Reinvigorating NU Sports

This is a post on put on the Niagara Nation rearding NU sports: https://niagarasports.net/forum/viewforum.php?f=17

Mike Deane made Siena basketball.

Mike moved Siena from the ARC to the TU, upped their schedule and beat the big boys with regularity and as a result energized Siena's basketball and academics. He also recruited smart kids who graduated and was a task master. In addition to coaching per se, he was on every talk show and TV that existed, had a tremendous relationship with alums and could work a room and the media as well as anyone I have ever met. He brought millions to Siena and his Siena teams averaged 21 wins a season...yes. basketball and hockey can be huge income generators when managed properly yet NU refuses to take the proper steps or examine how we elevated out program in the past or how programs now elevate.. Mike was always up-scheduling and beating much bigger schools as a result he energized Siena's alums and subway alums while attracting many corporate sponsors who couldn't wait to affiliate with a winner. He took Siena to the NCAA’s and beat a highly rated Stanford, left to be the HC at Marquette and took the Explorers to the NCAA’s, and then left Marquette for Lamar and took them to the NCAA’s as well.

Mike is a winner, he has the coaching pedigree, the coaching record needed is a proven income generator and we could have had him at NU. If he came to NU the FNC would now be our home court (facility issue solved), we’d be a top eastern program playing everyone and winning before 6-7K in season tickets (revenue issue solved) at FNC, NU would own western NY b-ball, we'd have a solid pipeline to Toronto, there would be a Mike Deane TV & radio show each week, maybe more than once weekly, the media would be a regular at practice as would 20-30 alums and fans, and millions in new revenue would be realized each year from new corporate sponsorships (the revenue thing again) and applications for traditional admissions would be up 30%. Could NU use energized and informed fans? Could NU admissions and Alumni Relations benefit from a 20-30 times the exposure we now receive? Would it be good if the few games at Gallagher each year became tough tickets? Would it be helpful to have a coach that thrived on communications and interactions and never had dinner or picnic he didn't like, support and insist upon?

I contacted NU regarding Mike...and he would have taken the job...and never heard a peep back…and now look where we are given NU's vetting process. We took a DII coach over a proven winner who brought 3 different teams to the NCAA's, was a proven "energizer" who connected with alums magnificently, brought in millions, made Siena a household name that appealed to high schoolers applying to college and won with solid kids. Who made the hire? Why? And then Tom Crowley is inexplicably fired? Could it be he thought he was the AD?

Turning the program around to be a top eastern team is a simple as hiring a new coach. What is NU waiting for?

Turning hockey around to be a perennial top-ten team is a simple as hiring a new coach. What is NU waiting for?

Turning Niagara's public image around and increasing the applicant pool of traditional students is a simple as new athletic management. What is NU waiting for?

Why the hesitation? What is the freak'n problem, can't anyone at NU tell the difference between W's & L's.

DePaul was once a great program, look at them now. St. John's was once a great program, look at them now. What do they and NU have in common?

Total control doesn't work in basketball or sports or anything else.

We're only a few decisions away from a major rejuvenation of basketball and hockey. It can be done and we have much, much more to sell and work with than Siena and many other schools. It's clear to me that remedy will not be organic but must come from outside. The internal management at NU just doesn't get it despite the indisputable performance evidence in our programs that should be revenue producing, the very poor performance throughout athletics and as a proxies, poor attendance which continues to decline and anemic corporate sponsorship support. There are many things NU does well and should be applauded, just not sports.

PS I am not trying to hurt anyone; I am trying to reorient Niagara towards a proven, winning course of growth. Of course change will be involved and the resulting level of uncertainty may be troubling to many; keep the faith, all will work out well for all and the real rewards go to where they truly belong, NU students and future alums.

'71, indeed some editorial content is evident. I happen to think the editorial summations are fact based, 100% fact based, but am open to enlightenment. If any of my statements or conclusions are off base, lack statistical support or are mean spirited or overly emotional I will be pleased to review and adjust. I just want what s best for Niagara tomorrow and 5, 10, 20 years down the road.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/dc- ... ne-to-jmu/
Why Matt Brady brought Mike Deane to JMU
By Dan Steinberg March 15, 2013

In Mike Deane’s first season as a Division I head coach, he arrived at Siena, which was led by a senior point guard named Matt Brady. The two men had, shall we say, a dynamic relationship.

“He called me every name in the book,” Brady said this week.

“I don’t know what names there are in the book,” Deane responded.

“There were times I didn’t understand him and some of the things he was asking me to do,” Brady said.

“I think I expected more from him than he had been used to giving on the offensive end, so he gave more resistance than some of the other guys,” Deane said. “Instead of a give-and-take, it was kind of a push-and-shove.”

But there was admiration, too, in that relationship, which culminated in a 17-12 record. Brady left Siena as the school’s all-time assists leader, and Deane would go on to a successful eight-year run, averaging nearly 21 wins.

“He was the first coach I had ever been around that wanted a person-to-PERSON relationship, not a coach-to-player relationship,” Brady said of Deane. “I certainly recognized right away that Mike was trying to humanize the coach’s relationship with his players, wasn’t trying to become a dictator.”

“I always knew he was a self-made player,” Deane said of Brady. “He outworked everybody, he was more cerebral than anyone else. I always knew he was going to be a very, very good coach.”

And so the men stayed in touch as Deane’s coaching career continued with stops at Marquette, Lamar and Wagner. They stayed in touch as Brady got into the profession, working under Tom Penders at Rhode Island, serving as a longtime assistant at St. Joseph’s and getting head coaching jobs at Marist and then James Madison.

And when Brady had an opening for an assistant entering the final season of his contract with JMU, he called his former head coach, who had been out of the game for two seasons. Deane hadn’t been an assistant coach since serving under Jud Heathcote at Michigan State in the mid-’80s. but he assured Brady that he was game.

“I explained to him in our first conversation that the role of the assistant and the role of the head coach come from different perspectives, and I thought I could complement him really well,” said Deane, 61. “I told him I could be a very good assistant, that I didn’t think any task would be too small.”

Such as?

“I’d pick up after these guys – they’re all slobs anyway,” Deane explained. “I’d clean the locker room. Those kind of things never bothered me. Those are program image things that I think are important – I actually did those as a head coach, too.”

Brady was convinced. Deane officially joined the staff over the summer. Nine months later, they’re going to the NCAA tournament.

Monday’s win in the CAA title game clinched JMU’s first tournament berth since 1994. Deane – who previously took three different schools to the tournament — is involved in recruiting and strategy and other typical duties of an assistant; “the fact of the matter is Mike is a talented basketball coach,” Brady said.

But the head coach also said his new assistant helped change the program’s atmosphere.

“He’s got a personality that allows himself to represent our program — with players, with [boosters], with alumni — in a very gregarious way,” Brady saiid.

“He can bust anybody’s chops. He can make fun of anybody. He’s got that quick wit about him that I actually envy and admire. That’s one of the things I knew would be helpful. I think it breaks tension. A self-deprecating sense of humor is a great thing that a lot of leaders have. I happen not to have it, but I envy people that do. I do think it creates better relationships. My program, quite frankly, has benefited by having the sense of humor that he has, and that I don’t.”

During his time away from basketball, Deane said, he “wrecked a lot of golf courses” and “got myself in pretty good physical condition, which in one season I managed to get out of.” He said his sense of humor is more easily deployed as an assistant, while admitting that “I tend to make people feel comfortable, and that helps get the message across.”

And he praised the job his former pupil did throughout a pressure-filled season that ended in triumph.

“Matt, with his back up against the wall, in the last year of his contract, showed tremendous poise throughout the year,” Deane said. “I’m very, very content with the situation that exists here. I would love to stay with him and be a part of this. In the twilight of this otherwise mediocre career, this is a very nice place for me to be.”