I have seen Cabrini twice this year and he, IMO. is not a strong enough coach to lead this program.  Could he coach at a couple of other PAC school's? Perhaps, but Cabrinin deserves and can get better.  This really comes down to the AD admitting she made a poor higher and righting the mistake.  Not that tough.

I could name 10 coaches in the area who would be better choices then the current guy.

Headed to Cabrini tonight to see if the Coach used the three weeks off to right the ship.  Not sure if it would be over stateing it to call it a "must" win for the program.

Folks, if I have understood the last several pages of postings correctly, it appears that just about all of you are singing about the current poor state of PAC Basketball in comparison to the other Mid-Atlantic  Conferences.  This sad song's chorus contains the repeated "Lack of Institutional Commitment" and the verses touch upon the full-time vs part-time status of the coach, the facilities, and finally a rousing "Men's hoops are not a priority at these schools".

I think you are all missing the boat about what it takes to have, and sustain, a competitive basketball program at the D3 level.  And what is it, you ask? Okay, here goes – What you need is a combination of a smart AD and Coaches who get "it" in terms of knowing what it takes to build a basketball program.   That's it! Not that hard and not that complicated.  I'll even give you a clue to determining if these factors are in place at your favorite PAC school.  Turn your record over, look at the flip side, and examine the Women's Basketball program at your school

See in the history of the PAC I believe only three current programs have won the Men's Championship and they are, of course Cabrini, Alvernia, and Gwynedd. Hey,  guess  what? Surprise, surprise only three teams have won the Women's Championship and they are again Cabrini, Alvernia and Gwynedd!  You build the teams the same way and if you know how to do it for one then you get for the other. 

Let's take a look at Cabrini. Once they had the epitome of an AD/ Coach in Dzik who got "it" and he also had in place a great Women's coach (who was part-time) who got "it" and they won like crazy.  Dzik moves out of AD job and eventually leaves as coach, they put in a new AD – hire the wrong coaches for both programs - and now they are floundering.  And guess what, they have TEN TIMES the facilities they ever had before! They won before because they had smart, hardcore basketball people who knew what the hell they were doing! And if they were all still there in exactly the same roles they would be winning still.

Take a look at the Alvernia and Gwynedd women's program. They win regionally and in some years even compete on the national level.  Why? How? Because even though the Women's Coach at Alvernia is part-time, he just happens to be very good! He also has the support of an AD who gets basketball!  They same situation is true at Gwynedd where they win in an almost unprecedented fashion on the women's side because their Coach/AD really, really gets "it".  He even works with the part-time Men's Coach so that they win also because together – let's all say it together now - they get "it".

By my simple method of looking at the Women's team to tell me if the school's combination of AD & Coaches get "it" or not, I will now give you my prediction of how your favorite Men's team will fare over the next several years.  Alvernia and Gwynedd will be good, Missercordia will be decent and Neuman and Immaculata will get better in a hurry.  Cabrini, Arcadia, Marywood, Wesley, and Eastern will continue to flounder and will not sustain any real success consistently in their programs.

All right, tell me I am an idiot.

wolfPAC -
The choice between many, many of the PAC level athletes has always been do I go to a D3 College that is okay academically, take out loans and get to play a sport, or do I go to a State school that cost less and not play sports.  That really is what it has come down to in a nutshell.

As I know you are aware, Dzik changed the historically female Cabrini forever when he told the good Sisters that he could attract male and female athletes to the higher cost institution with the carrot of playing sports.  This forever changed the landscape in small colleges around the Philly area as the rest of the flock quickly followed his path.  Some followed better and quicker then the others but almost all came to the same conclusion to some degree eventually - we need sports to survive. 

I believe what you are suggesting is that the high school student athlete will begin to say that the overall experience of playing sports at the PAC schools is not worth it and will take his chips elsewhere, perhaps even to a two year college.  That is not going to happen anytime soon.  To many of the kids want to play college ball and if you think the institutional commitment at the PAC is bad take a look at the community college world around PA.  It is bad beyond description.

In terms of how the various instititutions are committed to making their sport programs competitive on a national level, I think we have to play with the current hand we've been dealt and see who can play cards the best.  Some are currently flush and some are short stacked but neither means you can not play the cards well and come out on top.  Ever take a look at what they are doing at Gwynedd?  Somone their can really play cards!

Coach C - I guess I am not getting exactly where you are coming from on the school's level of commitment now versus say 10 years ago or so?  It would certainly appear to me that more of the institutions have coaches that are employed full time by the schools (this appears to be the measuring stick here for institutional commitment, for some reason) then ever before.

In response to your posting about why would Neuman be better now?  By your own argument - are they not displaying more committment to winning by simply  having made the coach a full time employee?

I get a sense that Stitzel has the "fever" bad.  It has been a long long time since the PAC had a young Coach who was so obviously looking at making this his profession and looked at his current job as a means to an end.  Just call it instinct but I get a gut feeling that Stitzel is going do well at Neuman.

WT - I love all these general comments stating the glory and wholesomeness of D3 athletics!  D1 is bad becausee it is all about the money while D3 remains pure  C'mon, the combination of atheltic recruiting and accelerated degree paper mills is all that keeps most of these PAC schools still floating. I am sure you know that without athletics these schools may not even stay solvent.

I think that it is only a matter of time until Neuman gets very, very good assuming the guy can coach at all.  Based upon what I have heard about Stizel it is apparent he is going to recruit talented kids and, because they can get anyone with a pulse admitted, I think they will soon pull away from everyone in terms of the talent pool.

In my opinion, one of the reasons that the PAC has dropped of a bit is the quality of the staff's does not seem as stong as it once was in the league.  Once upon a time you had some assistants who could really, really recruit in the league.  Not sure guys of that caliber are still around.

Perhaps I am incorrect, but it appears to me taht this converstion is beginning to take the direction of using the "part-time" status of a coach as a crutch for the prformance of a team.  I do not believe that a coach being part-time is to large a hurdle for a program to overcome.  In fact, if you are near a large populated area (such as Cabrini) the part time status may in fact inlarge your potential coaching population.  Bottom line, many part-time coaches in the PAC have won championships in various sports including basketball.