Reply To: Would this interest Basketball/Football Fans?

Forum Forum Lehigh Sports Lehigh Men’s Basketball Would this interest Basketball/Football Fans? Reply To: Would this interest Basketball/Football Fans?

#5967

lehigh90
Participant

What you say is true, and, obviously, I am thrilled at the recent run. I really am a follower of basketball, football and, to a lesser extent, lacrosse, although that will pick up now. I would just love a little more, who wouldn’t?

Wrestling seems like the same old story, year after year. We are very solid, in Top 10 or 20, but never seem like a real threat to win a national title. We have 2-3 top notch guys who challenge for an individual title, but, as a team, we are pretty far behind the elite 4-5 schools. I can live with that, of course. It also seems like a sport that the older alumni cling to (pre-’80), but the younger alumni have less of a love for. Nobody ever posts about wrestling on this board, and it is the most successful program at the school.

This basketball run seems like a blip in the school’s history. When CJ leaves, I don’t see us sustaining this. Just like when Queenan and Polaha left, we could be in oblivion for 20 years. Program is on upswing last few years, but I am not sure, we can backfill with enough talent to keep us at the top of the PL with Bucknell. I’m hopeful, but without university support, I think we will have ups and downs.

Football is on a nice run, but I think we benefit greatly from fairly mediocre competition in the PL. If we were in the CAA and had to go up against UNH, Villanova, Towson, Maine on a weekly basis, we are probably a .500 team. We face those teams generally once a year and lose. So, PL is miles behind CAA in football. Football is the real quandary, because they are never leaving FCS, so it is hard to really increase the status.

Again, I’m thrilled at the progress, and realize my desires are far from the President and Board. But, the best thing that has probably ever happened in Lehigh sports was the Duke win. And, it would be nice to see bigger, more important games and wins in the two sports that people care about generally, football and basketball (the traditional revenue sports). If I lived in the Lehigh Valley maybe I would care a little more about baseball and softball. But, I don’t think alumni generally care about the non-revenue sports.

Basketball does seem like the easiest road to national prominence for a school like Lehigh in the revenue sports. We will never rise to the level of the SEC schools in football, but there are a lot of successes in basketball that are not such a stretch. I look at VCU, Butler, Gonzaga, Villanova, St. Joe’s, etc. as models that Lehigh basketball could take with a move up in class.

  • This reply was modified 12 years, 9 months ago by  lehigh90.