[hoopsmalone]

Due to the lower than usual amount of summer rain, completion our new arena is actually ahead of schedule. I've heard from my roommate (mr. sparrow) that you guys are considering either renovating or building your own pretty soon. Anyway, ours is going to seat around 6 grand (about 1,000 more than our enrollment) and it will hold most of the office for the athletic department. I'm not sure what size you guys would be aiming for, because I can't remember what your enrollment is. Anyway, the arena is about 80% complete and is a $32 million project that will probably end up around 40 after everything is said and done. Not too pricey considering the size. We undertook this project a few years ago and i'm sure it helped our bid to the SoCon. You can pull up a cool little slide show on it by going here.

http://samfordsports.cstv.com/

p.s.- i know it's only a matter of minutes before super or somebody else makes the "Samford= greatest college in the world" joke.

[Sly Fox]

Its looking nice. But I'll be honest that basedon the artist's renderings I was expecting something bigger. What's the seating capacity supposed to be?

[4everfsu]

Hoops why would we make fun of this football powerhouse school in the south

[hoopsmalone]

Its looking nice. But I'll be honest that basedon the artist's renderings I was expecting something bigger. What's the seating capacity supposed to be?

It should seat around six grand, and we'll finally be able to host graduation on campus instead of the arena downtown. As for the artist rendering you're referring to, i'm pretty sure it's still true to that form. I can tell you that the size of it is very impressive in person and it will be, by far, the largest building on campus,, even larger than our immense science center. I just really appreciated that they stuck to the original, georgian-colonial and brick design of our campus.

[paradox]

Hoops,



It's not that we don't like ya, or your school, or even good 'ol ala-bammy for that matter. It's just that the combination of the words "hoops" and "Samford" kinda brings back a not so good aftertaste of the Mel Hankinson variety

[hoopsmalone]

who is Mel Hankinson? I'm too tired to google the name.

[Sly Fox]

Mel Who?

I think we all try to forget the name these days ... even though he did bring us formerplayer (shout out to my fellow Houstonian).

[paradox]

Mel Hankinson is the former Samford head basketball coach who started the implosion our men's basketball program back in the 90's



All the while, he always talked himself up and his program up as if he was on to something good, but it never happened. Mel single-handedly took a program that normally finished in the top 2 or 3 in the conference, all the way down to the bottom. In his four years here, his winning % was barely .300, and we were a complete non-factor in a very weak conference.

So, now you know: hoops+samford = mel


.....

[hoopsmalone]

Mel Hankinson is the former Samford head basketball coach who started the implosion our men's basketball program back in the 90's



All the while, he always talked himself up and his program up as if he was on to something good, but it never happened. Mel single-handedly took a program that normally finished in the top 2 or 3 in the conference, all the way down to the bottom. In his four years here, his winning % was barely .300, and we were a complete non-factor in a very weak conference.

So, now you know: hoops+samford = mel


.....

Wow, I'm glad we got rid of that guy when we did. In the mid to late 90s we had current LSU coach John Brady who led us to regular season victories over St. John's and Alabama. He also took us to the 99 and 00 ncaa tourneys. Coach Tillete, one of his assistants, has been our head coach since that time and he reached 100 wins in six seasons, and we have been one of the top teams in our conference (ohio valley) the past few seasons. We were actually supposed to host LSU for the home opener in the new stadium, but Brady had to back out because they were offered a spot in one of those pre-season tourneys.

[paradox]

Cool, maybe LU and Samford will square-off against one another sometime soon

[Fumblerooskies]

The Battle for Baptist Basketball Supremacy.

[paradox]

It would be a must win for LU.

What do they have, 2-3K students? We can't let the much smaller Baptist school beat us.




I wonder who Hankinson would be pulling for?


I'd imagine that Hank would probally be pulling for them. I'd love to see 'ol Hanky in the stands with a big red "S" on his sweater.... go Hank


....

[Fumblerooskies]

A shame...if we have kept him...we would have oh...about 95% of his defense installed by now.

[hoopsmalone]

It would be a must win for LU.

What do they have, 2-3K students? We can't let the much smaller Baptist school beat us.




I wonder who Hankinson would be pulling for?


I'd imagine that Hank would probally be pulling for them. I'd love to see 'ol Hanky in the stands with a big red "S" on his sweater.... go Hank


....

we have about 5 grand,and today was actually a great day for baptist colleges.The 2008 U.S. News and World Report university rankings just came out and we're 118,ranked ahead of Washington State, Univ. of Kentucky,Colorado State,Kansas State and Arizona State as a NATIONAL University. We were just reclassified as a national doctorate/research university by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education. This was only our first year in the new classificaiton, after we spent 17 years as one of the top schools in the south region for education up to a masters (despite the fact we had great graduate schools for law, divinity and pharmacuetical.
I know that initially, on its surface, the number 118 isn't that impressive, but you have to consider the overall pool and the total number of colleges in America.
It's great to see my alma mater finally getting some well-deserved national recognition, and we have proven that a university can truly balance a great education with christian values.

Here is the link.
http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandrevie ... _brief.php

[El Scorcho]

we have about 5 grand...

2,882 according to the U.S. News & World Report rankings you just cited.

Congrats on the ranking, though. That'll surely enable even more selectivity for Samford. We had a big feature spread in last year's rankings, which was nice. They still rank us as a fourth tier school and I'm sure they will for some time. The rankings are actually under some pretty heavy criticism from a lot of schools this year, though. It'll be interesting to see how that plays out.

[paradox]

Glad to hear that Samford is doing so well. I believe that Bobby Bowden is a Samford grad.

I was actually down there once for a friend's wedding that I was in. I thought that the campus was very nice.

2-3K is the standard undergrad residential enrollment there, not 5K. Maybe 5K if you added grad students and part-timers.

You're right, Samford is a highly respected institution in that part of the deep south. And they've maintained a more moderate-conservative Baptist tradition. My friend, who works there, told me that 80% of the student body is from Alabama, Tennessee, or Georgia.

Also, I understand that SU is headed for the Southern Conference sometime soon. That may help with the school's exposure into other areas of the south, and should help build enrollment some.


.....



I still say that Hank will be pulling for Samford


......

[El Scorcho]

And they've maintained a more moderate-conservative Baptist tradition.

Are you just tossing that in for fact or did you intend to make a point with it?

[paradox]

we have about 5 grand...

2,882 according to the U.S. News & World Report rankings you just cited.

Congrats on the ranking, though. That'll surely enable even more selectivity for Samford. We had a big feature spread in last year's rankings, which was nice. They still rank us as a fourth tier school and I'm sure they will for some time. The rankings are actually under some pretty heavy criticism from a lot of schools this year, though. It'll be interesting to see how that plays out.

Statistics tell only part of the story and are far from being objective, especially for a maverick school like LU that plays by a different set of rules and has a radically different agenda.


Personally, I think that statistical points should be deducted from Princeton for housing pseudo-ethicist Peter Singer and for having far too many French deconstructionists and nihilists in the art, literature, and philosophy departments

But hey, they're #1, like always.... Naom Chomsky for Presidente


....

[Sly Fox]

I think his point is that most older SBC schools have gone far to the left over the years and Samford still adheres to traditional Baptist philosophies. I think he was mentioning that as a compliment in light of our school's stances.

[paradox]

I think his point is that most older SBC schools have gone far to the left over the years and Samford still adheres to traditional Baptist philosophies. I think he was mentioning that as a compliment in light of our school's stances.

Baylor would be the most notable, although just a few years back, then President Sloan, tried to reestablish a more conservative Christian tradition there, but it ended up getting repudiated by the acedemic elites associated with the institution. I think that the whole Michael Polanyi Center controversy was the definitive moment for the conservatives and moderates who were pretty much unwelcome guests after that point.


...

I guess LU is destined to lead the way, afterall

....

[Sly Fox]

Sloan is now president of Houston Baptist University (located next door to my current television) and he is leading them to re-establish Division I athletics (they got in just before the moratorium). Many of the big money conservative donors in Texas are now investing in HBU.

[paradox]

That's very interesting. I didn't know that Sloan landed over at HBU.

I'd much rather battle a team from Houston any day over a school from Birmingham. That is, if there is ever going to actually be such a thing as the battle of the baptists. LU can never get enough exposure in the great Republic of Texas. Houston is a recruiting hot-bed and it doesn't carry any unneccessay Hankinson associations

..

[Sly Fox]

I'm dropping hints to both sides for meetings here in Houston.

[hoopsmalone]

we have about 5 grand...

2,882 according to the U.S. News & World Report rankings you just cited.

Congrats on the ranking, though. That'll surely enable even more selectivity for Samford. We had a big feature spread in last year's rankings, which was nice. They still rank us as a fourth tier school and I'm sure they will for some time. The rankings are actually under some pretty heavy criticism from a lot of schools this year, though. It'll be interesting to see how that plays out.

That figure really puzzles me, because our latest quarterly publication stated that we were nearing the 5,000 mark for undergrad. I know that if you factor in our grad schools ( divinity, law and pharmacy) we're at atleast 4-4,500.

[PAmedic]

undergrad only vs. grad + undergrad numbers, no doubt