Basketball at the Whit is a disaster. Look at attendance for Men's hockey who our governor called a top tier program (or something similar), women's hockey, and basketball. I see no rode to a top tier DI basketball program playing at the Whit, the same population will attend.
Welcome back norbie. Sometimes you need to have
vision to make something happen, where 99% of people don't see it or just dismiss it. Hoops at The Whitt are just one notable example of how UNH Athletics' lack of vision has hamstrung its Hoops program. All you really need is to have the right people running the show, and if you have that, then anything is possible. I personally think the "NH Beanpot" is another such idea but let's keep our focus on competitive sports programs, and a few examples where crazy incredible things have happened in the last generation:
UConn Basketball: Former Yankee Conference power but a distant also-ran regionally for most of the previous century to Providence College and even arguably Boston College in the sport. I've raised this comparison before, so I don't want to overdo it, but if you can explain to me how the seat of college hoops power - Men's AND Women's - somehow ended up in some wee small town in rural NE Connecticut, have at it;
The Whittemore Center: Yup, our home ice, built at double the capacity of adjoining Snively Arena, definitely our own "Field of Dreams" to the extent it was a "build it, and (hope & pray) they will come" proposition. So concerned was the U and the State that they ran ads in
Boston print media to sell partial season ticket plans/packages to
Boston area schools. There weren't many takers there, but NH folks turned up en masse;
Gonzaga Hoops: Right around the time The Whitt was under construction in Durham, the Zags were just another hoops program playing in obscurity in the Pacific Northwest. Never been to the NCAA ever, and had just gotten to the NIT once. But we turn the calendar to this century and they are perennially up there with the big boys of D-1. Like UNH Hockey in the Umile Era, they've been to the Final Four four (4) times, with two semifinal losses and two Finals losses. Everything but the top prize. And after almost a century of futility;
UNH Men's Soccer: And now to my second favorite UNH sport (getting close to top fave IF I'm being honest) ... from obscurity to revenue producing sport playing in The House That Blue Skies Half-Built, and a perennlal NCAA D-1 tourney qualifier. Where did that come from? Marc Hubbard, of course? But where did Hubbard come from ...
Seacoast United Soccer: Again, at around the same time that ground was being broken in Durham on The Whitt, a small group of Brits were making a name for themselves coaching travel soccer in Southeast NH. They too built their own "Field of Dreams" not once but thrice - first an indoor facility in Hampton, ten years later an expansive outdoor complex in Epping, and then another decade later, a modern indoor facility at their Epping site. Hubbard and many others cut their teeth at SUSC, and the club lifted the profile of soccer initially in our area, and later to the rest of our state, Merrimack Valley (MA) and Southern Maine. They recently sold their ownership stakes in the club for a tidy sum, but the guys are still running the club on salaries. Talk about "living the dream". But more than anything or anyone else, SUSC can be attributed with making their sport popular at a grass roots level, and their original generation of players are now the parents of today.
On a personal level - and on a much smaller scale - I've been involved in their sport locally first as the parent of two players, and graduating later to coaching first at rec level, then at town travel club level, and eventually as a sitting board member for a decade. I also started playing the sport competitively at age 41, and I've been playing for 20 years straight since (including last night). I'm still coaching, and have given up the board stuff - a direction I never expected, but coaching is more fun, and I'm at a stage in my life where doing fun things is a priority. I'll stop here, but folks who know me via either LinkedIn or twitter/X have access to further details. Let's just say that I'm the wrong person to try to convince that things cannot be accomplished.
And if AD Rich cannot see that UNH Hoops' future belongs back on the other side of Main St. then we've got the wrong person in charge. That was her predecessor's MO. She's made the Men's Hoops hire her first priority - despite him being the most accomplished coach in the school's history AND being better at what he does then MS7 is at his job. Her predecessor has virtually "killed" Hockey, and it will take some time for it to recover, assuming she makes a better hire than her predecessor did (and I think she will). Hoops gives UNH an opportunity to really make a surprise splash on the biggest of D-1 stages - they play in a winnable conference (for them), and winning just once puts you onto that stage.
UNH Hockey, UNH Football and now UNH Soccer have all enjoyed their "glory days" this century, but those have generally been nice regional stories. UNH Hoops ending up in the "Big Dance" (ack - I hate that term BTW) would be transformative - especially if it happens more than once. And once you have the visionaries in place, and you build some momentum, amazing things can happen. I hope I live long enough to see it. Plus the NH Beanpot too. ;-)
