I agree with 23UNC. It might be best to have less players on the roster and have more money to add towards NIL money for our team to attract one or two more top elite talent. The top brass just gave Michael Malone over 8 million per year. The top brass must find a way to help CB and Staff out. Do we have anyone / donators that can give CB at least $500,000 dollars to put towards NIL money. Can we get Michael Jordan, Danny Green, etc. to give. I think CB and Staff will have to hire someone to help with fundraising money for her team or something.
Official Player Return/Departure Thread
- Thread starter Carolina151
- Start date
I think this team could be a S16 team, but I don't think it does any better than that.
PG: Kate, Transfer
SG: Kelly, Transfer, Zubich
SF: Brooks, Hull
PF: Baker, TQ, Astakhova
C: Toomey, Thomas, Bofia
PG: Kate, Transfer
SG: Kelly, Transfer, Zubich
SF: Brooks, Hull
PF: Baker, TQ, Astakhova
C: Toomey, Thomas, Bofia
I think your projection is about right unless we land a real good guard out of the portal.
Plus we do not know how good Bofia has been in practice or how good Brooks could be in year two.
Liza Astkhova is a very interesting player.. She could possibly play every position except maybe PG.
On the surface your prediction looks solid. We need to hope Reniya can get 100% healthy.
Plus we do not know how good Bofia has been in practice or how good Brooks could be in year two.
Liza Astkhova is a very interesting player.. She could possibly play every position except maybe PG.
On the surface your prediction looks solid. We need to hope Reniya can get 100% healthy.
We really need at least one more really good guard, but truthfully would rather that girl be a stud starter. I don’t trust Kelly’s health.
With Grant and Aarnisalo both out the door UNC needs a 3pt shooter to start or play heavy rotation minutes. Preferably one great at defense too.
Any chance Lanie could return or has that ship sailed? Agree we need that shooter. Grant hurt more than Aarnisalo for me.
A couple of posters here reported Grant was offered same deal as last year, but wanted more. I have no idea if that is true, but let's say it is. I would assume three things:
- Odds are there is some team somewhere who needs Grant more than we do and/or has more to spend.
- If that offer does not come or is only marginally better, then heck yea, take her back
- With her in the portal we are IMMEDIATELY offering her spot and her money to replacements. as soon as one says yes that door is closed to Grant.
Edit: As much as I love Grant and generally prefer team continuity, I think this cold calculation is true: Whatever guard you can get for the combination of Grant's money and Aarnisalo's money will do more for the team than both of them staying. That is simply because we have Harpring coming in who should start (plus a healthy Kelly would be icing on the cake.) Of course that means you need to successfully recruit a player better than Grant or Aarnisalo, and that is a tough task, certainly not guaranteed. My gut tells me getting a player on par with one of them is probably more likely, given the portal market last year and how few star players came into the ACC. 2 or 3 at most depending on where you draw the line at "star player."
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Well folks, LG is gone. It is time to move on and stop trying to guess why she left. There are too many dawg gone players in the portal right now that are better than LG and EA. KJ is in the portal. Jones is in the portal, etc. Some of yall are acting like the world has stop because LG and EA have left. We cannot dwell on that. Everyone can be replaced in college basketball. I would like for your guys who are feeling down to channel your energy in helping CB find a way to generate more money for NIL deals. This is the only why that we are going to get elite players to come to the Heel. As Roy Williams use to tell his players, LG and EA are not coming in the that door, we have to move on. CB needs ideas and help. We need someone to reach out to Steve the new AD and say look, find this team some blank money. You did it for the football team and the men's basketball team. Now it the time to rally behind CB and her team. Someone has already thrown out a good idea. Take the money that you were going to give LG and EA, put that together and go out and find an elite PG. KJ is available right now. For how long, nobody knows. Get on the blank phone and call some of the boosters and see if they can donate some money to the cause. Hell, tell CB to call Mack Brown or MJ for some money. These are just a few ideas. We need you guys who post and who care about women's BB to find some solutions on how CB can get some more money, and then we need Carolina151 to go and present these ideas to CB. I am open for some suggestions. I will make a new thread, and I will call it NIL Money Suggestion for UNC Women's BB.
If money isn’t a problem, I’m not sure Lanie and Elaina would be in the portal.
Unless they were asking for too much money. We’re not on a hamburger budget, but it’s still a budget. There’s a market value for each player, and unless you’re in the SEC/BIG or print money, you can’t pay well over market value.
BINGO! You still need to have a good understanding of your OWN market value, not what your patents or “agent“/AAU coach think. Players can price themselves right out the door.
CONFIRMED: BLUE BALLERS RETURNING!
that includes Laila Hull, Blanca Thomas, Ciera Toomey, and Jordan Zubich
that includes Laila Hull, Blanca Thomas, Ciera Toomey, and Jordan Zubich
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Laila Hull is a great shooter. With more time and a good summer she can take up a lot of the slack of
Lanie leaving plus Laila is 6'1.
Kate H is going to create open looks for the two wings and whoever plays the 4. We are going to be good
and get better with some good portal additions.
Lanie leaving plus Laila is 6'1.
Kate H is going to create open looks for the two wings and whoever plays the 4. We are going to be good
and get better with some good portal additions.
Let’s be honest. The “we only have a S16 budget” is based off the assumption that we’ll always be a 4 seed that will face a strong 1 seed in the S16. I don’t believe that will be the case going forward. If the refs don’t swallow their whistles in the first Dook game and we hit our free throws against Louisville we might have actually come out as regular season champs (don’t quote me). That’s not a #4 seed. My point is this same roster was more than capable of being a 2 or 3 seed. Once you get to the tourney you have to SHOW UP but getting to the E8 is very possible being a 2 or 3 seed. My point, win the ACC (regular season or tourney) and we’re not talking about a S16 match up with a 1 seed. Now a 1 seed…yeah we’ve got work to do there.
Everything you stated was about on court performance and that’s not what I am talking about at all. I am talking about the resources we have to build a program compared to a UConn, USC, UCLA. Do you think we are equal in that regard?
If the refs don’t swallow their whistle and get reprimanded for that game, we finish in a 3-way tie for 1st and get the tiebreaker as the 1 seed in the ACCT.
But if you want to get technical, we have a Round of 32 budget and resources with the expectation of hosting and going to the Sweet 16 each year. If you catch a break as a 3 seed and strike gold, you’ve got a shot at the Elite 8.
And that to me says a lot about the coaching of last year‘s team more than anything. I want this team to consistently be a national contender and we need to have the resources to make that happen. I am not sure we do right now. That is on the administration and the supporters who could be in position to provide NIL. I just don’t think we have the monetary support that others do and I hope I am wrong and would gleefully admit it.
Not at all. I agree with you from a resource perspective. We need both. Court performance and budget. We’re probably another comma in our budget away from #1 seed discussions. That said, LSU’s “million dollar“ roster was ousted the same round as us by a team we beat (should have beaten twice). It goes back to both of our points. We need the budget and the court performance to take things to the next level (#1 seeds and FF runs).
On a side note, I also don’t think the level of spending without court performance and accountability is sustainable (i.e. perform for pay, buyouts, multi-year contracts, etc) This is where college basketball is right now. I have a feeling this will change. Pouring money into players that don’t perform is bad business. That being said hopefully there is a leveling off of spending at some point. Not for complete parity but maybe for roster stabilization.
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Sounds about right, since they have an abundance of money to throw around. The problem with that is LG will probably get recruited over at those schools. But it's her choice and wish her nothing but the best going forward.
I have said for years that if we continue to finish 7th or 8th in home attendance - 50% of capacity on average - we will have a problem recruiting or retaining players. Against Maryland, there were a bunch of very visible empty seats. And please, no "if the product was better, people would come" nonsense. Our product is as good as Louisville, if we judge by the games we had with them this season, and they draw near 9,000 - 3X what we do.
Agree 100% ZinfanHeel. It’s very distressing and disappointing to see so many empty seats- especially in places where you know tickets have been purchased by Rams Club members who have chosen not to attend.
Okay, I will put this on this thread as well. Can someone, please tell CB to go and talk with Steve, our new AD about finding more money for WBB. Steve background from what I read was he knows how to raise money. He did it for NASCAR. That would be a great starting point. Also tell CB to reach out to MJ or Danny Green to see if they would invest $250, 000 a piece for her program. Danny gave the MBB a million dollars awhile back. This is a good time to reach out to MJ. That amount for him would be like $250 for him. Someone needs to relay this to CB this is my suggestion. She could also reach out to former players who played at UNC under SH. They could give $250 a piece. These are just suggestions. A small amount does add up.
This is an excellent point. The university must do better promoting WBB. Attendance, including student attendance, was down this year from my eye test. Ticket sales may have been up, but it's not translating to more butts in seats. It takes a village. Support this program or watch it slip.
Expanding on that point - UNC had the lowest home attendance of any Sweet Sixteen team. We're one of only 3 teams in the Sweet Sixteen averaging under 4,000 fans a game - the others are TCU (bundles of money) and dook.
IMO, we have three problems with attendance:
1. This has been previously addressed. Too many of the reserved season tickets are purchased by Rams Club members who have little or no intention of attending regular season games, unless the opponent is dook, wolpfack, or a top 10 opponent. They buy the tickets, which are very reasonably priced, to lock in postseason tickets if we host.
2. Student attendance was way down this year when compared to last season. Your guess is as good as mine as to why. I hate to trash our students, but it appears sports, with the exception of the men's hoops game vs dook, don't mean nearly as much to them as they did when I was in school. For example, baseball gave away retro jerseys Tuesday night to the first 500 students. As my wife and I walked to Boshamer, we passed several students who showed up at the stadium, got their freebie, and then left without watching even one pitch of the game.
3. The average age of our season ticket holders is fairly high. We need to figure out some way to get the younger crowd more involved. Unfortunately that may tie in with 2 above. Sports just seems to mean more to those of us older fans / alums.
1. This has been previously addressed. Too many of the reserved season tickets are purchased by Rams Club members who have little or no intention of attending regular season games, unless the opponent is dook, wolpfack, or a top 10 opponent. They buy the tickets, which are very reasonably priced, to lock in postseason tickets if we host.
2. Student attendance was way down this year when compared to last season. Your guess is as good as mine as to why. I hate to trash our students, but it appears sports, with the exception of the men's hoops game vs dook, don't mean nearly as much to them as they did when I was in school. For example, baseball gave away retro jerseys Tuesday night to the first 500 students. As my wife and I walked to Boshamer, we passed several students who showed up at the stadium, got their freebie, and then left without watching even one pitch of the game.
3. The average age of our season ticket holders is fairly high. We need to figure out some way to get the younger crowd more involved. Unfortunately that may tie in with 2 above. Sports just seems to mean more to those of us older fans / alums.
Rest assured that CB is working the administration, the donor base and everyone she can to garner program support. She’s definitely gotten some really good things for the team (eg new practice facilities) but raising NIL money is a 24/7/365 year after year proposition. It is also one were the grassroots donors can make a difference. Football and MBB need the mega donors and while their support certainly helps the non-revenue sports when they choose to give directly to one of those teams, the little guys can make a difference here. Ear mark your RC donations for WBB is a way to start.
I have seen this repeatedly at MBB, WBB, baseball, WSOC, MSOC, etc. It truly angers me. They need to make the students stay until at least after halftime to get the freebies.
Can someone send me the link to Ear mark a donation to the WBB team. I will give something. Every little bit will add up. Also can we someone on CB's staff start a Go Fund or something. Thirdly, can CB not find a graduate marketing student to work as a marketing strategist to help promote women's basketball to get people to come to the games next season and fill the stands for next year.
To make a direct donation to WBB you can go to this link and look for the words "Support WBB" in white on a navy blue header. https://goheels.com/sports/womens-basketball. This will allow you to make a direct donation to our women's basketball team.
Serious question. The men’s team and the football team both had over $20 million in profit. The women’s basketball team lost over $4 million. The university recently had to provide $14 million of support to the athletic department due to overall losses. I want all Carolina teams to do well but how does it make sense to throw more money at a program that is already losing $4 million? I think the next largest loss is baseball at $2 million.
I am not sure college athletics is sustainable under current conditions. Need guardrails or some non revenue sports are going to have to be cut at some point.
There's another opportunity for student participation today. Our highly ranked women's lacrosse team has a game at 6pm with a unique T shirt offered to the first 500 students. Hoping that more of them stay around to watch this fantastic team in action against top opponent Stanford.
the main issues with WBB is that expenses outpace revenue because
1. Title IX: this is the only women’s sport that is also played by men as a revenue generator. So with a direct equal schools feel pressure to have some parity on the facilities, staffing, and other program expenses to match MBB. If the men are flying in planes while the women are in passenger vans 3 states over you may be hit with a lawsuit.
2. At the vast majority of schools this is the top women’s sport. So when you are choosing where you want to spend that equity money, schools choose WBB.
3. Keeping up with the Joneses: if you are going to play a sport, most schools want to actually compete and win in that sport. The dynamic above has created an arms race that perpetuates. The revenue does not justify current coaching salaries (in my opinion the #1 outsized expense right now) or other expenses. But when a school like Texas has a quarter billion annual budget for their athletic department, they don’t mind hiring Vic Schaffer at $2 mil to become a winner in a sport that many people care about.
But if you look at revenue alone, WBB generates a lot of money. our program generates over $2.5M a year. that is more than enough money to operate a college basketball team and break even. d3 schools do it for 1/3 that. Men and women’s programs. But at our level that is not winning basketball. Do you want to doom you program to failure. Most who have money say no thanks. Or you are Boston College who can’t win, can’t keep good coaches, and can’t keep players.
i could also go on and on about how poorly WBB is currently failing to generate revenue based on the popularity of the sport. Conferences package WBB with all the Olympic sports for media rights deals. They do not have their own merch stream, the NCAA sold the tournament rights to ESPN in an awful deal. What we see as revenue is not currently the reality of this sport.
but that dynamic is not the fault of the players. They are producing a product that fans want and are willing to pay for. It can and does produce revenue at a high level, even with the limitations above.
that is why rev share is tied to “revenue” not “profit” players get a cut of the athletic department revenue in proportion to what the schools generates from that sport. The fact that they overspend is not calculated in.
and more importantly, the conversation we are having now about NIL is completely separate from all of this. NIL is either legit business deals for individuals outside of the athletic department budget, or it is booster pay in fake business deals outside of the athletic department budget.
that second part is what we want more of. And boosters buying players has never had anything to do with profitability, regardless of the sport. It is rich people who want to win at any cost throwing stupid money at their fandom. That used to be a black market, now it is an open market.
Us WBB fans wanting more of it for WBB is all about winning and has nothing to do with the sport’s profitability. of course that also means that the only solution is to find those fat cats with stupid money and hope they care enough about WBB.
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I don't mean to disparage all of our students, because a decent number of them got their jersey Tuesday night and stayed for at least some portion of the game. It just rubbed me the wrong way seeing some of them already heading home as soon as they got their freebie.
W
WBB brought in over $2.5 million in revenue last year. Its expenses were up to $6.7. Still ~25th nationally.