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I wonder how this one game will affect their application numbers. How many kids from Florida or beyond who have never once heard of Florida gulf coast are rooting for the to beat gtown today?

Globetrotter wrote:I wonder how this one game will affect their application numbers. How many kids from Florida or beyond who have never once heard of Florida gulf coast are rooting for the to beat gtown today?

I'm doing my master's project on this very topic. If I was graduating next May instead of this May I would love to talk to their admissions people on what they see now over the next year.

School was created in 1991 and held its first classes in 1997, just crazy

An old BG guy that was asst AD here, named Ken Kavenaugh is the current AD at Florida Gulf Coast. I hope they knock off a few more.

Didn't Bobby Nichols help with their program ten of so years ago?

Every February I spend two weeks in Fort Myers, Fl., the area where FGCU is. The last two years the university's teams have been routinely profiled as the lead story in the sports section in the local paper Granted there are no pro teams near by but the Red Sox and Twins both hold their spring training games there. This year they raved about the way the men's team had turned into a very good division 1 team in just it's second year. The women's team was also good, being runnerup in the league. They also seem to have very good softball and baseball teams based on their records and competition. Of course, I believe that almost all deep south teams in those sports hold a distinct advantage due to nearly a full year of playable weather for BB and SB.

Another BG grad, Mike Hill is the women's basketball SID.

Are any of these programs that are being built from comparable sized cities? Aren't Indianapolis, Spokane, Wichita all pretty big cities?

Populations and distance from professional program:

Fort Meyers (FGCU) 64,000 only 2x size of Bowling Green

Indianapolis (Butler) 830,000

Spokane (Gonzaga) 220,000

Wichita (Wichita State) 390,000

Also, Indianapolis has two professional teams, plus minor league baseball. Fort Meyers has no professional teams within 200 miles (Tampa). Spokane is 300 miles away from a professional team (Seattle). Wichita is 200 miles from KC.

Tricky_Falcon wrote:Another BG grad, Mike Hill is the women's basketball SID.

Mike was a practice player for the women's team while he was at BG, IIRC.

Another BG connection -- Marty Richter, who was an assistant under Dakich for 3 or 4 years, is a men's basketball assistant at FGCU.

gmartin wrote:Populations and distance from professional program:

Fort Meyers (FGCU) 64,000 only 2x size of Bowling Green

Actually, the Fort Myers area is much larger than the city population. There is a conglomeration of city after city all the way to Naples. The largest is Cape Coral at 154,300 but the total for the area is 618,750. 2x BG doesn't really represent the area. It's a long way to a cornfield.

This team is for real. I will be rooting for them the rest of the tourney and next year. They only have 2 seniors. There best player and a rotation guy.

It shows what you can do even if you don't recruit the top talent. They have one great point guard, a great scoring 2 guard a couple high flyers, a great shooter and a nice center.

Im going to bet its easier to recruit to Ft myers then BG, but we can get these types of players and then coach them to play together. I don't doubt that. The issue is that we can't waste 4 out of 5 of our scholarships every year and players have to develop.

Tisdale reminds me of the type of athlete they have there. Get explosive athletes and teach them to play together.

It really makes me realize what you guys were talking about with the selfishness of Calhoun and Crawford...Im not sure if thats really the case but as seniors go that wasn't a team having fun that bonded together and were all on the same page, and they should have made it that way.

Lasalle
Wichita state
Florida gulf coast

factman wrote:An old BG guy that was asst AD here, named Ken Kavenaugh is the current AD at Florida Gulf Coast. I hope they knock off a few more.

Nice guy that was always visible at BG events. Glad to hear he is directing a program that is doing well.

BGFalconfromCincy wrote: I'm doing my master's project on this very topic. If I was graduating next May instead of this May I would love to talk to their admissions people on what they see now over the next year.

Everyone always looks at it from the angle of the school doing well. What would be unique for your project is looking at the converse. If there is a "Flutie Factor" can there also be an "Orr Factor?"