Thank you Brian for taking the time to post your thoughts on the current state of men's basketball at LBSU. You and coach Greenberg were quite a pair and knew how to generate interest in the program and on the court.

Unfortunately we are sunk in my opinion and it will take a gargantuan effort to get us back on track.

We have a hemorrhaging budget, a leaky Pyramid roof that needs an investment of $50 million+, a current coach who can't produce and doesn't sell the program, and should have been gone 5-7 years ago. By most counts the players like him and he runs a clean program...every 5 years now we have a good season as he does recruit some good players...that is about it. In this 11 team Big West, in men's basketball, at best we are the 6th best team overall year after year on average. Mediocre really and our trajectory is slowly downward.

Many donating alumni are done investing in LBSU since the current President Jane Conoley took it upon herself to banish the 49er name and Prospector Pete the mascot and replace it with a gender neutral shark named Elbee. Seriously. The university has lost $1,000+ in my donations per year since that moronic decision, and I know I'm not alone on this subject.

What needs to be done is far, far too much for the current powers that be to handle or even care about. We have what appears to be a really good guy as our interim Athletic Director, who is a budget guy and is manning the fort while we drag our feet until this summer, at least, to hire a permanent AD. He's been tasked with doing whatever he can to shore up the budget of which apparently regular university funds are being used to plug some major gaps, not just one-time but every year. This seems to have been going on now for many years now.

What is being done? Only one glimmer of good news, any week now we should find out if Jane Conoley decides to go against the student government recommendation and institute a $64 per semester fee for athletics that would generate somewhere over $4 million per year. I'm of the belief she wants to get athletics out of the general university funds and back to paying more of its own way, and she will take whatever student heat comes her way and decide in favor of this. If she doesn't, we aren't only sunk we'll be buried and within 5 years could be Division II in everything but men's volleyball.

I'd love to hear what Seth Greenberg would say about all this. He was so approachable. I mailed him (yeah, back before email was a thing really!) an idea about approaching AOL to get naming rights for the Pyramid, their logo was already Pyramid like and at the time they were a real up and coming tech company. He wrote me a response I still have somewhere, thanking me for my interest and ideas. If Seth had nothing better to do in life and wanted a challenge of a lifetime, I'd go to bat for him as our new AD, talk about a salesman!

As for the men's basketball program, I wish them the best next year but I'll be foregoing my season seat that I've had for 15+ years now. I'll jump back in if a new set of leadership rights the ship, even tentatively, and I'll show my support. Until then, wishing for the best, seeing nothing currently to think my wishes will come true.

Thanks for being an all time great 49er who still cares. Your input is like a shot of energy for me!