Dan Majerle to be named men's basketball coach at GCU

[HooverDam]

It's University of Phoenix with an athletics department. In fact, GCU might be even more aggressive to an extent, pitching the "only pre-med program in Arizona." Which is true. Except what med school is going to take you? They take kids with Bachelor's of Science from the Arizona state schools, though. Shady practice.

I'm way off topic. Sorry guys. I just get tired of the GCU marketing machine.

I too am turned off by GCU for the same reasons. I wish that now that they're flush, and stable, they'd transition back to a more traditional model.

I mean their enrollment is 50K, the place is absolutely an online diploma mill, it just doesn't seem as obvious due to the physical campus (soon to be campuses).

 

[Errntknght]

It's not just that they are debtors prison for the students - that just for the ones that take the responsibility of repaying the loans. The default rate on those loans is very high and the federal government foots the bill for that - that is to say the taxpayers are stuck with it plus all the overhead the government tacks on. Its essentially a racket for defrauding the taxpayers: the schools inflate their tuition rates because the students aren't paying it themselves so they don't make decisions based on cost. As usual the government becomes the watch dog and they don't care if costs are outrageous because that just means more money goes through their hands. Idiots that we are, we trust the government to watch out for out interests... when was the last time that happened? Regulators always take as their primary concern the health of the industry they're regulating because if it fails or flounders they will not have anything to regulate, which would probably result in a budget cut for them eventually.

 

[MigratingOsprey]

As mentioned it's not probation - it's a 4 year period for teams making the jump as mentioned ..... FGCU recently had the same limitation on their mens basketball team

As for the actual school - I really don't have a problem with it ..... they had some really hard financial times and went for-profit in order to avoid going completely defunct

In a landscape that doesn't offer a lot of outlets for college, they aren't all that bad .... they do have a lot of programs on their campus that you couldn't distinguish from other campuses

Online is online ....... large online schools are going to have their ups & downs ... I know people who went through for education and nursing and they seem to be pretty happy with it and the degrees hold up

However, I have seen gripes about consistency with different professors and some poor customer service ........ honestly, I've shared a building with a lot of the GCU advisors and I wouldn't trust them to properly tie their shoelaces (lord knows they haven't figured out simple things like urinal dynamics........)

 

[FArting]

Michigan Prep Star Joins GCU Basketball

http://gculopes.com/news/2013/6/13/MBB_0613131519.aspx

 

[NoelPHX]

I'm suddenly seeing commercials for GCU here in So Cal.

Right after I moved to Vegas the first commercial I saw was a gcu one.

 

[Superbone]

Right after I moved to Vegas the first commercial I saw was a gcu one.

Crazy, huh? I had no idea that they had expanded into a Phoenix University type of school.

 

[FArting]

Jeremy Adams transferring from Colorado to GCU

http://www.gculopes.com/news/2013/6/14/MBB_0614134740.aspx

 

[HooverDam]

Jaksic, who signed on his 18th birthday Thursday, received scholarship offers from Northwestern, Iowa State and Rhode Island, among schools. He likely will red-shirt his first year at GCU to further his development.

This kid spurned Northwestern for GCU?! Holy smokes, terrible decision making of the year award.

This kid likely isn't going to go on to play pro ball, so go get that Northwestern degree son, that GCU online diploma mill won't do ya much. Holy silliness.

 

[FArting]

Demetrius Walker will be transferring from New Mexico to GCU


http://www.gculopes.com/news/2013/7/10/MBB_0710130511.aspxhttp://

 

[FArting]

The Grand Canyon University men's basketball team will have an early start to their 2013-14 campaign as the squad will venture to Italy and Greece for a four-game exhibition tour from August 14-24. The Antelopes will be playing their first season in Division I as members of the Western Athletic Conference.

GCU will play a pair of games in Italy, completing the trip with two games in Greece.

The Antelopes had a busy offseason, having signed Demetrius Walker, Jeremy Adams, Josh Braun, Miroslav Jaksic, and Akachi Okugo as the newest members of the team.

The team is led under first-year coach Dan Majerle, who spent the previous five years as an assistant coach with the Phoenix Suns. He is one of the most popular figures in Suns history, having also played eight seasons with the team from 1988-95 and 2001-02. In all, Majerle played 14 seasons in the NBA and averaged 11.4 points over 955 career games.

http://www.gculopes.com/news/2013/7/15/MBB_0715133823.aspx

 

[Diamondback Jay]

Weird, I wonder why they got rid of Russ Pennell. He took them to the D2 tournament this year and last, seems to be a good teacher, seems like he's been great in the community and with the media. Plus he's got long recruiting ties to the High Schools in the State.

I normally don't feel badly when coaches lose their jobs, it's the nature of the business; you are hired to be fired essentially. However, Russ Pennell has had some of the absolute cruddiest of circumstances known to mankind in his coaching career.

In his lone season at U of A, he walked in to a trying situation and led the team to a Sweet 16; but wasn't retained because he wasn't a flashy enough of a name.

He does GREAT things at GCU but is canned because he wasn't flashy enough of a name.

I don't know if karma exists with coaching, but I sure hope Russ gets another shot somewhere and wins big. He deserves it.

 

[Hoop Head]

Thought it was interesting to see this as a featured story on ESPN's website for their NCAA Men's page. I don't think there is much to this story and didn't realize it would garner that sort of coverage. It is the offseason though so I guess they are looking for any sort of story.

Personally I don't understand how being a for-profit college has much if anything to do with why it should or shouldn't be allowed to compete in Division 1 sports. I think Majerle is correct in saying that ASU views them as a threat, being a Div-1 basketball program on the rise in the Phoenix area that will be competing with ASU for crowds.


http://espn.go.com/mens-college-bas...ausing-stir-division-hoops-college-basketball

 

[Gaddabout]

Thought it was interesting to see this as a featured story on ESPN's website for their NCAA Men's page. I don't think there is much to this story and didn't realize it would garner that sort of coverage. It is the offseason though so I guess they are looking for any sort of story.

Personally I don't understand how being a for-profit college has much if anything to do with why it should or shouldn't be allowed to compete in Division 1 sports. I think Majerle is correct in saying that ASU views them as a threat, being a Div-1 basketball program on the rise in the Phoenix area that will be competing with ASU for crowds.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-bas...ausing-stir-division-hoops-college-basketball

GCU had a net profit of $142 million for the second quarter, up 19 percent due to strong in-state growth. They are expecting rapid growth into the foreseeable, surpassing University of Phoenix's $1.5 billion-a-year for-profit machine at some point in the next 5 years.

GCU has no research facilities, no researchers, no research equipment to provide, low-wage staff. They're obviously looking at athletics as their primary marketing device, and it's only a matter of time before they build a stadium and launch a D-1 football team. They will be able to throw money at that athletic department in a way that will rival anyone in the country, and without any input from the ivory tower or academic side of things.

GCU isn't competing with ASU. They're going to compete with the entire establishment because they have none of the burdens associated with non-profits.

 

[JCSunsfan]

GCU had a net profit of $142 million for the second quarter, up 19 percent due to strong in-state growth. They are expecting rapid growth into the foreseeable, surpassing University of Phoenix's $1.5 billion-a-year for-profit machine at some point in the next 5 years.

GCU has no research facilities, no researchers, no research equipment to provide, low-wage staff. They're obviously looking at athletics as their primary marketing device, and it's only a matter of time before they build a stadium and launch a D-1 football team. They will be able to throw money at that athletic department in a way that will rival anyone in the country, and without any input from the ivory tower or academic side of things.

GCU isn't competing with ASU. They're going to compete with the entire establishment because they have none of the burdens associated with non-profits.

They have already quietly been assembling the land for a stadium adjacent to I-17. They bought the old swap mart and surrounding vacant property.

 

[MigratingOsprey]

Which would be favorable for the area ... I mean, why would we want a school to expand their campus and build another campus in Mesa while providing something for the community

We need to preserve our crumbling swapmarts!!

Also, a university using their athletics as a marketing device!!

The horror!

How can this be allowed anywhere?! No non-profit in the nation would dare use their athletics to push the university name - that never happens. It's not like most athletic departments are running at a financial loss for the university with the main benefits being marketing, alumni pride and student activities.

They do have facilities in place for the programs they offer. There is plenty of research going on there. Here is one example for education which is one of their largest programs.

https://cirt.gcu.edu

ASU continues to be way out of line

 

[HooverDam]

So former GCU Coach Russ Pennell is now the HC of the Mercury, another strange twist:

http://www.azcentral.com/sports/mer...y-gaines-hire-russ-pennell-interim-coach.html

 

[FArting]

GCU schedule is out for men's basketball

http://www.gculopes.com/schedule.aspx?path=mbball&

 

[JCSunsfan]

GCU had a net profit of $142 million for the second quarter, up 19 percent due to strong in-state growth. They are expecting rapid growth into the foreseeable, surpassing University of Phoenix's $1.5 billion-a-year for-profit machine at some point in the next 5 years.

GCU has no research facilities, no researchers, no research equipment to provide, low-wage staff. They're obviously looking at athletics as their primary marketing device, and it's only a matter of time before they build a stadium and launch a D-1 football team. They will be able to throw money at that athletic department in a way that will rival anyone in the country, and without any input from the ivory tower or academic side of things.

GCU isn't competing with ASU. They're going to compete with the entire establishment because they have none of the burdens associated with non-profits.

They also cannot offer any type of tax write offs for donors, they do not get state or federal funds. They cannot recruit a huge pool of graduate boosters, because donated money gets no tax benefit. They get none of the huge financial perks that State Schools and non-profits get.

This thing works two ways.

At least GCU is not going to be using my tax dollars to give coaches multi-million dollar salaries.

Let's level the playing field. Let's take the non-profit status off of all colleges.

 

[elindholm]

Let's level the playing field. Let's take the non-profit status off of all colleges.

Colleges aren't just about running sports programs. They have an educational mission too. For-profit colleges are running a business model that many academics believe is incompatible with appropriate educational priorities. Giving up non-profit status would have dire circumstances in nearly all cases.

 

[MigratingOsprey]

For-profit colleges are running a business model that many academics believe is incompatible with appropriate educational priorities.

Not for nothing, running a major collegiate sports program is running a business model that many academics believe is incompatible with appropriate educational priorities

While I wouldn't agree that we should remove non-profit status from universities, the point remains that it's a bit off when you have major athletic programs complaining about the business model of for-profits and how they use their athletic department and it's also very fair to point out some of the athletic advantages the non-profits will have simply by their status.

 

[elindholm]

Not for nothing, running a major collegiate sports program is running a business model that many academics believe is incompatible with appropriate educational priorities

Indeed.

the point remains that it's a bit off when you have major athletic programs complaining about the business model of for-profits and how they use their athletic department and it's also very fair to point out some of the athletic advantages the non-profits will have simply by their status.

I would guess that, as far as athletics go, the for-profit model is more advantageous, but it may depend on the circumstances.

 

[MigratingOsprey]

Indeed.



I would guess that, as far as athletics go, the for-profit model is more advantageous, but it may depend on the circumstances.

I think it would at most be 6 of 1 at worst

If you look at some of the giant athletic donations like the $135M that T. Boone Pickens sent to OSU with an athletics earmark in 2006 and consider not only the tax implications for the donor which would not be present when working with a for-profit, but also the fact that the university moved the money into an investment account and then used their non-profit status to secure special, low interest funding that would not be open to for-profit institutions they created an opportunity where they could have profited off the construction (they didn't due to bad investments, but would have if they were conservative)

 

[Cheesebeef]

thunder sat right in front of me at the Cardinals Lions game last weekend. Dude looks like he knows how to hit the bottle...and has been doing so for a veryyyyyy long time.

 

[BC867]

thunder sat right in front of me at the Cardinals Lions game last weekend. Dude looks like he knows how to hit the bottle...and has been doing so for a veryyyyyy long time.

Just out of curiosity . . . beer? Something stronger? How much longer before he pulls a Mark Grace and embarrasses a religious college? I am so glad that we chose Horny and not Thunder Dan as Head Coach.

 

[Cheesebeef]

Just out of curiosity . . . beer? Something stronger? How much longer before he pulls a Mark Grace and embarrasses a religious college? I am so glad that we chose Horny and not Thunder Dan as Head Coach.

He was just pounding beers. Wasn't out of control or anything. He just looks like he's been partying hard for a very long time.