Lady Eagles Tennis lose opener - USM Forum -- Message Board

Date: Feb 3, 2006

Lady Eagles Tennis lose opener

Date: Feb 3, 2006

And your point is?

Date: Feb 3, 2006

Westchester wrote:

The Southern Miss women's tennis team opened its home schedule with a 6-1 loss to Houston, Wednesday afternoon at the Terry Willis Courts at Tatum Park.

Actually, that was the home opener. They already lost 6-1 at Ole Miss. They are 0-2.

Date: Feb 3, 2006

SO wrote:

And your point is?

Giannini hates womens sports. He calls them a resource drain.

Date: Feb 3, 2006

Here's a quote from Jerry Seinfeld about going to the NYC Marathon:

Jerry: [about the marathon] Ah, what's to see? A woman from Norway, a guy from Kenya and 20,000 losers. (wikiquote)

It describes USM athletics. "An okay football team, a decent baseball team, and a horde of losing in between..."

Date: Feb 4, 2006

banya wrote:

Here's a quote from Jerry Seinfeld about going to the NYC Marathon:
Jerry: [about the marathon] Ah, what's to see? A woman from Norway, a guy from Kenya and 20,000 losers. (wikiquote)
It describes USM athletics. "An okay football team, a decent baseball team, and a horde of losing in between..."

Funny, especially since the Women's Tennis team was actually very good last year (they actually posted their second best record in the team's 30 year history, 15-8 record). The difference is that Jennifer Sebille graduated and she was their best tennis player. The problem is they compete against team's with much more money to put into their tennis programs (Tulsa, Ole Miss, Alabama) and even diverting money from football (unless you diverted 50%+ of it solely to Tennis) would help get the program on the same level. This isn't a slam at Giannini or anyone over there in the athletic department, but it's a miracle some of those programs do as well as they do given what they have to work with. That's not to say the athletic department doesn't care to invest more in facilities for all the programs because the tennis facility will be top notch if they can ever get the money for it. The set back is the lack of funds, no donors want to support it and state law forbids tax money from being used to build athletic venues (the coliseum gets by because graduation and concerts are held there. That makes it a convocation center). Sadly, recruits DO care about a school's facilities and consider it when making their decision about where to go. You have to remember, they are teenagers and image means a lot to them.

Date: Feb 4, 2006

Let's examine the whole 15-8 thing (greatest season since forever).

The 15 wins included Louisiana-Monroe, Louisiana-Lafayette, Lamar, NW State (LA), Nicholls State, West Virginia, Hofstra, Troy, Indiana State, Southern, UAB, Arkansas State, Alcorn State, Middle Tennessee State, and Memphis.

The losses were to New Orleans, Georgia State, Texas Tech, Florida International, McNeese State, Southeastern Louisiana, East Carolina, and North Carolina-Charlotte.

The East Carolina, Memphis and UNC-Charlotte matches were played in the C-USA tournament. That means that UAB was the only regular season match against a C-USA opponent. Instead, they spent their time playing Alcorn, Southern, NW State (LA), UL-Monroe, Southern, etc., like most other USM sports teams.

Is the whole USM athletics thing a sham? banya is correct. CY, you should seek employment in the USM SID.

Date: Feb 4, 2006

Back to Meltdown wrote:

Is the whole USM athletics thing a sham? banya is correct.

You answered your own question, BtM. If you're not sure, go back to the "Giannini's Kingdom" thread and take a refresher course. Everyone always says that they are amazed at what USM accomplishes each year on its small budget ($18,000,000). What amazes me is how many times during an academic year that USM sports teams manage to lose to Nicholls State, McNeese State, NW State (LA), Samford, et al, when these schools' sports departments operate mainly on barter.

You ought to be able to get the outcome detailed in the "Giannini's Kingdom" thread on $5 million dollars. The way I see it, they overspend about $10 mill. Van Arnold could do Giannini's job at least as good.

Date: Feb 4, 2006

Ok folks, I'll defend Randy Rowley. He inherited an unmitigated disaster in 2003. At one point, the women's team was the worst athletic team I ever saw USM field in any sport, men or women. There's no point dwelling on how THAT happened but it was a mess. We're now working back to where USM tennis has always been: respectable .500 tennis and really good students and good kids. You don't count graduation rates with tennis players, you count GPAs and admissions to grad school. In all fairness thats almost universal across tennis programs.

With the small crumbs given the program, that's not bad. USM doesn't even have a tennis facility and the kids practice and play at either Tatum Park or the Country Club. The situation led to an NCAA violation of using the University vans to get to practice. They now use their own cars to get to Tatum or the CC.

The early loss to UM is normal. USM usually plays some matches against UM, MSU, or Alabama early in the season. These are good tuneups for USM (toughest teams they will see all year) and "scrimmages" for the SEC teams. The loss to Houston, especially the margin, is worrisome though.

Please don't try to Eustachy this program, it's not the same deal.

Date: Feb 5, 2006

winchester wrote:

Please don't try to Eustachy this program, it's not the same deal.

I don't think anybody is trying to Eustachy this program. It has been suggested here several times that male USM fans seem to revel in not having successful women's sports programs. I think that is true myself, and I think they do so because they think they are emulating schools like Florida, LSU, Alabama etc. The irony is that these schools are proud of the successes of their women's programs.

Date: Feb 5, 2006

USM RN wrote:

winchester wrote:
Please don't try to Eustachy this program, it's not the same deal.
I don't think anybody is trying to Eustachy this program. It has been suggested here several times that male USM fans seem to revel in not having successful women's sports programs. I think that is true myself, and I think they do so because they think they are emulating schools like Florida, LSU, Alabama etc. The irony is that these schools are proud of the successes of their women's programs.

I'll agree with you, USM RN. LSU, Auburn, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, and Florida all have been ultracompetitive in some facet of women's sports (though not all in the same sports) nationally and they advertise it. LSU and Tennessee have great women's basketball, Auburn is traditionally strong in swimming and diving and women's basketball, Alabama and Georgia duel it out for women's gymnastics (and sell 15,000+ tickets to their head-to-head meets), etcetera. The typical Southern Miss athletic supporter (tee hee) views women's sports as a burden on the important activities like football and baseball.

I don't think anybody's on Rowley here. The fault for the program slipping into an abyss lies with Giannini, as is the case with the entire athletic department. The women's tennis team getting spanked by Houston is just one point in a Connect the Dots world that, when completed will be one ugly picture.

Date: Feb 5, 2006

The Alabama vs. Auburn gymnastics meet (in Auburn) is on channel 25 right now. There are quite a few fans there.

Date: Feb 5, 2006

It was an interesting contrast to be at Western Kentucky when their womens' basketball team was in the Final Four (I think -- maybe Sweet Sixteen) -- anyway, at WKU those young women got all kinds of respect and attention, and the one or two in my classes were excellent students (as was the USM woman tennis player I taught in '04).

Date: Feb 5, 2006

That was a replay of a meet that took place on 1/27. Just checked and found out that 5,833 people were in Auburn in attendance. In contrast, there were 6,412 people "reportedly" at the USM-Memphis basketball game at RGC several days ago. Given the way USM reports attendance, there was probably a larger crowd at the gymnastics meet than at the basketball game.