read" and then say I am as "dense as a brick wall", but then later when RF1 says a similar thing, you retort "RF1, I agree". The facts are I have always applauded Thorr on his firing Baron and gave him kudos on the hiring of Dan Hurley, but when you engage in selective reading you ignore those points because you are emotionally reacting to my difference of opinion with you and also simply with me. In your mind, nothing I say is worth anything including my earlier comment that Billy Baron was poised to leave URI.

Sorry, but I think an Athletic Director has to be evaluated on his whole body of work and not just on the one sport most important to the school. The problem at URI may well be beyond Thorr's reach, but nonetheless, in my opinion, he is not the right guy to take URI to a higher level. And I felt that way after one year watching the way he operated.
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Re: mercifully its over

Unread post by Blue Man »

Funny, I've had a season ticket for URI for 22 years too. You've got me on the donor part though.

You have me with my tone in the responses - why I had a different tone with RF1, I have no idea. I just don't think you can hang anything on Thorr when he was under the weight of that awful Baron contract.

Every single sport at URI is funded by basketball. While my tone and demeanor were certainly less than savory in the previous post, this point is still valid.

Basketball = funding. Baron = Killed basketball. Dead basketball = no money. Thorr = Powerless to stop Baron until this year.

He was completely handcuffed in all AD decisions because of the amount of money bball was bleeding. Once he got a shot to make the basketball changes, he hit a freaking home run.

Since basketball is literally all that matters for the success and progress of the entire department, and most of the sports are just there...I'd say he's doing just fine.
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Re: mercifully its over

Unread post by ramster »

Blue Man,
The only question I would have is why did Thor give Baron a one year extension? I know he was relatively new to the job and he laid out the goals for the next year and so on, but I think if he had been listening to the players, fans, alumni, etc do you think maybe the bolder move would have been to NOT offer an extension of one year? He may have not had approval from his boss, the President of the University, but just asking.....thanks
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Re: mercifully its over

Unread post by ATPTourFan »

Now looking back with perfect 20/20, I'm glad we traded that one year extension for what we now have. I'm not saying I'd go so far to say trade the last decade of nothing for our current situation, but the one-year extension set things in place for us to get Dan and Bobby.
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Re: mercifully its over

Unread post by OBRAM »

Seems to me that a lot of people still don't get it. College sports is all about football, I know that is a hard pill to take for a basketball school like URI, or PC.
Why is Louisville in the ACC, why is Boise State in the Big East for now, and maybe the Pac14 soon? Football.
We had the second best football program in New England in 1984, and were not that different from Boise State in football and Idaho is not much bigger in populations.
URI wants to be like Gonzaga or Xavier. Isn't that 'Think Small we do'. There are school that play football that are not much bigger than URI, Syracuse and Miami to name two that have good football programs. Uconn is now hanging out there waiting, but I think will will eventually get picked up, and it will be because of football.
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Re: mercifully its over

Unread post by BFC »

I think everybody gets that big-time BCS football runs the show, but the CAA is not big-time BCS football. What's going on in the Big 10 and the ACC has nothing to do with what's going on in the FCS. In fact, everything that is going on in the BCS has to do with consolidating power and shrinking the pool of schools that gets a piece of the pie. The message is not "everybody come play football with us, so we can all make money", it's "we make the money and where going to keep it for ourselves". To this point, none of the major conferences believes UConn brings enough to the table to give them a share. If competive CAA football truly is an asset, than it should be able to justify itself. BCS revenues are irrelevant.
Saying that, it seems Dooley is committed to URI having football so let's hope they have a plan based on actual data and not just slogans.
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Re: mercifully its over

Unread post by ATPTourFan »

Agreed, Dooley very publicly said Football will be fixed during yesterday's state of URI event.
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Re: mercifully its over

Unread post by Blue Man »

OBRAM wrote:Seems to me that a lot of people still don't get it. College sports is all about football, I know that is a hard pill to take for a basketball school like URI, or PC.
Why is Louisville in the ACC, why is Boise State in the Big East for now, and maybe the Pac14 soon? Football.
We had the second best football program in New England in 1984, and were not that different from Boise State in football and Idaho is not much bigger in populations.
URI wants to be like Gonzaga or Xavier. Isn't that 'Think Small we do'. There are school that play football that are not much bigger than URI, Syracuse and Miami to name two that have good football programs. Uconn is now hanging out there waiting, but I think will will eventually get picked up, and it will be because of football.
I completely agree OB, what I'm saying is that we need basketball to do well to build the football program. Football of course drives NCAA revenue, but if you don't have FBS football, you need to lean on basketball for support.

Basketball is the only program with access to big D-1 NCAA level money at URI. We need that money to upgrade our facilities - SADC as a starting point - which will help recruiting with both programs. No matter any success at the FCS level, that won't bring in the kind of money basketball will. Basketball money will be needed to upgrade Meade as well.

A combination of that, and offering full scholarships instead of half and quarter scholarships will build the program. Look at Temple as a model. Their bball program built up their football program. We'll need to do the same thing here.
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Re: mercifully its over

Unread post by OBRAM »

BlueMoom, the impression that you give that basketball funds all other sports I do not think is true. I don't have the facts, but somewhere the cost of the Ryan Center has to be included in the cost for basketball, and nobody ever does that, or the fact that student fees are paying the bonds on the $21 million portion of the Ryan Center. The only way any athletic program can cover their expenses these days are to be in a big conference with the TV money. Unless we can get into a Big East basketball school only type conference, which I believe PC gets $1 million a year now ( which was going higher but who knows now that the Big East has imploded), basketball will lose money like all URI sports.
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Re: mercifully its over

Unread post by rambone 78 »

BB is and will be the biggest revenue producer for the URI athletic dept.

Even if the football product improves, there's no TV money. And that's the difference maker.

Where the increased revenue will come from, is from more TV BB exposure with a stronger A10, and frequent Dance appearances.

Football will always be a money loser here, no matter how well they do. That's even when you factor in the big "paydays" that URI will get, by going to away games at BCS schools, and getting crushed for the privilege.
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