Ask the AD -- January Edition
01/28/2010 | 12:00:00 | General
Jan. 28, 2010
This is the latest installment of our monthly feature called, "Ask the AD." If you have questions for Saluki Director of Athletics Mario Moccia, feel free to submit them by e-mail.
E-Mail a question to Mario Moccia
Do you have an update on possible parking improvements at SIU Arena next season?
The Department of Athletics is working with the SIU Department of Public Safety regarding options to improve entrance and egress at events. Some possibilities that are being explored include the use of a second exit from the circle lot in front of the arena, as well as some type of overpass or underpass for pedestrians across Saluki Drive. I should also note that when the construction equipment is gone, we will once again have access to the north entrance of the big parking lot.
Will you resurface the arena floor next year? I am a fan of a much cleaner look.
The basketball floor will be resurfaced for next season and the look will be different. We are in the process of identifying our options and will make a final decision in the next few months. (By the way, we are in the final stages of doing this for the football field.) I am also in favor of a clean look with the understanding that we need to have the conference and University distinction at a minimum.
Will the new design of Saluki Way allow for easy drop-off and pickup of handicapped and elderly persons? Also, we would really like to know who parks in the handicapped spaces for the basketball games? The spaces usually are filled with cars that do not have handcapped identification.
With the renovated arena, there will be an elevator at the existing south entrance for easy drop off for elderly and handicapped patrons to enter the facility, as well as the easily accessible new west entrance. With regards to the handicapped parking spaces, I instructed Jason King, our Associate AD for Facilities, to walk the lots before the Illinois State game to look at the handicap spots in front of the arena. He reported that all 13 spaces were filled with vehicles displaying valid handicap tags. We will continue to monitor this in the future, as it is state law that only people with handicap tags park in these areas. For this specific game, it looked like the rules were being followed.
I was wondering if the east stands at McAndrew have any residual value to another institution? Also, will the lights remain for track and field and general student use?
When the stands do come down, I assume the contract will give the contractor ownership of the materials. Whatever value, if any, the materials have will belong to the contractor. At the present time, the track and the field and lights will remain at McAndrew Stadium for use by our track teams and the students who use the facility for general and recreational sport use.
Is women's basketball having a "Pink Out" game this year?
Yes, on Saturday, Feb. 20, we will have our Pink Out game. This date corresponds with the WBCA Pink Zone window, which is the national name that will be used for this event from now on. We will set the game time when we have a finalized a date and time for the men's BracketBusters game, which will likely be held on the same day.
Recently, I watched Cincinnati play on TV, and the announcers talked about Cincinnati's great Oscar Robertson, and they showed a statue of him in front of their arena. I also watched our Salukis play on TV at Illinois State, and the announcers talked about Illinois State's great Doug Collins, and they showed a statue of him in front of their arena and that their court is named after him. Many older SIU fans would love to have a statue of Walt Frazier in front of the renovated arena. How can I and others contribute to get this done, or is it already in the works?
The plans outside of the arena call for a very nice Saluki dog to adorn the front door of the athletic facilities, similar to the University of Texas and their Longhorn mascot, Bevo. Within the arena, there is going to be a very strong presence of the historical aspect of Saluki basketball, and I can promise you that you will not be disappointed with the display and recognition area of Walt Frazier. He will be more prominently displayed than any other former Saluki men's basketball player.
Do you plan to start any new varsity women's sports in the future?
At this time, there is no plan to add a women's varsity sport. Our budgets are just too tight for that. With seven of the 10 Missouri Valley Conference schools sponsoring women's soccer, and the St. Louis area being one of the country's big hubs for marquee players, it seems that the next sport we could add would be women's soccer.
Can you give an explanation on how the Valley schedules games in MBB? I just don't get it. We played Bradley for the second time before we played other Valley teams once.
I went right to the source on your question and asked our conference commissioner, Doug Elgin, to explain the process. Here is his response:
"The men's conference scheduling process is perhaps the most difficult single task performed by the MVC office. We contract Bortz Media Group in Denver to develop a computerized version of the schedule taking into consideration a myriad of factors, requirements and constraints that are considered. Bortz does the schedules of the NHL, NBA, Big East, SEC, CAA and other major sports entities - they are the best in constructing the most fair and equitable schedules possible, in my opinion.
Among the factors we consider:
Available arena dates. Each of our civic arenas (Carver Arena/BU, Qwest Center/CU, Roberts Stadium/UE and some of our campus buildings are booked for other events. We simply have to schedule around this unavailability of dates for our men's basketball games.
Telecast "windows." The first games we put "on the board" are games that ESPN wishes to televise. This season, we placed three games on pre-determined dates, with a fourth date the "wildcard" final day of the regular season; ESPN will select by February 1 its choice of five games from the February 27 menu. WE later choose telecast games from the schedule after it is constructed.
We balance home dates for schools on weekends (Friday, Saturday and Sunday dates); these are bigger revenue dates and we try to equalize this as much as possible.
We try and avoid any situations where teams play two games in three days; this year, all schools had that sequence on January 1 and 3 because we had to have one three-game week during the season, and we scheduled it the first week of January to avoid missing classes later with a three-game week.
We try to equalize rest time, or days of preparation between games. If Team A plays on Tuesday of a week and Team B plays Wednesday and the two play each other, Team A gets an extra day of preparation. This cannot be avoided throughout the schedule, but we try to equalize these occurrences during the entire schedule.
We try to avoid any team having three consecutive road games, or instances of four road games in six games, 5 in 7, etc. Balancing home and road dates in sequencing games over the entire season is very tough.
"Mirror games." These are games between rivals (i.e., SIU at CU, CU at SIU). We first program the computer to these pairs (we play 90 league games, there are 45 pairs of "mirror games") no less than 13 days apart (this would mean a minimum of three games between the mirror games). This is the first constraint we "loosen" when we cannot get a fair and balanced schedule. This season, I believe we had 3 or 4 instances of having mirror games only seven days apart, and the WSU-CU pair was only six days apart. Not ideal, but the lesser of two "evils" in the scheduling process.
We try to avoid scheduling games when students are out of session, but all we can really do is try to balance this. Some schools do not start the second semester until the third week of January.
We try to accommodate "special requests" from schools. For instance, "we want a home game on February 13 for our school's Hall of Fame ceremonies" or "we have a local festival on this weekend and we need to be on the road that Saturday or Sunday."
We have also tried to schedule at least 40% or our total of 45 weekend games (Fri/Sat/Sun) on Sundays, and 40% of our total of 45 weekday games on Tuesdays to enable us to hire the best officials possible (Wednesday and Saturday are the heaviest days for the high-major conferences to play games, so we are able to provide game officials with two games on consecutive days (Tues/Wed, or Sat/Sun), thus strengthening our officiating.
The resulting end-product of our schedule is never completely balanced or fair, but we do the best we can with it and the composite schedule always has peculiar features. The only way to produce a "perfect" schedule is to have at least 10 weeks (we never have more than 9) and to have universal availability of dates in all of our arenas."
As a fair amount of fans are tall, why is there never a tall size (XLT or 2XLT) offered in polo shirts, sweat shirts and jackets?
We have a number of vendors that carry SIU clothing, and as such, it is their decision on ordering and stocking items for the fans. Our merchandise vendor for athletic events is contracted with 710 Book Store, whom we feel offers a very wide selection of choices, styles and sizes. They have the ability to order specific items on a special order request. You can contact them directly (618-549-7304). From conversations with 710 and a few other vendors, I know that maroon is a difficult color to get Large or especially Tall clothing in. 710 Book Store does stock a selection of Tall cut items at their main store and upon request may be able to bring something of that nature to a game, if that is convenient for you. Once again, my best advice would be to contact one of these retail outlets directly, and I am sure they would be glad to provide assistance to you.
