Let me bust in here on this one. You mention Sharon Perkins down on the other C-P report. That's my beef with Mr. "G". Lu ONLY wanted a meager raise for her assistants (Sharon being one of them) and nothing personally money-wise for herself after the last appearance of the Eagles in Oklahoma City. Mr. "G", in his biggest blunder, said NO....can't afford it. Lu was in Athens 3 weeks later. We have this Title IX ball and chain around us, here WAS a potential big money making program for us....fans really pumped for it, and he blows it over a 2-4k stipend for a few assistants. Large screw up on his part. And I thought he was a huge marketing genius. Where the heck is that ???

Letting Harris leave was a huge blunder. No doubt he should have found a few bucks somewhere to keep her here.

One think that we are going to have to disagree on here is the potential of the softball program, any softball program for that matter to make money. Won't happen. Too, many scholarships, too much travel, huge equipment costs and not enough revenue. Going to Oklahoma City in Softball is great, it was fantastic exposure for the program and the University. But, in realiity, we didn't break even financially in either of those years for softball. If you could somehow factor in a dollar amount for the exposure the University got from it, it may have made money. But otherwise, those were very expensive seasons.

But, with that being said, if we're going to lose money, lets at least win games while we're losing money.

Corrected Grade Sheet:

Baseball: 70.31% (2004)

Women's Tennis: 65.22%

Men's Tennis: 59.09%

Football: 58.33%

Women's Golf: 58.33%

Men's Golf: 50.00%

Softball: 47.54%

Men's Basketball: 39.29%

Soccer: 32.35%

Women's Basketball: 32.14%

Volleyball: 25.93%

Conduct: cut ribbon on Nitchampburg; turned Iowa Hawkeye into new Eagle head; berated residents of City of Hattiesburg in open media forum; slyly implied Auburn was pursuing him; etc.

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Originally posted by: seen the softball complex
"Anyone who has been to the Softball complex knows it will be one of the best in the nation...when it is completed. The coaches for the team have their offices in what is a glorified trailor. The field is nice, the indoor facility is nice and the team gets good crowds at every home game for the amount of seats available. The problem is that there is no grandstand, the bathrooms are port-o-potties and there is no real facility to house the coaches offices, locker rooms, etc. That makes the recruiting process hard for the coaches. Granted the indoor facility just opened and what effect it will have on recruiting has not been felt yet, but when that facility is finished, the ladies who play softball at Southern Miss will be very lucky. The problem with bringing up the airplane purchase in comparison to finishing the complex is that $200,000 is only 1/4 of the cost to finish the complex ($800,000). If you guys want to badmouth the softball team so much and talk about squandered opportunities, why don't you help the athletic department raise the money to finish the complex?"

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Mr. G's bad decision-making has put USM way behind the curve in facilities.  You should go to Alabama, Auburn and some of these places and see what kinds of facilities they have.  They were where USM was when Lu Harris was here.  Now they're light years ahead --- both of the places I mention are hosting NCAA Regionals this weekend, while McNutt loses 50% more games this year than Harris lost her whole time here at USM.

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Originally posted by: Kudzu King
"Ok sweetheart.....lets cut to the chase.

You dislike Giannini, I am not terribly fond of him myself. My reason are, that I don't particularlly care for his treatment of the average alumni. If you are a $10k/yr EC member, he's a good of a friend as you can have. If you are an average working smoe, just trying to chip in a few bucks for better football seats, they care nothing for you. I also, have been very critical, until the NCST series, of his scheduling abilities for football.

Overall, I think he's a slight bit better than average across the board for AD's. Head and shoulders above anything we've had since I've been around, I only remember him, McLellen and Dale.

Now, that's my opinion of G.

What's your beef with him cupcake?"

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He is a bully and so is his wife.

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Originally posted by: Kudzu King
" You guys really don't understand what type of burdan Title IX is on a school like USM do you. Remember the Beer Budget that you guys talked about last week, it's true. Schools like Alabama and Auburn have athletic budgets about $40M yearly. USM has a budget of about $17M yearly. They also get a nice little $7-9M check from the $EC yearly. I guess it's Giannini's fault we're not in the $EC. Bottom line we fell so far behind facilities wise (under McLellen) in football and basketball (programs that make money) that we're having to invest in those programs first. If softball were a money making sport, I would suspect that you would see more money being allocated to that program. But, at USM a program that can not pay for itself, is not a high priority, and fiscally it can't be. Baseball was built on the support of private dollars, hopefully Softball can do the same. But, the coaches and a few core supporters are going to have to beat the streets and raise the money on their own."

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KK, you write as if certain sports (football/basketball) are predetermined to make money, while others aren't (softball; women's sports?).  At Tennessee, women's basketball makes alot of money.  At Alabama and Georgia, heck women's gymnastics sells out men's basketball facilities routinely.  Both make money.  Softball could make money at USM.  It's not predestined to be a money loser in any way.

quote:

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Originally posted by: Kudzu King
"Ok sweetheart.....lets cut to the chase. You dislike Giannini, I am not terribly fond of him myself. My reason are, that I don't particularlly care for his treatment of the average alumni. If you are a $10k/yr EC member, he's a good of a friend as you can have. If you are an average working smoe, just trying to chip in a few bucks for better football seats, they care nothing for you. I also, have been very critical, until the NCST series, of his scheduling abilities for football. Overall, I think he's a slight bit better than average across the board for AD's. Head and shoulders above anything we've had since I've been around, I only remember him, McLellen and Dale. Now, that's my opinion of G. What's your beef with him cupcake?"

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I pretty much agree with everything except Giannini is slightly better than average...just look at his blunders, pretty much in every sport.  Also, he was not even close to McLellen in scheduling or conference matters(USM would probably be a Div II now if not for Mac).  McLellen's appearance, attitude and manners left alot to be desired but he knew college sports and made things happen for USM.   I am certainly not a McLellen fan and was not sorry to see him go away, but he built the foundation for what we have today, such as it is.

While many of you may have some dealings with Mr. G, I seriously doubt anyone on this board has ever worked for or with him. He does his best to make sure that Southern Miss is ahead of the rest of CUSA when it comes to facilities and sports programs.

Your comments about the Coach Harris situation are pretty well-based. Looking back, obvoiusly we would have liked to keep Coach Harris and Coach Perkins, but they chose to go to greener pastures, and I do not blame thenm one bit for going to Georgia. You have to strike while the iron is hot, and it has never been hotter for Coach Harris.

But at the same time, you must remember that Southern Miss cut 2 sports and reduced scholarships across the board duing that time. There was a $2 million hole in the budget ($8 Million budget at the time) and it was up to Mr. G to get us out of it while at the same time trying to build an $8 million fieldhouse. The cost to keeping Coach Harris outweighed the benefits. We are still successful in softball, though not as much as we could be, but at the end of the day, softball isn't going to save a budget of $17 million. I think we can all agree on that.

Now when it comes to Mr. G's leadership of the athletic program, there is no one I would rather have doing it. He is surrounded by some of the best people in the business (Hansen, Carr, Herring, Oberhelman) and they make the job easier for him.

Finally, where do you get off comparing the Southern Miss budget with those of Alabama and Auburn. Of course we don't have those kind of facilities. Southern Miss should be compared with UAB, Tualne, Utep, TCU, Houston, etc. When you start looking at apples and apples instead of oranges and apples, you will realize that Southern Miss has some of the best facilities out there. The baseball complex will soon be the third or fourth best in the conference (Houston, Rice, Tulane). Our fieldhouse is one of, if not the best in the conference. With the new football expansion and renovation of RGC, things are moving ahead in the right direction.

Our goal at Southern Miss should not be to compete with the Alabamas and Auburns out there, but to dominate the Tulanes and UABs and Marshalls of the world. When you understand that, you will see how good of a job Mr. G has done.

As someone who knows Lu and Sharon very well, I can assure you they never would have left if they would have bumped Sharon up from 21K to 30K. Lu didn't even want any extra money. She asked for a raise for Sharon and G-Man told Lu that she was more than welcome to take it out of her salary. Just so you know, you can go on UGA's website and see the stadium they have now built them. The school has just announced the largest Daktronics contract in the companies history that will include new scoreboards for Samford Stadium, baseball, basketball, volleyball, soccer and softball. The softball board will be complete with a new video replay board.

Neither of them wanted to leave but were basically shown the door when they were told no pay raise for assistant after two-straight WCWS and no travel after the second WCWS outside of the Southeast Region. The team you would have had that following year would have been as good or better than the two WCWS teams. One of UGA's three-time All-Americans had signed there, Notre Dame's No. 1 pitcher had signed their as well as three other players (only one stayed at USM for four years). That program would be right where Georgia is now, if not higher, but apparently he didn't want it that way.

As far as making a profit is concerned. How much profit do the other sports actually make for USM? And if you are going to have a sport, regardless of financial revenues, why not be really good at it instead of being average?