dancingbear
Well-known member
Per usual your positive comments are appreciated.
dancingbear said:WASTED GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY--BOB MESEROLL BLOG
Pretty much sums up the blog written by Bob Meseroll bog in today's Missoulian. The Athletic Dept. more specifically the SID (my word) have missed out on a golden opportunity to promote Griz BB and get butts in the seats. The CGF game may not generate much interest but how in the hell can he (SID) not put SOME effort into promoting Wednesdays game against another PAC-10 opponent, Oregon ST? It's a friggin shame that this excellent group of young men and coaches do not get more support from the local populace. And the student body participation is a joke.
Football may be the crown jewel of the Athletic dept. but BB is coming on strong but they need better support from local fans as well as the student body.
Meseroll covered it much better than I can but the essence of the article stated that this community is missing out on an entertainment value that may not come out way again.
dancingbear said:Ashley, with all due respect....eat shit. no, no, just kidding. Understand perfectly but folks round here are missing some great BB if they don't make a point to take in a Griz game.
Great idea...how do I go about contributing my miles? Just used most but have about 26.000 feel free to use them if I can get them to youdancingbear said:Egriz is a tremendous vehicle to spread the word about the basketball program. Unfortunately there seems to be a disconnect between the University SID and egriz or at least seems one does not know about the other. I would venture to say that many, many more people visit egriz daily than go to MontanaGrizzlies.com. I think mostly the nature of the beast. Not to knock MG.com but there mission is to support all the sports programs at the U. Egriz focus is towards football and beginning to be more focused on BB through dialogue in this format. Perhaps Chris or someone in the SID office can be proactive in getting the word out about such organizations as Roundball club which only supports the BB program.
An issue that came up a few years back when LK was still in the program and BB was starting to make major noise the powers to be recognized a need to compensate the coaches better. A private funding effort was put forth in the community. I, along with many other donors, contributed major dollars to the fund and it was never heard from again. Rumors have circulated as to where the money went but nothing substantial was ever brought forward. I think this alienated many donors and they have refused to come back. I'm not suggesting anything illegal occurred but it has just died a quiet death. It has left a sour taste in the mouth of many supporters.
Having said all this I am sure there are ways that fans can contribute to just a specific sport but one would need to contact the AD's office.
There are additional ways that fans can support the BB program. An example would be to donate frequent flyer miles to the program. As you look around the country you see many foreign players making major contributions to programs. Most recently we saw #33, from Portland U. can't remember his name, light up the Griz from three point range. He was from Europe I believe. BB has become popular in South America as well as all of Europe and now even in some of the African countries. Our coaches need to go and see some of these players to recruit them. Tink's has great connections in Europe but the staff needs to be able to get to them. A great way to help is thru FF miles. Yes, I know our Australian connection didn't work out to well but there many excellent foreign players that would love to come to Montana. Lets face it U of M is not going to get the three star recruits. We need to be able to get some of the gems that are not front and center. Our coaches have demonstrated their ability to get top recruits like Will and Jamar and Billy Reader.
Sorry for the short novel but it's late at night and I can't sleep waiting for the Griz to crush Oregon St. tomorrow night.
I'll be here....just to be sure, but is it ok with the NCAA?dancingbear said:GrizLA, I am working with one of the coaches to get some miles transferred. We need to stay in contact so I can get you to the proper person.