Stan R

sweet! very impressive.

PREDATOR DRONES MAN!!! THEY'RE EVERYWHERE!!!

Harry I get what you are saying, on the other hand... HE HAD BETTER WIN to back up that kind of talk. I was impressed by last year but if he comes out with a team that could care less in OOC play this year, he's going to look a little silly.

I can see both sides of this argument because I get that Emmitt is wary that we may fall back into our "old ways" of settling for good enough. Having been here since 1995 however, the thing that amazed me the most from this past 12 years was the fact that after the stadium was built, we almost immediately sold out the luxury boxes and a huge portion of the box seats for 3K a pop. That was a shocker to me after realizing that for all this time we've had people willing and ready to put down that sort of money once Apogee was built. Maybe even more impressive was inking the naming rights for Apogee. Are you kidding me? We just had to build a new stadium and we had people willing to throw 20 friggin million dollars at us? wow. just wow. Again- I'm just coming from a layperson's point of view, but someone who - like our friend Mr. FFRick, sat in crowds of literally 400 fans at a game and thought: This is it! We're doomed. We should drop football, this is just embarrassing. I could not have been more certain that football would NEVER make it at North Texas. It just makes CUSA, baseball!?!?! all of this the more crazy to realize it is happening.

Can't help but think of my kid's wii game - Kirby's epic adventure... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kirby_Wii.png

You're talking crazy talk, plain and simple and ignoring the facts of what has happened time and time again even over at lowly fouts. REGARDLESS of whether or not we get blasted by LSU by 60 points or not, we will fill Apogee with a minimum of 20K fans for the home opener, bank it. People simple don't care about games prior to our home opener and will show up even if we were playing with a team full of ferrets throwing around the football. Where you get in trouble is the last half of the season. That is where you get the 13K crowds after we've lost 5 games in a row and play ULL or ULM or whomever at home.

GREAT to hear! Now we'll have some questions to bug RV with during the cookout. Details baby! We need details! To clarify the intent of my earlier rant - it was not to say that you (the athletic dept.) is not doing a fantastic job - far from it! I think what I've seen over the past 16 years of following NT athletics is that we make progress then stall out for a while. It is just such a critical point right now in all sports but especially basketball to be able to capitalize on the gains we are making. Based on what I'm hearing folks in the Athletics dept feel the same way.

I guess the other point being made which I think is critical to our future here is to capitalize on this by adding FACILITIES IMPROVEMENTS. Just because we have tony and TJ and <insert awesomer player name here> doesn't mean that in 4 years we might possibly be back to averaging 2,000 fans per game. Yes we obviously have to win and win big next year but the way to continue forward progress is to....... YOU GUESSED IT! Show me the money. That means we have to capitalize on the team power gains by putting in concrete capital improvements: - increasing spending on game day atmosphere (gradually amp up atmosphere by spending the $$$) - Bling out the practice facility as much as POSSIBLE. - Jumbotron is a must over the next 2 years MAKE.. IT.. HAPPEN.. I don't want to hear whining about we don't own the facility. BS - MAKE IT SO. Work with the UNT administration to work out some kind of agreement. - Amp up the concessions. (Options, Quality, Staffing) Come on - with crowds averaging over 4,000 - this should be doable. I stand in the crazy lines - it needs work guys.

Wow -can someone explain this to me? I thought players transferring from D1 schools had to sit a year, basically in ALL cases even if granted releases from their departing school.. What is different here??

I'm just overjoyed with the fact that someone is actually taking the initiative to get the ball rolling and helping out RV in gathering (donating also) necessary funds for this. From what I gather the space is basically already there (court) and it's just a question of how much to add on. Since we have the open land and infrastructure (electricity, water, etc.) I would imagine we could do a heck of a job for a million, maybe less. If you need lockers and a meeting room or two - you could do that in what - 6,000 sq. feet?? Am I way off in my assumptions/estimations?

Great podcast as usual. Entertaining and informative. Always look forward to hearing the updates. Good to have the basketball perspective in there as well. Tasty... Ritalin is in your future brah. Wicked awesome doses of it.

Whoops missing link.

So what was the original player video then? Looks like BBall players reacting to tournament selection.

Now you're on to something... TAMS kids... Have we explored this market for recruits? Let's not underestimate the power or smarts on the courts.

A wise man once said that bad things can happen when you blitz and one of them involves the other team's band.

Looks like a doctored video to me..

Like - as in fruit preserves? I never new canning was so integral to our success. I will do my part and create a cache of mason jars!

I thought that was an interesting option given by the committee. I wonder if any players take this option.

I dunno Flyer. I keep seeing your slap on the wrist posts and I really want to agree with you. Based on the information I've read on this it kind of reminds me of how they got Capone on tax evasion. Yes on the surface it does seem like a slap but if you look at it over the next 5 years it does seem to be devastating (potentially is the key). I agree that the death penalty would have been more obviously terrible to not play football for two years. I'm waiting to see how many players transfer this year. To me if the floodgates open that will feel more like a penalty to watch them lose 75% of games this year. So what is the crux of your argument/opinion on this because I'm really curious. Do you feel as though since they can play this season they will just have a few "moments of silence", wear some black wristbands and then amp up the pagentry as SliverEagle likes to say and then - life as usual? Do you feel as though to the general public after a couple of games of "remembrance" it will seem as though nothing has happened and the profits will just continue to pile up regardless of sanctions, penalties etc? To me we won't know if this is a slap or not until at least 2 or more years.

Don't see this happening! They may be down for a few years (even this is debatable as fans will simply circle the wagons now), but sometime after the initial 4-6 years they will be back in the top 40 teams in the country with relatively little impact. As others have said, there is far too much $$$ involved at PSU for this not to happen. SMU was a small private school with fair weather fans in Dallas unaffiliated with the school. PSU is far from that with a huge alumni and loyal (read: rabid) fanbase.

YESSSSS!! Thunderstruck video still the best. Man, great stuff. Still respect Dickey - playbook in the pants and all.

Boy. I like where this is going. Hope it works out in our favor.

If only you could do so without begging for... praise..?

praise++