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 Post subject: Re: Patrick Schultz
PostPosted: Sun May 13, 2018 7:06 pm 
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I admit that the anti-authoritarian populist in me gets carried away sometimes, but I also think that an administrator who makes $400k a year should be able to handle a fat joke or two directed his way.
I almost always take the side of the employee in any labor/management dispute. That reflects my work background.

And I almost always side with a local Chicago guy against managers I sometimes view as careerist carpetbaggers. I've been a Chicagoan all my long life, and right or wrong I view with suspicion job hoppers who leave for greener pastures every few years, and never stick around long enough in one place to lay down roots.
So yeah, I'm going to take Pat's side on this even though I don't know all the facts.

And I'm going to continue to criticize Watson et. al. when they exhibit incompetence or greed, like the Watson clan taking an Italian vacation on the school's dime.

Just take a look at my new signature below, an actual quote from Watson showing the depth of his ignorance about Loyola just a couple years ago. As far as I'm concerned Truax and Watson are Rent-a- Ramblers; Pat is a real deal Rambler.
I've been around long enough now to value loyalty like Pat Schultz has shown as much as short-term success.


Last edited by swellafelon on Sun May 13, 2018 7:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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 Post subject: Re: Patrick Schultz
PostPosted: Sun May 13, 2018 7:40 pm 
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Great post, Toledo. I'm also confused/perplexed/befuddled by some of the responses.

1. Pat, I would say, is a pretty good friend of mine. I've spent hundreds of hours socializing with Pat over the years. I have a really high opinion of him, as a person and as a professional. So I'm really shocked and disappointed that he's no longer active in administration, if that's actually the case.
2. Just a couple weeks ago, administration was painted as incompetent for not having a deal done with a huge raise for Porter Moser within 10 days of the end of the season.
3. In my opinion, the administration deserves a lot of credit for the run the team went on this year. Before the season began, they decided to put the students front and center in seating, and made huge strides in getting students out to the games in 2017-18. I think that made a huge difference. The greater connection with the student seemed to spark and inspire the players, and vice versa. They did everything right in terms of promotion and support during the season and the NCAA run, in my opinion. It was a huge, huge win for the athletic department. Remember, they're dealing with a bare bones staff, yet they handled the ticketing, hoopla, media crush, Sister Jean, crazy new apparel/souvenir demand, and everything else with nearly flawless aplomb-- even while they had women's basketball, men's volleyball, track & field, and softball going on at the same time. I saw no signs of major cracks or big gaps in their work, in fact, just the opposite-- the whole staff was incredibly impressive. Think about the staff that Michigan, Villanova, and Kansas had to bring to the Final Four. I'd say our staff did just as well-- if not better-- than all of them, and we haven't even been there since 1985.
4. We can't run the athletic department like a mom and pop operation. We need to be professional about it. There SHOULD BE some big money going into athletics in the near future-- we need to immediately have a men's basketball budget up in the mid to high 3-million range. A lot of that money needs to go into growing the season ticket/donor base, getting huge corporate sponsorships, and finding game-day sponsorship/promotion money. I've worked in an educational environment with an organizational structure that was not scalable, and because nothing changed or we worked around huge procedural millstones, it caused a downward spiral. Pat Schultz has many established relationships with the core fan base, invaluable institutional knowledge, flexibility, and competence in many areas. It's hard to see how there couldn't be a place for him in a more robust athletic department structure. Or maybe his connections and experience were seen as a threat by somebody. It seems wrong that a guy who did whatever was asked, had passion and creativity, and helped the department get to a rare pinnacle, had to immediately be jettisoned.

I guess in short I'm saying that the current administration should be held in a better light in terms of competency. They're not John Planek or Chuck Schwarz, who made a lot of moves on who they liked personally, including keeping on people who weren't getting it done. Could they have possibly gone too far in the other direction? Yes, I think. And if you're looking to build an elite program with a long-term fan base and high fan loyalty/dedication, being jerks to people who did great things for you during very hard times is not a good start.


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 Post subject: Re: Patrick Schultz
PostPosted: Mon May 14, 2018 7:43 am 
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Swellafelon,

I guess by your stance, all the players and the newly hired coaching staff are getting a paid vacation from Loyola. This has probably been budgeted for a while I would guess. I don't know if Steve is using personal or school funds for his own presence on this trip but I don't see it as inappropriate for the AD to acompany the team especially with a newly hired coaching staff. I understand the family connection and where you're going with that and to be fair to Allison, while she hasn't played much at Loyola, I did see her play one match her senior year in high school and she can play. I don't know if whatever has happened or is happening to Pat has anything to do with Allison being on this team or trip. Of course, I'm just a bystander in all of this.


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 Post subject: Re: Patrick Schultz
PostPosted: Mon May 14, 2018 8:38 am 
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Vuster,
I absolutely do believe that a foreign trip by any college sports team is mainly a thinly disguised paid vacation for all involved. I genuinely can't see how any reasonable person could disagree.

But I don't have a problem with the students or coaches going. The trip is a recruiting devise and an NCAA-sanctioned way to essentially pay the players. And obviously the coaches have to accompany the team for the practices and games.

But what I do object to is the Athletic Director and (at least in the case of Grace Calhoun) his/her department pals accompanying the team at Loyola's expense. I'm sure you can make up reasons why Watson being in Italy is part of his job description and good for the program. But I don't buy that.

As for Allison, I am sure she is a talented player and a fine student. All I'll say is that I didn't find her name on any lists of All State, All Area or even Honorable Mention players.


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 Post subject: Re: Patrick Schultz
PostPosted: Mon May 14, 2018 9:26 am 
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It's very possible that Steve having a child on the team may have swayed him into going on the trip. That may be the sole reason he is there but I don't know. I'm just not surprised that he's on the trip especialy having just hired a new coaching staff for the team. I'm not aware of what Grace did with her buddies but that sounds more fault-worthy.

Before you mentioned that you can't find Allison on all-lists, you said her only sole talent was her close genetic relationship to her dad. Not making it onto an all-list is a way different comment.


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 Post subject: Re: Patrick Schultz
PostPosted: Mon May 14, 2018 9:36 am 
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Vuster.
I deleted the offending remark in my earlier post.


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 Post subject: Re: Patrick Schultz
PostPosted: Fri May 25, 2018 9:01 am 
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Nothing cryptic here accept to say there has to be way more to this story. The golf outing is not to far away, if anyone has questions you should just ask why was Pat let go. Most people here give to LU and it is my belief you have a right for transparency. It is not ethically correct to take your money and be opaque with its spending and allocation of resources both operationally and with human resources. The response you receive will go a long way in determining people's character. My thoughts are simple, Allegedly saying his job was phased out does not seem plausible. I know I have a tremendous amount of bias toward Pat therefore I believe something else is going on. Why would you phase out a job where you are trying to increase revenue at the best possible time in program history.


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 Post subject: Re: Patrick Schultz
PostPosted: Fri May 25, 2018 11:05 am 
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LU 86 wrote:
My thoughts are simple, Allegedly saying his job was phased out does not seem plausible. I know I have a tremendous amount of bias toward Pat therefore I believe something else is going on. Why would you phase out a job where you are trying to increase revenue at the best possible time in program history.

I don't know the whole story around this either and am reserving judgment until hearing the complete story. However, I also found this timing more than a little odd, especially coming off Porter's contract negotiation where he demanded LU to invest more in basketball. This restructuring seems to fly in the face of that but maybe I'm wrong.


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 Post subject: Re: Patrick Schultz
PostPosted: Fri May 25, 2018 12:19 pm 
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Presumably, there will be quite a few more people in the stands next season. If we don't average 3200 per game, something is really wrong, and there ought to be at least 5-6 sell-outs. I could see how student admission might have to be capped at 1200 or 1500 for some games.... And there will also be more interest by visiting fans next year.... they'll be playing a team coming off a Final Four, and maybe get a chance to see a national celebrity like Sister Jean. There also should be a lot more demand for game day advertising, promotions, and other revenue opportunities, not just in men's basketball, but in several other sports as well.

But the bottom line is, more staff will be needed, not less. There will be more game day staff needed, but also more advertising, media, and sports information staff. The new season ticket holders are going to have to get better customer service and be made to feel welcome to keep them coming back next year and the year after. The game day experience is going to have to be more professional to keep people coming.

So I don't know how cutting Pat Schultz' job moves all that forward. The athletic department has been understaffed (IMO) for many years, especially at crunch points in the year when several sports are going. We haven't had beat writers, so it's all the more necessary for in house media to push stories, coverage, press releases, social media, and other communications. And when there are teams in the NCAA Tournament (men's soccer, men's volleyball, men's basketball, etc. have all had runs over the past few years), it gets even more stretched. If Pat's dismissal is part of a restructuring, I'd like to know what's entailed in that.... will we get radio broadcasts? Will there be more staff hired for other areas? Or is it an excuse to off-load the salary of a senior management person from a previous regime?

If anyone gets an explanation or a new gameplan on this, I'd like to know.


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