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The Fordham University Rams

58K views 376 replies 96 participants last post by  BillB 
#1 ·
Believe it or not, the Rams are to host Tech at the Rose Hill Gym, Thurday evening, December 29.
Could this be another surprise as we did lst year v. St. John's? School is out so we wont have the students behind the team.

Last ACC team to play at RHG was NC State in 1965.

Two present teams from the ACC played there but they were not affiliated with the ACC i.e., BC & VA Tech when the games were played.
 
#3 ·
Re: Fordham to Host GA Tech

I think Brian Gregory now understands road record is a perennial weakness of his teams. He is attempting to schedule to make that record seem slightly less woeful.
Ahh...actually, Gregory's predecessor, Paul Hewitt, scheduled the two-game home-and-home series with Fordham. The Rams were to play the first leg of the series at Georgia Tech last year but couldn't make the trip to Atlanta due to a snow storm.
 
#4 · (Edited)
FORDHAM NONCON FORECAST

11-12 Fordham at Syracuse - LOSS
11-18 Fordham vs. Binghamton - WIN
11-26 Fordham at Loyola - LOSS
11-29 Fordham vs. Colgate - WIN
12-01 Fordham vs. Lehigh - LOSS
12-05 Fordham vs. Hampton - LOSS
12-07 Fordham at Manhattan - LOSS
12-10 Fordham at Monmouth - WIN
12-12 Fordham at Siena - LOSS
12-17 Fordham at Saint John's - LOSS
12-22 Fordham vs. Texas State - WIN
12-29 Fordham vs. Georgia Tech - WIN
01-03 Fordham vs. Harvard - LOSS

NONCON RECORD: 5-8

Boeheim is mad about the switch to the ACC, so he clobbers Fordham. After licking their wounds, the Rams take down Binghamton at home. The Bearcats are still recovering from scandal, though coach Mark Macon seems to be doing a good job job rebuilding the program. Fordham is further along in the process and playing at home.

Loyola has a bunch of experienced players and is the kind of low major team that has been handling Fordham in recent years. The Rams need to start beating teams like this to show further progress, but I call it a loss as the young players continue to learn their roles. Colgate also fields a very experienced team, but it has less talent than Loyola. Rams win at home. Hampton won 24 games last season and returns go-to scorer Darrion Pellon, arguably the best player in the MEAC.

The Rams find succor at a Manhattan team coming off a 23-loss season. New coach, new system makes the Jaspers ripe for a loss to their city rival. No such luck at Siena, a school that has beaten many an A-10 team at its home. Siena is down from recent years, though, and Fordham has a good chance for an upset.

In between the road games at Manhattan and Siena, Fordham outshoots a Monmouth team now coached by former UNC guard King Rice, who promises to run. They do, and get run out of Rose Hill.

Saint Johns will remember last year's defeat at home to the lowly Rams and take a full measure of revenge. The Red Storm might be even more beatable this year, but Lavin has better talent and lightening doesn't strike twice. Texas State is moving up the WAC and won't be a pushover. Rams take advantage of their opponents' long flight to a cold-weather climate.

Georgia Tech has a new coach - Dayton's Brian Gregory - and lots of new faces, but the Yellow Jackets have some size and talent. Great chance for an upset. Unfortunately the Rams follow with a letdown at home to Harvard, the class of the Ivy. Harvard won 23 games last year and returns all five starters.
 
#6 ·
Re: FORDHAM NONCON FORECAST

Predicted it almost perfectly, WH, except we beat Hampton in a squeaker, and switch around the Monmouth/Siena results. So we already beat expectations by one win, let's see if we can pull off an even greater upset against Harvard today.

When the Rams play well, anything is possible in RHG. There is a great almost unspoken rivalry over school colors between Fordham and Harvard that goes back over 100 years when both schools shared magenta and fought a baseball series over exclusive rights to the color. Fordham won the series, and Harvard reneged on the deal, retaining magenta as their official color. Fordham then chose maroon, and a year later the Harvard student body elected to switch from magenta to crimson, which everyone knows is just a stupid name for maroon anyway. They can't stop loving our color; screw them.

My eternally optimistic prediction: Fordham 81 - Harvard 80 (OT)
 
#7 ·
It's Time For Fordham To Go !


Temple and Charlotte are leaving the A10, with UMass presently the most likely to bolt to pursue their football aspirations, to which they are entitled.

Today we are welcoming the Butler Bulldogs and their fans to the Atlantic 10.

George Mason and Viginia Commonwealth may soon be following Butler to the Atlantic 10 if the rumors are true, and that would also be a most welcome development.

---------------------------------------------------------------

But all is not well with the Atlantic 10 Conference.

An athletic conference, such as the Atlantic 10, exists for one primary purpose:

So that a reasonable number of like-minded schools can compete in a variety of sports to the mutual benefit of ALL of the schools in the conference.

Therein lies the problem.

Fordham.

For the past 17 seasons during which Fordham has been a member of the Atlantic 10 Conference, Fordham's administration has deliberately refused to make the minimal necessary investments in sports facilities and coaching salaries to justify Fordham's continued existence in the Atlantic 10.

It's a simple as that.

Fordham has buckets of money, yet they refuse to spend hardly any of it on sports facilities and coaching salaries. Fordham can afford to do so if they chose to, but year after year Fordham's administration remains content to be a parasite upon the Atlantic 10, feasting on the benefits of being a member of the Atlantic 10 without giving anything in return.

. . . to the mutual benefit of ALL of the schools in the conference.
In 17 years, Fordham has brought nothing to the table except a hearty appetite for Atlantic 10 money and association with schools that DO make adequate (or more-than-adequate) investments in sports facilities and coaching salaries.

In short, Fordham is a leach and is choosing to remain so indefinitely, at the expense of their fellow Atlantic 10 member schools. But even worse, Fordham's basketball team is a perpetual boat anchor in the A10's RPI Rankings.




As the Atlantic 10 is primarily a basketball conference, it is instructive to look at Fordham's contribution in that regard:


The History of Fordham Basketball (Fordham Rams 2011-12 Media Guide) See Pages 91-94.

Code:
[b]                        Final
          A10  Overall   RPI
Season    W-L    W-L   Ranking  Head Coach

1995-96   2-14   4-23           Nick Macarchuk
1996-97   1-15   6-21           Nick Macarchuk
1997-98   2-14   6-21           Nick Macarchuk
1998-99   5-11  12-15           Nick Macarchuk

1999-00   7-9   14-15           Bob Hill
2000-01   4-12  12-17           Bob Hill
2001-02   4-12   8-20           Bob Hill
2002-03   1-15   4-24           Bob Hill

2003-04   3-13   6-22           Dereck Whittenburg
2004-05   8-8   13-16           Dereck Whittenburg
2005-06   9-7   16-16   # 133   Dereck Whittenburg
2006-07  10-6   18-12   # 111   Dereck Whittenburg
2007-08   6-10  12-17   # 174   Dereck Whittenburg
2008-09   1-15   3-25   # 291   Dereck Whittenburg
2009-10   0-16   2-26   # 305   Dereck Whittenburg/Jared Grasso

2010-11   1-15   7-21   # 254   Tom Pecora
2011-12   3-13  10-19   # 243   Tom Pecora[/b]

Atlantic 10 Conference (Wikipedia)


It's Time For Fordham To Go !


Unfortunately, plans for a new 7,500-seat on-campus arena at Fordham have been scrapped for now.




New law school building designed by Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, one of the preeminent architectural firms in the world.

It will be built at Fordham's Lincoln Center campus in Manhattan.



Sigh . . .

 
#10 ·
Re: It's Time For Fordham To Go !

Now Muddy, when you bait people like this, you can't get all butt hurt when somebody says something not too nice to or about you. I don't want to see you crying to anybody via PM's when you know full well what you're doing.
 
#13 ·
Re: It's Time For Fordham To Go !

Now Muddy, when you bait people like this, you can't get all butt hurt when somebody says something not too nice to or about you. I don't want to see you crying to anybody via PM's when you know full well what you're doing.
He does that too!

He turns his rep points off and also runs to the principals office crying when someone upsets him!

A 50 year old kindergartener. How sad for him and funny for us.
 
#14 ·
Re: It's Time For Fordham To Go !

I find it hilarious he is scolding a school for improving its learning facilities over building an arena
:laugh:

Don't get me wrong, I can see where he's coming from. Looking at it strictly in terms of athletics, this is probably a valuable discussion to have at least (though I'm not going to pretend to be intimate with the situation when I'm definitely not). However, my issue is that I know somebody is going to come in here and tell the OP to shove it, and I know full well my inbox is going to have three PM's by days end about either a mod not doing their job properly or somebody harassing him.

If you want to discuss something that is controversial, you have to be ready for some amount of backlash. If you can't handle that, don't poke the bear.
 
#22 ·
Re: It's Time For Fordham To Go !

There are many valid arguments to kick Fordham out of the conference, but I don't think coaching salaries is one of them. In fact, money spent on athletics is not a very good argument either. Our coach makes $750k/yr, we have one of the highest basketball budgets in the conference if my memory is not failing me and our overall athletic budget is near the top also.

Fordham lacks two things, a proper basketball facility and the necessary leadership to solve that problem.
 
#23 · (Edited)
Re: It's Time For Fordham To Go !

There are many valid arguments to kick Fordham out of the conference, but I don't think coaching salaries is one of them. In fact, money spent on athletics is not a very good argument either. Our coach makes $750k/yr, we have one of the highest basketball budgets in the conference if my memory is not failing me and our overall athletic budget is near the top also.
Yep, see below (note: I've included Butler). When Fordham joined the A-10 from the non-scholarship Patriot League, our overall athletic budget was less than $3 million, so we've come a long way...and I'm confident Coach Pecora will continue to take the men's basketball program in the right direction.



Athletic Expenses (Reporting Year: 7/1/2010 - 6/30/2011)

Grand Total Expenses
Temple $29,757,012
Massachusetts $24,809,054
Fordham $22,855,380
Rhode Island $21,107,828
Richmond $20,511,418
George Washington $19,996,423
Dayton $19,870,762
Xavier $15,135,882
Duquesne $14,331,403
Charlotte $13,723,303
Saint Joseph’s $13,703,945
Butler $13,684,523
Saint Louis $13,611,515
La Salle $11,664,550
Saint Bonaventure $7,431,261

Athletically Related Student Aid (i.e., athletic scholarships)
Fordham $10,262,085
Temple $9,094,979
Richmond $8,224,016
Rhode Island $7,342,887
George Washington $7,246,150
Massachusetts $6,696,076
Duquesne $5,046,685
La Salle $4,409,164
Xavier $4,385,480
Saint Joseph’s $4,370,394
Saint Louis $4,166,981
Butler $4,109,936
Dayton $3,670,936
Charlotte $2,753,609
Saint Bonaventure $2,598,268

Recruiting Expenses
Massachusetts $636,039
Xavier $600,883
Duquesne $472,902
Richmond $428,418
Temple $390,548
Fordham $374,839
Dayton $340,957
George Washington $333,286
Rhode Island $297,198
La Salle $260,653
Charlotte $234,462
Saint Joseph’s $233,573
Saint Louis $184,934
Saint Bonaventure $184,798
Butler $165,521

Men’s Basketball Expenses
Richmond $4,056,940
Xavier $3,929,624
Dayton $3,810,320
Butler $3,541,122
George Washington $3,480,829
Fordham $3,154,182
Temple $3,089,270
Saint Joseph’s $3,020,790
Saint Louis $2,951,352
Duquesne $2,928,573
Rhode Island $2,816,066
Massachusetts $2,806,835
La Salle $2,364,336
Charlotte $2,275,714
Saint Bonaventure $1,592,420

Football Expenses
Temple $10,099,156
Fordham $5,113,173
Richmond $5,010,248
Massachusetts $4,766,305
Rhode Island $3,785,288
Duquesne $1,875,955
Dayton $983,454
Butler $675,782
Charlotte N/A
George Washington N/A
La Salle N/A
Saint Bonaventure N/A
Saint Joseph’s N/A
Saint Louis N/A
Xavier N/A
 
#30 ·
Re: It's Time For Fordham To Go !

If money is in no way the issue, then what is up? I am a big supporter of Fordham's A-10 membership, by the way. I am simply wondering if the general cost of operation in New York skews some of those figures.
In my opinion it comes down to the two things I mentioned previously when I said, "Fordham lacks two things, a proper basketball facility and the necessary leadership to solve that problem."

I said "solve that problem", but I should have really said solve or overcome that problem. If the gym remains as is, I think our coaches and athletic department has to work twice (or more) as hard to recruit players and fans. It appeared that we were on our way when Dunston was a junior. the team was winning and a new arena was planned, but when that came off the table due to the economy Whittenburg seemed to have lost his marbles, feeling he got the rug pulled out from under him.

I think the numbers are skewed somewhat by our location, but I don't think that if you doubled our budget from where it is now that it would necessarily solve anything. Perhaps maybe we could have thrown more money at a coach, say Larry Brown, but he'd still be recruiting to the same facility that Larry Brown probably played a few games in while he was in high school. I think Pecora has us on the right track so I don't think more money there would have been the right move. I really do think it comes down to the facility and the administration.
 
#36 ·
Re: It's Time For Fordham To Go !

I don't think it's fair that you guys keep bashing Muddy, even when he makes an informative post. Muddy is an important contributor to this board and gives us some insightful knowledge and opinions (like this one). No matter how long and bandwidth-wasting his posts may be, at least they provide good discussion. Unlike, say, all the pissy, overreacting responses from all the Xavier fans on here. In fact, I would even go as far as to say that Muddy is what is currently driving this message board. Half of the threads are started by Muddy, and those threads get easily the most responses. Whether you like or not, we need Muddy, because without him this board would be a barren wasteland.
 
#42 ·
Re: It's Time For Fordham To Go !

I don't think it's fair that you guys keep bashing Muddy, even when he makes an informative post. Muddy is an important contributor to this board and gives us some insightful knowledge and opinions (like this one). No matter how long and bandwidth-wasting his posts may be, at least they provide good discussion. Unlike, say, all the pissy, overreacting responses from all the Xavier fans on here. In fact, I would even go as far as to say that Muddy is what is currently driving this message board. Half of the threads are started by Muddy, and those threads get easily the most responses. Whether you like or not, we need Muddy, because without him this board would be a barren wasteland.
Shocking you would be a Muddy fan.

Hate to break it to you, but the board already is a barren wasteland with and because of Muddy.
 
#37 ·
Re: It's Time For Fordham To Go !

This board was no wasteland before, and it would not be after. The smack would still be there, but the people engaging would be doing so as entertainment. It is obvious that this board is actually that guys entire source of attention in this world, and he is unable to keep what this place is in perspective. It sucks to ruin everyone's FUN, because to him this is LIFE.

When he posts it is like a hungry and homeless child walking in front of you as you try to eat ice cream. Kills the joy.

Some people so miserable they have to bring others with them.
 
#41 ·
Re: It's Time For Fordham To Go !

If Barclays will help Fordham become a legitimate program, then Pecora needs to push for it. They will have dates to fill even after the Islanders move to Brooklyn in a few years.
 
#47 ·
Re: It's Time For Fordham To Go !

I fail to see the difference between Muddy and Mudflap.
The difference is that Muddy's posts are longer because he cuts and paste a lot. The similarities are that they both throw potshots at each other, each other’s team and fan bases. Muddy’s post would be okay for me if he would leave out the potshots. Same with Mudflap - Oh wait, then Mudflap wouldn't have anything to post.
 
#46 ·
Re: It's Time For Fordham To Go !


If Fordham's Administration has no intention of trying to field a 'top half' men's basketball team in the Atlantic 10, and there is no reason to believe they have such an intention, I would think that Fordham basketball fans would hope that the Rams move to a less-competitive conference, where Fordham could occasionally play in the Conference Tournament Championship Game for the automatic NCAA Tournament invitation.

It certainly appears that Fordham has already received their last NCAA Tournament "at large" invitation a long, long time ago.

 
#49 ·
Re: It's Time For Fordham To Go !


If Fordham's Administration has no intention of trying to field a 'top half' men's basketball team in the Atlantic 10, and there is no reason to believe they have such an intention, I would think that Fordham basketball fans would hope that the Rams move to a less-competitive conference, where Fordham could occasionally play in the Conference Tournament Championship Game for the automatic NCAA Tournament invitation.

It certainly appears that Fordham has already received their last NCAA Tournament "at large" invitation a long, long time ago.

I like having Fordham in the league. If they could just get to consistently being in the top 150 of the RPI, I'd love having them in the league. Trips to NYC, exposure for potential recruits (I still remember Tu's dad being interviewed at a Fordham game), if you happened to be ranked when you go into play, likely a bit of coverage in the NY media (maybe just a blurb, but still).

To be honest, I'm not sure I want a Fordham that makes a top-of-the-league commitment. If they did, it would be a sleeping giant. Imagine a Xavier or Butler (or pick your own model program) type program plopped down in the middle of NYC with all the potential in the world. Talk about scary.
 
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