Transition Article

[BTownJack]

Here is a really good article to help keep things in perspective for this year:

Oakland coach sympathizes with SDSU's transition plight
Grizzlies men's basketball team had unusual success early in move to Division I
By Terry Vandrovec
tvandrovec@argusleader.com
PUBLISHED: February 4, 2008

Editor's note: This is the latest in a series of stories examining SDSU's opponents and the issues they face in Division I.

ROCHESTER, Mich. - Following a testy, one-point victory in Brookings last month, Oakland men's basketball coach Greg Kampe asked to speak to a South Dakota State athletic administrator.

Given his gruff courtside manner, the easy assumption was that the man from Defiance (Ohio) was displeased with something about the Jackrabbits' operation. But to the contrary, he wanted to express support and offer a word of encouragement, according to SDSU associate athletic director Rob Peterson.

A once powerful NCAA Division II program, SDSU is learning firsthand - with four consecutive losing seasons - that Division I reclassification process is more difficult in men's basketball than any other sport.

"That transition is the hardest thing," said Kampe, whose club beat the Jacks again on Saturday night, "there's no question about it."

The longest tenured (24 years) and most winning active coach (391) in the Summit League, he knows firsthand, having guided the Grizzlies through the same four-year ordeal.

....

And with that the discussion turned back to SDSU. According to the dean of Summit League coaches, the fact that the Jacks (7-15) have considerable talent in three of the four classes makes them more likely to be able to sustain success once they find it.

"Any time you can win it, you sell yourself to win it," Kampe said. "But at the same token, to position yourself for the long run is much more important and (coach Scott) Nagy's doing a good job of positioning their team."

(read more)

[SUPERBUNNY]

Re: Transition Article

That's a good read. Pretty much nails where we are at. If anything, the Oakland coach says things could definitely be worse.

Enlightening article!

SUPERBUNNY

[bballfan54]

Re: Transition Article

Thats a good article.

[Just in the crowd]

Re: Transition Article

Just wish we had the population base that Oakland gets their kids from. Most of them are from Detroit, Lansing, Flint, Kalamazoo, some pretty good basketball is played there. We should go there and find a Magic Johnson.

[JACKGUYII]

Re: Transition Article

I think this coach is full of ****. Something tells me if he had lost that game in Brookings like he should have (goaltending call)and we take care of business down the stretch in Oakland he would not be playing so nice with our media.

[sfsd]

Re: Transition Article

Actually, Kampe is a hell of a guy. That Oakland program has come a very long way in eight years in D-I.

[BTownJack]

Re: Transition Article

I think this coach is full of ****. Something tells me if he had lost that game in Brookings like he should have (goaltending call)and we take care of business down the stretch in Oakland he would not be playing so nice with our media.

I'm going to have to disagree since this article was written after Saturday's game against Oakland. Just because he got a call in his favor in Brookings doesn't mean he's going to say all these positive comments about us.

[filbert]

Re: Transition Article

Good words from a quality coach like Kampe mean a bit more, in my opinion . . . he's got a reputation as a straight talker (and a pretty darn good coach, too).

He and Nagy looked like they had a very animated, cordial, and lengthy discussion before last Saturday's game. If anybody knows what Nagy and SDSU is going through, it's Kampe.

[JackJD]

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I agree with others...good article. We have to keep some of those points in mind.

[BornBredBunny]

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Well, aren't I just full of opinions today! I think the biggest thing to keep in mind from this artilce is the conference affiliation -- Oakland found their's immediately while we struggled. A conference provides considerable stability for a program and can't be underestimated. All facets of a program are impacted as we found out the really hard way for a couple of seasons.

If I recall correctly (and I usually do!), our intial reclassification plan included no move unless we already had a conference in place....As we all know, this wasn't the case and provided me with a very sour taste concerning the move initally! I'm an old school Rabbit Nation member and it was enough of a hit for me that we were leaving the NCC; nevermind I had to struggle with the concept of no conference! Now that we've found a good home, Rabbit basketball can return to its rightful place among the conference elite and I think Kampe realizes it's just a matter of time before we get there! A short matter of time! I'm convinced Nagy is the coach to take us there and can't wait for the return of regular season conference battle royale's at Frost to help get me through the winters!

GO RABBITS!!!

[BTownJack]

Re: Transition Article

If I recall correctly (and I usually do!), our intial reclassification plan included no move unless we already had a conference in place....As we all know, this wasn't the case and provided me with a very sour taste concerning the move initally! I'm an old school Rabbit Nation member and it was enough of a hit for me that we were leaving the NCC; nevermind I had to struggle with the concept of no conference!

And let me remind you that no D-I conference was going to look at us or NDSU until we committed to the move of going D-I, which caused us to go without a conference home in place. I think it worked out just fine for us.

[JACKGUYII]

Re: Transition Article

And let me remind you that no D-I conference was going to look at us or NDSU until we committed to the move of going D-I, which caused us to go without a conference home in place. I think it worked out just fine for us.

We would still be in DII if we were waiting for a conference to pick us up.

[EQguy]

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Actually, in this case, you don't remember correctly. It wasn't SDSU's reclassification plan, it was the suggestion of Carr & Associates the firm that was hired to set table for the reclassification plan. When it was realized that no conference was going to show interest until the move was official, Dr. Oien made the decision to go.

I'm sure there are many more like you BBB. Its good to see this group of people coming back to the fray. SDSU is going to need them to be successful in the future.

[JackFan96]

Re: Transition Article

Just a word (or so) about the reclassification plan if I may. It was paid for by us (SDSU) and was, for that reason, almost certainly going to provide the answer we wanted to hear. It's point was more to help support the argument for the move (unless it was hopeless), than take most objective look at things. I'm not saying there weren't pros and cons listed in the study or that moving up was the wrong move ... only that such studies usually say what those signing the check want them to. Anyhow, it's worked out pretty well even considering the men's hoops bumps. And I'll make the trip to Brook Vegas Saturday in hopes of a DI conference sweep.

Actually, in this case, you don't remember correctly. It wasn't SDSU's reclassification plan, it was the suggestion of Carr & Associates the firm that was hired to set table for the reclassification plan. When it was realized that no conference was going to show interest until the move was official, Dr. Oien made the decision to go.

I'm sure there are many more like you BBB. Its good to see this group of people coming back to the fray. SDSU is going to need them to be successful in the future.

[filbert]

Re: Transition Article

Just a word (or so) about the reclassification plan if I may. It was paid for by us (SDSU) and was, for that reason, almost certainly going to provide the answer we wanted to hear. It's point was more to help support the argument for the move (unless it was hopeless), than take most objective look at things. I'm not saying there weren't pros and cons listed in the study or that moving up was the wrong move ... only that such studies usually say what those signing the check want them to. Anyhow, it's worked out pretty well even considering the men's hoops bumps. And I'll make the trip to Brook Vegas Saturday in hopes of a DI conference sweep.

Having read my share of consultant's reports, I'd say that the one we commissioned from Carr Sports was not so much a rubber-stamp as it was a "what you're getting into" report.

I don't think it sugar-coated anything, and it laid out what the main challenges would be should SDSU move to D-I.

Lots of people want to focus on the "get a conference before you move" recommendation of the report but in my mind that's really one of the least credible recommendations in the proposal, unless you think we had any kind of credible chance to get into the Big XII or Big 10, or the Valley or the Mountain West (which are, after all, the only D-I conferences competing in any of SDSU's surrounding states at the time). This is probably where a lot of the initial Big Sky buzz came from, but as we discovered, that wasn't anything more than discussion-board BS buzz.

The report should have said "You're probably not going to get into a conference until you can prove that you're going to be a competitive institution in D-I, because geography is not your friend" rather than the utterly unrealistic "don't go D-I unless you've got a conference chomping at the bit to bring you in." That, in my mind, is the biggest single failure of vision in their report.

Otherwise, the report did, IMHO, its job in laying out the challenges that SDSU would face in moving to D-I. From what I can tell, the SDSU administration has done their job in listening to Carr's recommendations and moving to address the issues they brought up.