Charlotte

[tornado]

Several times Charlotte has been discussed on Bradleyfans,
as we have lost recruits to Charlotte and battled against them on Vee Sanford:

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=1615

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=5888

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=7554

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=10378&highlight=coley

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=10166&highlight=charlotte&page=2

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?p=89944&highlight=charlotte#post89944

and I have heard people say we should be a program that succeeds and gets the press that Charlotte gets...and I have even heard some say we could have maybe had Bobby Lutz (Charlotte's present coach) as a head coach at BU...or that we would have done better if we had...


All of which we can now look back and refute...
BU is coming off several 20+ win seasons, while Charlotte fans are quite restless and very, very unhappy to say the least...
and Bobby Lutz is on the hot seat....
Can there be any doubt that if we had Lutz and were 11-20 last year and mired in the lower half of the A-10 for the past 3-4 seasons.....the natives in Peoria would be just as restless as those in Charlotte!!

http://ca.sports.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/blog/the_dagger/post/Meanwhile-at-Charlotte-the-natives-grow-restle?urn=ncaab,176701

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/basketball/ncaa/07/13/charlotte.critical.ap/

In fact, I just read a comment by a guy who said the Big East would add Charlotte if Pitt or Syracuse left for the Big Ten!!
Ha...Charlotte is 21-27 in the A-10 since '06, BU is 29-25 in a better conference in that same interval, and I doubt there's anyone predicting BU will get invited to the Big East!

[TheAsianSensation]

Adding Charlotte to the Big East would be much more a football move as a basketball move. Charlotte is going to jump to FBS, and the Big East is desperate for warm bodies in BE football more than anything else.

In fact, getting the Carolina market in the Big East would be another reason. Yea, the main reasons are off-the-court related.

5 years ago, Charlotte was the better program. Today, Bradley is. It'sthat simple sometimes

[Da Coach]

Head Coach Bobby Lutz has been hailed as a great coach and recruiter, and when Charlotte was in Conference USA, he had success. In his first 7 years as head coach, they finished 3rd (tie), 5th (tie), 2nd, 3rd, 5th (tie), 1st (tie), and 2nd (tie) in the CUSA, and they made the NCAA tournament 5 of the 7 years. But these last 4 seasons in the Atlantic 10, he's been 2nd, 9th, 4th (tie), and 12th, with a losing record 2 of the last 3 years. Note that the A-10 is a slight step up in conferences, but not enough to explain this significant dropoff in Charlotte's performance.
What happened to all the highly rated recruits he got? Michael Beasley might have made a difference if he had kept his committment to Charlotte.

I believe Charlotte gave him a raise and extension a year or 2 ago to keep him from leaving, but he has underachieved. They have a large, loyal, and very knowledgeable fan base, but attendance is way down, and I would guess he won't last too much longer if things don't turn around there.

[TheAsianSensation]

Charlotte, I think, took a prestige hit when the CUSA got purged. It was actually a dropoff for them. They were in the unquestioned 7th best conference, now they're in the 8th (behind MWC, and if you wanna make the argument that the MVC is 8 instead of the A-10, I'd listen). That and no natural A-10 rivalries....there's no longer a reason to be excited about Charlotte.

IMO.

[squirrelgotdead]

You're exactly right TAS. . .Charlotte hoops struggled recruiting wise when North Carolina kids had more ACC schools interested in them.

Also, Lutz had 3 straight Sweet 16 appearances with the 49ers in the last years of CUSA, and was the only program to accomplish that task during the same time frame.

South Florida is in the Big East solely because of football and they didn't even have a team until 1997.

The interest in Charlotte would be because they bring a football program into the fold.

I would expect Charlotte, Central Florida, and Memphis to be on a Big East shortlist.

[Da Coach]

Also, Lutz had 3 straight Sweet 16 appearances with the 49ers in the last years of CUSA, and was the only program to accomplish that task during the same time frame.

Actually, Charlotte never made it to the Sweet 16 under Lutz, or anyone, since Lee Rose lead their 1977 team to the Final Four.
They did make it to 4 round-of-32 between 1997 and 2001, but only the last 2 of those were under Lutz (the first 2 were under former coach Mel Watkins).

Lutz did take Charlotte to the NCAA 3 of the last 4 seasons they were in Conference USA, but they did not come close to the Sweet 16, as they were eliminated each time in their first game.-

http://www.bbstate.com/schools/CHAR/tournament

[squirrelgotdead]

My mistake. . .I guess I was confusing that with 3 straight CUSA finals.

[Da Coach]

I think it just shows how tough it is to coach and stay competetive in college basketball. I believe Lutz is a good guy and a good coach. I also don't believe he "cheats", but rather abides by the rules. These days, that is a hindrance, and it cost him a chance to coach Player of the Year Michael Beasley, who was lured away to Kansas State when Frank Martin got hired there and then took assistant Delonte Hill away from Charlotte. But he has had other good recruits who haven't panned out, or left Charlotte before they blossomed.

He has a good recruiting class coming in this fall, so I think he'll rebound.-

http://rivalshoops.rivals.com/commitlist.asp?Year=2009&Sport=2&School=86

also a committment from a very good shooting guard for the class of 2010-

http://rivalshoops.rivals.com/commitlist.asp?Year=2010&Sport=2&School=86

[tornado]

but Lutz can't complain that someone beat him at his own game...
he hired Dalonte Hill for the sole purpose of landing Beasley, then got outbid by about $300,000 when Huggins threw the bank at Hill and offered the guy $450,000 to be an assistant at K-State.