MBB: Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Pat Coleman]

Wow, and for a second there i would have though that you would have petitioned for the Tigers being considered a top 15 being that Coach Newhall and co. has beaten great teams such as Amherst, Ill. Wesleyan and dare i not say. SUNY Plattburgh?

Does a game from 2006 really belong in this sentence?

[DIIIghetto]

I found it interesting to note at the Oxy - Whitworth game that the Tigers had a real Seattle NW base while the Pirates from Spokane had much more of a Cali base.   Those two kids from Palo Alto were studs who I wish had found their way to the SCIAC. 

[Sabretooth Tiger]

I don't think the admissions office at Oxy would allow too many Juco transfers, but perhaps with better support from the Administration as a whole, the college's athletic programs can become consistent winners...outside of the relatively recent success of football and basketball.
Money, basically.

1.  Oxy admits about 60 transfer students each year . . . remember that we're a college of about 1800, and as you improve on the retention of your frosh admits, the number of spaces available for transfers drops . . . the only way to make room for more is to expand the student body, and no way the faculty will ever go with that . . . small college means small college;

2.  Administration support?  Upon the arrival of Ted Mitchell in 1999, through Kenyon Chan, Susan Prager and now Bob Skotheim, all of the presidents of this college value athletics.  The admissions office works, and has for the last decade, worked in a great partnership role with the coaches . . . no antagonism there at all. Across the board, all of Oxy's senior administrators are hugely supportive of athletics at Oxy.

3.  The college is in the master planning process with the City of Los Angeles, and within that bigger project, looking specifically at an athletic master plan.  Resources for facilities are being provided.  The women's softball pitch, the FieldTurf on Patterson, the impending upgrade of the Rush Gymnasium bleachers and floor, expanding the coaching staff, bringing club sports back under the Athletics Dept. control . . . all demonstrate administrative support for athletics.

4.  More $$? . . . feel free to give generously to the Tiger Club generally or the athletic team(s) of your choice.  Alumni giving to athletics is up 10 times what it was in 1999 . . . do your part.  Better yet, get your friends together and endow a few coaching slots, or create an equipment endowment.  Or . . . write a check for $40,000 so that Newhall and Hoffman can replace the old never to be used again wooden basketball hoops/backstops with new glass ones so that the capacity for bball practice in Rush is expanded.  They are 10K each and 4 are needed. . . got a few friends that want to pitch in?

tooth

[OxyFan21]

Tooth,

I hear you...I was merely saying that admin support 'could' be much better.  Now, living in the midwest, I see what top-flight facilities D3 schools are capable of.  Have you seen how things are run at a Wash U or a Hope, for example?  I family member of mine used to work in the admissions department at Williams, and I can tell you that their admissions department does some 'favors', which I would not be opposed to at all for us at Oxy.  Hey, Harvard is doing it, right? 

Things have definitely improved at Oxy since I left in '00, but I don't think that anyone would say that support is great.  Better, yes...great, not yet.  I'm not sure when you graduated, but I was there during some really lean years, athletically. 

I do give money to the Tiger Club, am proud of being an Oxy supporter here in the midwest, and wear my Oxy gear around all of the time (I was at a local hospital last week and a stranger came up to me and said that his daughter was headed to Oxy next Fall).  We are on the verge of doing something special there in Eagle Rock, and it's nice to know that Rush is getting a much needed upgrade.

PC, will you be in St. Louis this weekend?

[Pat Coleman]

Indeed, I will.

[OxyFan21]

Most likely, I will be at the games this weekend...depending on how my wife feels (7.5 months pregnant)...look forward to seeing the games and perhaps meeting you.  I will be wearing my Oxy gear, usually I sit up top in the 2nd level, on the same side of the benches.

[bbaddict]

I found it interesting to note at the Oxy - Whitworth game that the Tigers had a real Seattle NW base while the Pirates from Spokane had much more of a Cali base.   Those two kids from Palo Alto were studs who I wish had found their way to the SCIAC. 

If you lived in Seattle, you'd want to move to Southern California as well.

I've never figured out why California athletes come this direction, especially to Spokane.  But, Coach Hayford graduated from Azusa and has a masters from Claremont and has tons of family in California.  He coached there, too, so I'm guessing his networking is pretty extensive with former players, coaches, etc.   Also, it's very cold in Spokane in December and it's no accident that Whitworth teams spend a great deal of their preseason in Southern California!

[Gregory Sager]

I found it interesting to note at the Oxy - Whitworth game that the Tigers had a real Seattle NW base while the Pirates from Spokane had much more of a Cali base.   Those two kids from Palo Alto were studs who I wish had found their way to the SCIAC. 

If you lived in Seattle, you'd want to move to Southern California as well.

Seems as though the migration has gone in the opposite direction, with SoCal natives moving to the Emerald City in such significant numbers that it has ticked off the natives. When a friend of mine graduated from law school in San Diego and planned to move to Seattle, his brother (a Seattleite of twenty years) told him to establish his residency before he moved and to thus acquire Washington license plates and put them on his car prior to his arrival. When my friend asked why this rigamarole was necessary, his brother said, "Because parked cars in Seattle that have California license plates sometimes get bricks or rocks thrown through their windshields."

(Personally, I blame this sort of antisocial behavior on excess coffee intake.)

Of course, that was back in the early '90s, so the Seattleite hostility may have died down since then. Now it's my friends in Denver that're doing all the complaining about Cali transplants "ruining" their city.

[Ralph Turner]

Oregon was the home of the bumper sticker...

"Don't Californicate Oregon"

and Californians have displaced Texans as the primary focus of disdain and dislike of non-natives.

In the 1970's the bumper stickers roared...

If God had wanted Texans to ski, He would have made B***S*** white.

The Texans responded...

God intended for Texans to ski, He gave them money.

[bbaddict]

I'm confused.  I thought people in NW states (WA & OR) had a prejudice towards Californians, but I also thought people in Texas thought the civilized world ended at their borders, so they didn't bother to consider what might be beyond them.  The funny thing is that CA has so many people that wherever you go, someone is from CA.  (Most of Oregon's residents came from Cali and then wanted to lock the gate!)

[David Collinge]

Three hunters, exhausted from a long and fruitless day, are sitting around their campfire.  One is from California, another from Colorado, and the third is from Montana. 

The Coloradan, who is particularly frustrated about his lack of a kill, reaches into his pack and retrieves a can of Coors beer.  He sets the can up on a rock at the edge of camp, then takes his shotgun and blasts it.  The can explodes into a satisfying blizzard of beer foam. 

The other two are shocked.  The Montanan asks, "are you crazy, wasting a good beer like that?"  The Coloradan responds, "ah, it was just a Coors.  We got a billion of 'em in Colorado, so we just shoot 'em for fun."

The Californian nods and says, "I know just what you mean," and reaches into his back for a bottle of Chardonnay.  He takes the bottle, tosses it into the air, and blows it apart with his shotgun.  "There's so much wine in California, that it's really no loss to blast a bottle now and then.  And it's so satisfying," he says, sitting back down with a big grin on his face.

"Say, that seems like a pretty good idea.  Come to think of it, there's a couple of things we've got way too much of here in Montana," says the Montanan, whereupon he takes his shotgun and kills the other two.

[LogShow]

There may be starbucks on every other street corner, and the locals may get annoyed with the large amounts of people moving here (LA traffic doesn't have much on Seattle).  But I would think that it is a bit extreme to be throwing bricks through people's car windows.  I hope that none of that nonesene actaually goes on.  I would be a bit embarassed if it did.

[Mr. Ypsi]

David, good one - +k!

Alas, you're in deep doo-doo for 'poaching' out-of-season: current legal targets are Californians and TEXANS - Coloradans are a different season.

[Ralph Turner]

+1! David!

[nwhoops1903]

I am having an MRI today to check to see if I am claustrophobic.