WOU Women Forfeiting Games

[D2Rover]

From the Western Washington website:

BELLINGHAM, Wash. -- Thursday's Western Washington University women's basketball game scheduled against Western Oregon University has been canceled due to the visiting team forfeiting the contest.

No additional details were given, but the 7 pm game featuring the No. 16 Vikings and Wolves on Thursday is now canceled. Per GNAC policy, the Vikings will receive a win towards the conference standings, which means WWU will officially punch its ticket to the GNAC Championships once the game is officially called a forfeit on Thursday evening.


WOU website had even less details, just said "unforeseen circumstances". It looks like they are forfeiting the Saturday game against Simon Fraser as well. Anybody know anything?

[laker]

Strange. You think that they would give a reason.

[tsull]

Strange. You think that they would give a reason.

Very odd and and not a good look for the university. We have a new coach she's trying to get some footing. Our athletic department is really a mess right now, they're losing games like crazy, half the men's basketball team on the roster is usually not suited up for one reason or another, and now this.

There's no incentive to improve things or get better. I've heard the president talk at a function, he's just a guy. He's another suit that comes into Monmouth and will soon leave Monmouth without making much of an impact.

We've had two good presidents in 40 years and they really made an impact. They need to get an admin that cares about enrollment, and improving the university overall, and that includes athletics. This is disappointing to me even if I will never find out what the reasons are.

[D2Rover]

Very odd and and not a good look for the university. We have a new coach she's trying to get some footing. Our athletic department is really a mess right now, they're losing games like crazy, half the men's basketball team on the roster is usually not suited up for one reason or another, and now this.

There's no incentive to improve things or get better. I've heard the president talk at a function, he's just a guy. He's another suit that comes into Monmouth and will soon leave Monmouth without making much of an impact.

We've had two good presidents in 40 years and they really made an impact. They need to get an admin that cares about enrollment, and improving the university overall, and that includes athletics. This is disappointing to me even if I will never find out what the reasons are.

She looks like a strange hire to me. I know winning at Salem isn't easy, but is someone who has never been above .500 at a 4-year school really the best available? It's like you've said about the Men's Basketball recruiting - Oregon is a solid Basketball state, there should be better options there than to go find people who are below average at a national level. If the forfeits turn out to be a case of her completely losing the locker room, that's a really bad look for both her and athletic admin.

I hope something changes for better there soon. Never like to see GNAC schools at this level of struggle.

[tsull]

She looks like a strange hire to me. I know winning at Salem isn't easy, but is someone who has never been above .500 at a 4-year school really the best available? It's like you've said about the Men's Basketball recruiting - Oregon is a solid Basketball state, there should be better options there than to go find people who are below average at a national level. If the forfeits turn out to be a case of her completely losing the locker room, that's a really bad look for both her and athletic admin.

I hope something changes for better there soon. Never like to see GNAC schools at this level of struggle.

I thought the hire was out of left field, her coming from the East coast. Kind of wondered why she was taking the job as I believe WOU is very short on women's basketball scholarships. I've seen her coach a few games, however, and it looks like she knows what she's doing so I want to give her a chance. I think the university should give us a hint of why they are forfeiting games without naming players or what happened, so they can at least stop any rumors.

Athletically, Western Oregon has really lost its way. I know this is a very down year but it's absurd how things are being run or not run. Get a bunch of out of state athletes, lose, and then keep ignoring your state. They've killed any local fan base with all these out of state players and have alienated a lot of Oregon high school coaches. I'm hoping these forfeitures are fair and reasonable.

[Goods]

They've killed any local fan base with all these out of state players and have alienated a lot of Oregon high school coaches. I'm hoping these forfeitures are fair and reasonable.

On the flip side, my buddy used CWU's wonderfully upgraded facilities to host more than 100 baseball coaches from 41 high school teams in WA, OR, ID last weekend and CWU's administration did pretty well welcoming the coaches, who will probably go home and talk up CWU to their student athletes. The summer camp culture at CWU's weeks long basketball and football camps bring in a ton of kids and coaches as well. I'm sure CWU enjoys looking at a kid or two while earning some revenue, but having been a part of these camps years ago myself, kids absolutely love the time there.

.........not rubbing it in Tim, just giving a different perspective on how to actually do it.

[tsull]

On the flip side, my buddy used CWU's wonderfully upgraded facilities to host more than 100 baseball coaches from 41 high school teams in WA, OR, ID last weekend and CWU's administration did pretty well welcoming the coaches, who will probably go home and talk up CWU to their student athletes. The summer camp culture at CWU's weeks long basketball and football camps bring in a ton of kids and coaches as well. I'm sure CWU enjoys looking at a kid or two while earning some revenue, but having been a part of these camps years ago myself, kids absolutely love the time there.

.........not rubbing it in Tim, just giving a different perspective on how to actually do it.

Goods good post. I'm not sure what Western Oregon does with their camps and stuff. I just know the current results are really bad. We've never been Grand Valley or anything like that, but we've never sucked this bad. It makes me wonder if we can sustain success in division 2, or just hang on and be a bottom feeder, or try to crank things up. I'm not sure how things fell apart so quickly. But yes getting summer camps and winter camps going is a great way to build up the programs. There's zero fan and media pressure, and no one cares on campus, so I'm thinking things really won't change.

[CWU Wildcat Nation]

Looks like there's some sort of internal issue going on. Press release from Western Oregon https://wouwolves.com/news/2024/2/16/WBB16Feb2024.aspx

[laker]

Looks like there's some sort of internal issue going on. Press release from Western Oregon https://wouwolves.com/news/2024/2/16/WBB16Feb2024.aspx

"The Western Oregon University athletic department announced Friday the cancellation of the remainder of the 2023-24 women's basketball season due to internal team challenges."

Sounds like a complete mess to me.

[Goods]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but if you cancel the rest of your season and it's not because of injuries or health, then you wipe the slate clean, new coaches, maybe keep a few players and recruit the crap out of people with the idea that you're going to get your a$$ kicked since you're starting 4 or 5 true freshmen.

[tsull]

I've never heard of anything like this. Is probably time to admit you made a mistake with the hire and move on. I noticed all summer long that didn't have a roster of basketball players, meaning the coach didn't respect those who are coming back. The athletic director, of course, let that happen. They need to make some serious changes in this athletic department I've never seen anything like this in Monmouth. But no one is paying attention, not the media, no one on campus, no fans, so it just gets swept under the rug while the athletic director and others collect their paychecks. It's very bothersome.

One of our greatest ever players doesn't get to finish out her senior year, that's criminal. This athletic department has truly lost its way, and it's not about the players anymore. It's not about the state of Oregon anymore. It's about getting a bunch of Californians and thinking you're cool and telling everyone else they're wrong.

[Goods]

There needs to be some sort of penalty for this as well. A fine, or missing future GNAC championship tourneys (don't think that's going to hurt them to be honest).

[tsull]

There needs to be some sort of penalty for this as well. A fine, or missing future GNAC championship tourneys (don't think that's going to hurt them to be honest).

I think it will set the program back 5 to 10 years. They're already not good, and now giving up and not letting seniors having senior night. Shame. Horrible look on penalizing women athletes, too.

[Goods]

I think it will set the program back 5 to 10 years. They're already not good, and now giving up and not letting seniors having senior night. Shame. Horrible look on penalizing women athletes, too.

There's a local basketball team here who played with 6 kids a few games this year. Just a weird trend of kids not turning out. Whatever. But I use this as an example that out of (what I assume was) a roster of 11-13 women in November, 5-7 of them can't get along enough to play? I'm oversimplifying this and have no idea what the internal struggle is, but to your point, you're robbing the women a handful of games, parents a handful of games as well a few die hard fans of the games too. There needs to be major accountability reality checks here. This doesn't happen overnight.

Playing without subs will get you killed, but they're not winning anyway, but at least you can play a bit longer.

[tsull]

They are lucky there's no media paying attention. Heck when there was a real newspaper in Salem they still didn't pay attention. This is how they get away with things like that. Feel really bad for the seniors who don't get a senior night but the school seems okay with that I guess. It's a real bad look for women's athletics at Western Oregon.