jiggy with it wrote:

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McNelis' team falls to 4-10 on the season. 

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jiggy, I hear an aire of joy in your voice. Why don't you leave those women alone? What unspoken motive to you and the likes of you have by mouthing off. Why don't you go out to the sand lot and jeer at the kiddies? 

Let me paint you the picture, LVN:

Sports are all that most USM alums seem to care about. Football, basketball, baseball, etc., are the chosen points of interest for Thames' most vocal supporters, including the Eagle Talkers.

One would think that these "important" supporters' interests would be shining brightly, that Thames would be doing everything possible to keep the athletics boosters happy, that the athletics teams would be the most visibly excellent programs at USM.

Contrary to this thought, however, is the fact that athletics at USM has declined under Thames, and his supporters are either too stupid to realize it or they are too drunk on his cocktail of lies and chicanery to see the truth.

USM's football program used to be an elite program in the old (read: better) C-USA. Under Thames, USM has not only failed to get into a better conference, but it has also failed to maintain a dominant presence in the new (read: weaker) C-USA after the departure of some more marketable teams.

USM used to have a truly world-class softball program until the coach who built that program was allowed to leave without USM matching the other school's offer. USM softball has fallen from its world series-level of play to a C-USA "also-ran".

USM had fairly competitive basketball (men's and women's) under previous coaches. It has been noted many times that Thames wanted James Green gone as men's coach and that Green was replaced by Larry Eustachy, the supposed savior of the program. What may not have been outlined in this forum is the racially motivated firing of Green and the fact that the white basketball boosters didn't want to give money to a program coached by a black coach. Thames has brought in two new coaches (McNelis and Eustachy) who are obviously out of their depth and who have continued to dismiss, marginalize, and ridicule players publicly, all the while continuing to lose more and more games and more and more ground in the C-USA.

The only program not to be damaged by Thames is baseball, and I'm patiently waiting for him to screw that up.

In short, Thames is an athletics guy and he's screwing up the very thing that gains him support, yet his moronic backers continue to rally around his choices. In the one area in which he could be an unqualified success, Thames shoots himself in the foot.

Why do we have sports scores posted here? To let everyone know how Thames' pet projects did in their latest outings. These athletics decisions parallel academic decisions, and for every joke of an administrator on the academic side, there's a joke of an administrator on the athletics side. It's all part of the same problem, yet people like you continue to not "get it."

Manet wrote:

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Let me paint you the picture, LVN:

yet people like you continue to not "get it."

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However, I'm not sure what this statement means. Who are people like me?
I'm a grandmother with liberal arts degrees, never into sports. I don't "continue" to not get it -- I never got it to start with, if by "it" you mean the particulars of conference strengths, etc.

However, I do understand the devastation that's been wrought.

Thank you supporter. I do think sports are important, although I think their importance is exaggerated in our entire culture. I don't mean to provoke that particular discussion however, I was just wondering why somebody always posts the scores, when they're out there on the news and in the paper and online. It was really a simple question.

What was I saying to Emma about my mouth always getting me into trouble?

I think Manet has authored a couple of the most cogent posts on this board. I tried to make the same point on another thread sometime back, but Manet's posts are more articulate and insightful. While some of the language might have been a little more diplomatic ("...yet people like you continue to not 'get it.'"), the point is that, for the behind-the-scenes crowd supporting SFT & Co., athletics has always been a central issue (surely played a role in Fleming's unceremonious departure). Not "getting" this key point will severely undermine a person's ability to comprehend and deal globally with the issues confronting USM. Has LVN already forgotten the sky boxes, the ill-starred bond issue, and Gianinni's petulant scolding of the electorate, essentially equating support of USM with support of athletics?

And LVN Supporter: "...you with the phony French name"? Oh, please!! With LVN's buddies de Guerre, Angleterre, Boudreaux, etc., etc. inhabiting the board you stoop to this quasi-xenophobia? Manet has painted an excellent word picture, quite worthy of the namesake.

Both(?) of you need to take a step back and re-read Manet's posts objectively. They are important pieces in the puzzle of SFT's reign of terror.

And, if you don't want to read the scores, then skip 'em, as many skip the frippery of de Guerre et Cie. I submit that the former is way more relevant to the purpose of this board than the latter.

Spanish Singer wrote:

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A deviation amplifying inner circle of mutually admiring malcontents occasionally hits the nail on the head. 

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Spoken like a true "little man" with no job prospects.

I am not "supporter" and in fact, that poster somewhat misunderstood me.

I will say once more that I was asking a simple question. Manet answered it quite effectively, and I totally agree that his was one of the better posts we've ever had.

Voter wrote:

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And, if you don't want to read the scores, then skip 'em, as many skip the frippery of de Guerre et Cie. I submit that the former is way more relevant to the purpose of this board than the latter.

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Unless one considers maintaing morale and spirit a purpose.

By the bye, Mlle. de Guerre is distressed to learning that she is considered both fictional and irrelevant. That'a a great deal for anyone to take in.

Good day to you all.

Sincerely,

Hermione Angleterre
Social Secretary to Monique de Guerre

Hermione Angleterre wrote:

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By the bye, Mlle. de Guerre is distressed to learning that she is considered both fictional and irrelevant.

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Well, you might inform mamsell that SFT has done his damnedest to make clear that faculty are irrelevant. Under the circumstances, I should think fictionality would be an advantage--imagine what it's like being real and being considered irrelevant.