Ford Center Hosts E8 from 2019-2022

[WestSideMafia]

Re: Ford Center Hosts E8 from 2019-2022

Yes, just like KWC's success is due to their Methodist affiliation, I bet very few of the athletes are Methodist.

Any success in athletics that Bellarmine has had has little to do with them being located in Louisville.

Bellarmine's success as of late has everything to do with the Catholic model of education in conjunction with athletics.

[Knightmoves]

Re: Ford Center Hosts E8 from 2019-2022

I think you are missing the point about Louisville. It is a fairly large city in a basketball crazy area. Although only a relatively small percentage of people in town follow Bellarmine basketball closely, it is a big enough town that a small percent is a decent D2 following. Everyone in Louisville who is a basketball fan knows something about Bellarmine's team. Any large city with major professional sports will not have much of a following for college sports and no following for D2. An overwhelming percentage of residents in Chicago, even those that follow professional basketball, do not even know that Lewis has a basketball team and a good many may not even know Lewis University exists. Same is true for Indianapolis. (I think I mentioned on a recent trip there, a person working in a convenience store less than 2 miles from the university had no idea the university existed.) Evansville has some of the same advantages as Louisville, except Evansville kinda sucks as a place to live. I think these advantages not only go to creating a fan base, but they also are a big plus in recruiting the kind of players Scotty needs.

BTW: I wouldn't count Parkside as being in the Chicago metro area.

[DUPanther]

Re: Ford Center Hosts E8 from 2019-2022

Any success in athletics that Bellarmine has had has little to do with them being located in Louisville.

Bellarmine's success as of late has everything to do with the Catholic model of education in conjunction with athletics.

What it most has to do with is their coach. But being located in Louisville with little competition at their level does nothing but help.

[DUPanther]

Re: Ford Center Hosts E8 from 2019-2022

I've done a little digging because I find this subject intriguing. Here's a list of all the GLVC schools sorted in order of size of metro area (or micro area, if they aren't in a metro).

UW-Parkside - Kenosha 99,218/Chicago metro 9,472,676
Lewis - Romeoville 39,912/Chicago metro 9,472,676
Maryville - St. Louis metro 2,811,588
UMSL - St. Louis metro 2,811,588
Rockhurst - Kansas City metro 2,159,159
William Jewell - Liberty 29,149/Kansas City metro 2,159,159
UIndy - Indianapolis metro 1,756,241
Bellarmine - Louisville metro 1,269,702
McKendree - Lebanon 4,418/Illinois Metro East 702,579
Drury - Springfield MO metro 541,991
Southern Indiana - Evansville metro 314,280
Ill-Springfield - Springfield IL metro 211,752
Quincy - Quincy micropolitan 40,643
Missouri S&T - Rolla micropolitan 19,559
Truman St - Kirksville micropolitan 17,505

By these numbers, if metro area was a main factor of team quality, Truman is WAY overachieving, and USI is also doing way better than expected.

Interesting, but that's only 1 part of the equation. The other part is how many other D2 schools are dipping their hands in the same recruiting pool. It'd be interesting to divide those population numbers by the number of other D2 schools within, say, 150 or 200 miles of the target school.

[schnautza]

Re: Ford Center Hosts E8 from 2019-2022

BTW: I wouldn't count Parkside as being in the Chicago metro area.

Kenosha's wikipedia page lists them as part of the Chicago metro area. It's probably a bit of a stretch, but there is a reason they call it "The Region". That's why I also listed their city population as well.

[kwcpantherfan]

Re: Ford Center Hosts E8 from 2019-2022

Interesting, but that's only 1 part of the equation. The other part is how many other D2 schools are dipping their hands in the same recruiting pool. It'd be interesting to divide those population numbers by the number of other D2 schools within, say, 150 or 200 miles of the target school.

Really you should include D1 schools as well, at least the lower tier ones, since especially with better D2 teams they are very often competing for the same players.

[KnightStalker]

Re: Ford Center Hosts E8 from 2019-2022

Really you should include D1 schools as well, at least the lower tier ones, since especially with better D2 teams they are very often competing for the same players.

I agree with that one. KY only has 3 D2 schools now but it has a number of mid to low major schools--NKU, EKU, Morehead, Murray, WKU. Don't forget the NAIAs like Georgetown, Lindsay Wilson, Campbellsville, etc. BU also gets some competition from DIII like Transy, Centre, etc. I don't think D2 is the only competition when it comes to recruiting basketball players for our schools. You can even throw in the walk-on and other bench players on the big DI teams. Still think several of them, if they were good enough to play for BU would have been better off in D2.

[DUPanther]

Re: Ford Center Hosts E8 from 2019-2022

I agree with that one. KY only has 3 D2 schools now but it has a number of mid to low major schools--NKU, EKU, Morehead, Murray, WKU. Don't forget the NAIAs like Georgetown, Lindsay Wilson, Campbellsville, etc. BU also gets some competition from DIII like Transy, Centre, etc. I don't think D2 is the only competition when it comes to recruiting basketball players for our schools. You can even throw in the walk-on and other bench players on the big DI teams. Still think several of them, if they were good enough to play for BU would have been better off in D2.

Agree with the low DI's, but not sure that NAIA's are serious competition for anyone that Scotty really wants out of high school. If you're going to throw all of those in there, though, I think Missouri has 14 D2's, 5 DIII, 13 NAIA, and 5 DI's (4 of which are below the "major" category).

[alumnifan]

Re: Ford Center Hosts E8 from 2019-2022

Yes, just like KWC's success is due to their Methodist affiliation, I bet very few of the athletes are Methodist.

Since KWC was formed in 1858 and began basketball in 1907, the 119 schools, colleges and universities affiliated with the United Methodist Church is definitely one of the reasons it has had success. The same could be said for Notre Dame football which is a Catholic University. So is Bellarmine. Duke basketball has done pretty well as a UMC affiliated University. The Same could be said of Baptist institutions. Who do you think created the vast majority of the academic/private institutions in this country from the very beginning. It was organized churches, not the state. The college with the largest endowment in Kentucky among all institutions in Kentucky is Berea College with over 1 Billion Dollars. It started out as a Christian institution in the 1800's that opposed slavery. Because it was set in the South, the founder/founders worked tirelessly to attain a large endowment from Northern sympathizers.

You can believe what you want. Sure State Schools win alot, but the private church affiliated institutions are older and were in on the ground floor of all collegiate athletic programs, because it was religious institutions that created the early academic infrastructure in this country and really started the movement of collegiate athletic programs. It's a fact. Research the beginnings of the Ivy League.