2200 days of Brad Edwards

[mkaufman1]

A plus post @EXpatriot13

 

[GMUgemini]

We all keep bringing this up over and over again, and honestly for good reason. We should be frustrated at the previous administration's negligence in not capitalizing on our FF run, despite the fact that it's been 12+ years. Merten and the AD brutally failed at re-investing in our program and modernizing our marketing and brand proposition.

Our frustration should be shown and used to fuel this administration's commitment to our basketball program. The practice facility is half complete, the locker rooms are well on their way, decent gains on the court. We've seen some improvement, we need more. I think the program really struggles with marketing and communications. If you walk around campus (granted, I haven't been on campus in 4 years so this might have changed) you wouldn't even really know that we HAVE a basketball team, let alone one that has made the Final Four. It's our flagship sport, they should be showing it off and branding it all over the place (in places that make sense). In the age of social media, they should be blasting out picture updates of their new locker rooms, renderings of the potential practice facility addition, show the players hanging out on campus together and taking advantage of the many campus-side upgrades we've seen over the years - recruits are on social media and that's the #1 way to connect with them these days. They need to turn Mason Basketball, not Mason Athletics, into its own brand. These are things that don't require incremental budget.

Again, we've seen improvement - but we need to see more. I long for the day where people don't just say "oh yea, didn't they make the Final Four awhile back?", but instead say "oh yea, they made the Final Four and also did X, Y and Z."

I work at ASU and there is not a whole lot of visible marketing on campus of any of their teams. There is a student-run group, though, whose sole job is to drive student attendance at all the sports games (specifically non-football — because let’s be honest, football doesn’t need help). I was an instructor for one of their leaders one year and she said they were able to increase student turnout to baseball games by something like 25% (again, it’s PAC 12 baseball so not that hard, and they have a stadium that puts ours to shame, it actually puts several spring training stadiums in the area to shame — although it’s not walkable from campus — but still impressive).

The AD needs to let go and let the grass roots take hold. Stopping Jack from doing his fan cheering guide, stopping people tailgating if they want at all the games, let that ish go, foster student involvement instead of squash it.

 

[Leesburg Chankenstank III]

I don't think they have to report what their private fundraising arm chips in to pay Roy..I'm thinking it's just the public funds that have to be reported.

I think you are correct:

https://thebestschools.org/magazine/highest-paid-college-coaches/

"If we were to look at the overall incomes of these coaches, (meaning “highest-earning” coaches) including numbers like bonuses, prize money, and outside income such as endorsement deals or other sources, the rankings would certainly shift, and the numbers would be higher across the board."

 

[mkaufman1]

I encourage anyone with ideas to email Zach Bolno. He basically was hired to fix and improve all of these areas. He’s a good dude and wants to hear everyone.

 

[Five Two]

I work at ASU and there is not a whole lot of visible marketing on campus of any of their teams. There is a student-run group, though, whose sole job is to drive student attendance at all the sports games

Great idea.
Current students are future season ticket holders. Maybe we send Zach out to ASU to find out more.

 

[tblack33]

Great idea.
Current students are future season ticket holders. Maybe we send Zach out to ASU to find out more.

^^Agreed. If the Patriot Club can capture even 1% of students who graduate each year as season ticket holders that would honestly be a huge win in terms of attendance, creating a culture/atmosphere (that is not folks being shuttled over from the retirement home right off campus), and $$$. I'd be really interested to see how much money it brings in to the Patriot Club if they are able to get someone to buy season tickets the year after they graduate.

I'd love to see them heavily discount season tickets and donation amounts to try to capture some more young alumni (I know they already do a sloping discount for the 4 years after graduation but I wonder if a more aggressive price point + access to the gold room would bring in more $$) Get them hooked and emotionally invested while they are poor right out of college then hopefully that translates into increased donations to keep them in the gold room down the road.

 

[dr. gunnie]

I really like what UCF is doing with their men's and women's basketball programs and donations. To celebrate the 9 seed of the men and the women's 12 seed in the NCAA's, they are hitting social media and the web asking for alumni and fans to donate either $9 or $12.

https://www.ucffoundation.org/knights-basketball

I would love to see Mason do something similar. Those little donations will add up, and you get people that wouldn't normally donate - the kids that are just graduating - they start giving which will hopefully increase as time goes on. A+ for them on creativity.

As for Mason, we would have to make the tourney first... but no reason we couldn't do something similar tied around a different number.

 

[MasonSAE4]

I would love to see Mason do something similar.

You say that until Mason does Mason things and sends us an e-mail asking us for $300 to celebrate our KenPom ranking.

 

[dr. gunnie]

You say that until Mason does Mason things and sends us an e-mail asking us for $300 to celebrate our KenPom ranking.

Ha! So true.

"Help us celebrate our #13 seed at the A10 tournament by donating $13!!!"

 

[gmubrian]

So, I think most of us are on board with the hiring of Dave Paulsen (even though some of us are taking a wait and see approach).

At George Mason, mens basketball is the bell cow, and hiring the right guy is one of the more important duties of an AD.

Does anybody have strong feelings about the job he's done otherwise? I remember when he came in, his supposed expertise was in fundraising. Has that improved?

How about involvement with the community/alumni/fanbase?

These are not rhetorical questions, I genuinely haven't paid close enough attention to know, and I'd love to hear the insight of those who have.

I think 1700 days is long enough to have established a heading, and I'm curious if people are happy with the heading.

So, I am going purely off memory on this topic, so maybe I am missing something, but I am beginning to feel like Brad has plateaued. I feel like he came in and took care of the low hanging fruit that O’Connor never grabbed. While compared to TOC, he is stellar, you cant ride on that comparison forever.

I feel like he has taken steps forward but nothing has been eye popping. Getting rid of the Virus (1 year late), patriot center naming rights, a budget version of a practice facility and some obvious improvements to the Patriot Center (lights, video board and locker room refurb-almost done if he can get about 5 more dollars after giving day).

I was really hoping for some more significant movement on fundraising by now, but maybe that is asking too much.

 

[Herndon]

So, I am going purely off memory on this topic, so maybe I am missing something, but I am beginning to feel like Brad has plateaued. I feel like he came in and took care of the low hanging fruit that O’Connor never grabbed. While compared to TOC, he is stellar, you cant ride on that comparison forever.

I feel like he has taken steps forward but nothing has been eye popping. Getting rid of the Virus (1 year late), patriot center naming rights, a budget version of a practice facility and some obvious improvements to the Patriot Center (lights, video board and locker room refurb-almost done if he can get about 5 more dollars after giving day).

I was really hoping for some more significant movement on fundraising by now, but maybe that is asking too much.

So are you of the opinion that Brad has established himself as "competent, but not exceptional"?

 

[GSII]

The M in GMU stands for Mediocre. And it's not Brad or DP's fault.

 

[gmubrian]

So are you of the opinion that Brad has established himself as "competent, but not exceptional"?

That is where I am leaning, but open to be convinced otherwise.

 

[GMUgemini]

The M in GMU stands for Mediocre. And it's not Brad or DP's fault.

It’s mostly our own fail (our being Mason alumni), but also the community writ-large around it. We’ve never gotten the kind of support we need to be upper echelon — not like vcu or Gonzaga or Butler or Wichita State or Creighton or Dayton, that’s for sure.

 

[GSII]

It’s mostly our own fail (our being Mason alumni), but also the community writ-large around it. We’ve never gotten the kind of support we need to be upper echelon — not like vcu or Gonzaga or Butler or Wichita State or Creighton or Dayton, that’s for sure.

And we never will bc people in that community dont need to be part of something. They already are. The self.

 

[Cedric Dempsey]

The M in GMU stands for Mediocre. And it's not Brad or DP's fault.

Disagree to some extent. Young school with limitless elite academic options in an ideal location. Chasing R-1 status, Schar Public Policy, Amazon, elite level law school, 3 campuses, infra-structure needs for future growth, cost of living stress on employee retention and recruitment, etc. Too young with too many options and they’re all jammed up with the possibilities. Not enough money to do everything and Athletics is not a top priority. Important, but not a priority.

 

[GMUgemini]

Disagree to some extent. Young school with limitless elite academic options in an ideal location. Chasing R-1 status, Schar Public Policy, Amazon, elite level law school, 3 campuses, infra-structure needs for future growth, cost of living stress on employee retention and recruitment, etc. Too young with too many options and they’re all jammed up with the possibilities. Not enough money to do everything and Athletics is not a top priority. Important, but not a priority.

It’s an interesting question about our academics, because we seem to be following more the New American University model rather than the Public Ivy model. It’ll be interesting to see what that looks like long-term. There are things I like about it and things I don’t.

As for not enough money to do everything, we aren’t a football school for this very reason. We don’t need that much more money to be top tier, but a few things are holding us back (too many sports is one), outdated infrastructure is another (other than the new RAC and Aquatic Center notwithstanding). I know Edwards has been focusing on facilities, but we need to, a, get a separate track facility and completely redo our soccer stadium and, b, finish the baseball renovations, and, c, figure out what we are going to do with our current basketball arena and announce a long-term plan so we can start raising funds for it now.

 

[Cedric Dempsey]

It’s an interesting question about our academics, because we seem to be following more the New American University model rather than the Public Ivy model. It’ll be interesting to see what that looks like long-term. There are things I like about it and things I don’t.

As for not enough money to do everything, we aren’t a football school for this very reason. We don’t need that much more money to be top tier, but a few things are holding us back (too many sports is one), outdated infrastructure is another (other than the new RAC and Aquatic Center notwithstanding). I know Edwards has been focusing on facilities, but we need to, a, get a separate track facility and completely redo our soccer stadium and, b, finish the baseball renovations, and, c, figure out what we are going to do with our current basketball arena and announce a long-term plan so we can start raising funds for it now.

Good discussion. I believe however, there are hundreds of millions required to support a top-tier research institution. Will it happen here? I believe it can, but the bandwidth of the focus and temptations available in this region need to be tightened or there will be too many mouths to feed for an institution this young.

 

[gmujim92]

Good discussion. I believe however, there are hundreds of millions required to support a top-tier research institution. Will it happen here? I believe it can, but the bandwidth of the focus and temptations available in this region need to be tightened or there will too many mouths to feed for an institution this young.

The interesting thing to me is that Mason has made such rapid progress in many areas that most alumni don’t know about (and wouldn’t care if they did), but steadfastly refuses to throw money at the one program — men’s basketball — that has put the university on the map more than any other.

I was thinking about this yesterday. While vcu has a world-class med school and renowned arts program, their identity is most closely associated with basketball.

What is Mason’s identity? It could be one of any number of things. But it sure ain’t basketball.

 

[Cedric Dempsey]

The interesting thing to me is that Mason has made such rapid progress in many areas that most alumni don’t know about (and wouldn’t care if they did), but steadfastly refuses to throw money at the one program — men’s basketball — that has put the university on the map more than any other.

I was thinking about this yesterday. While vcu has a world-class med school and renowned arts program, their identity is most closely associated with basketball.

What is Mason’s identity? It could be one of any number of things. But it sure ain’t basketball.

It is still searching for that identity because of all the options and the perfect location. vcu is a completely different animal with their unique (cough, cough) location. This location is limitless. Mason’s mission is very much still evolving in my opinion.