In the old days, this was the time of year when fans of the Charlotte 49ers would send me angry emails complaining that the Observer devoted more type to the North Carolina-Duke basketball game than to Charlotte-Xavier.
I was accustomed to it. They sent similar emails in November, December, January and February.
No more. The refrain I hear almost exclusively from Charlotte fans now is: Can't wait until football starts.
Like the fans, I miss what the 49ers were. When Cincinnati and Bob Huggins and Louisville and Rick Pitino came to town Halton Arena was full of people, passion and noise. And the students didn't have to provide all of the enthusiasm. Charlotte came out. Fans who had no connection to the school saw good basketball in a great campus gym.
The 49ers made the NCAA tournament so often we expected it. They advanced in 1995, '97, '98, '99, '01, '02, '04 and '05.
They have not returned. When their conference fell apart, they were not invited to the Big East. Cincinnati and Louisville were. Each had football, and each could deliver the local market.
Charlotte scrambled and found the Atlantic 10, which plays good basketball and is a big deal for fans who live in or near Philadelphia.
Bobby Lutz, whom Charlotte fired after the 2009-10 season and is now an assistant at resurgent N.C. State, liked to approach high school stars that the local team - Cincinnati and Louisville, say -- did not recruit and tell them they were good enough for Charlotte and good enough to show the schools that ignored them they had made a mistake.
The A 10 eliminated that. What was Lutz going to do, go to Olean, N.Y., and say that St. Bonaventure was wrong?
Alan Major, who replaced Lutz, is a nice guy and he might be a good coach. In this, his second season, there's still no way to know.
The 49ers were 10-20 last season, and Major did a brave thing, kicking his best player, Shamari Spears off the team. The program was bigger than any player, and Major proved it.
He's entitled to another season before any reasonable fan decides he's the wrong man to fix the program.
Charlotte is 13-16 this season. The 12th-seeded 49ers open the Atlantic-10 tournament at fifth-seeded St. Joseph's Tuesday night.
The 49ers are expected to go as quietly as their fans have been about basketball.
Kickoff is 17 months away. Charlotte is the only football school in the country that has yet to play a football game.
I'm good with becoming a football school, but I'd still like to get back to 20 wins. Major deserves another year, after that the seat is very hot!
Posted by: Stanton49 | March 05, 2012 at 06:09 PM
Fans came out to see Charlotte play Cincinnati and Louisville and you indicate that Bobby recruited Cincinnati/Louisville leftovers.......that was a key part of the problem.
The school and its athletics are big enough to stand on their own. Hopefully, someday the rest of Charlotte will see the light
Posted by: Jeff Hartlage | March 05, 2012 at 07:01 PM
Noticed big time there was no commentary on the UNC Charlotte and St. Bonaventure game......especially the incredibly bad officiating....what's up with the silence.
Posted by: Facebook Developers | March 06, 2012 at 12:49 AM
Thank You Tom,
You've captured my feelings as a Charlotte Fan exactly. I sure miss those packed games against ranked Huggins teams. Thanks for the support you have shown our football aspirations as well. Here's to looking forward to your coverage of our gridiron games and basketball too, once it returns.
Posted by: granseurd | March 06, 2012 at 08:54 AM
Football will do wonders for the University but we need basketball to get back to the days when we made the NCAA tournament 8 out of 10 years. Every other year or 5 in 10 yrs with a couple of runs should be the goal. Hopefully footbally will help.
Posted by: ToddG49 | March 06, 2012 at 09:48 AM
Spot on. Plenty of blame to go around, but I think Judy Rose has to take the bulk of it. She should have seen the conference realignments coming and put us in a better position to survive it by really pushing to add football 10 or 15 years ago. Been a slow and steady decline for men's hoops since joining the A10. I'd like to think we have hit the bottom and are on the way back up, but I haven't seen any evidence of that yet.
Posted by: Brad | March 06, 2012 at 12:25 PM
hoops will be worse next yr, transfers will happen, and only one player (a Lutz kid, Braswell) will have any experience. It will be another "wait till next yr" season. Most of Majors players so far are subpar.
Posted by: Gene Jackson | March 06, 2012 at 04:15 PM
I sure miss those packed games against ranked Huggins teams. Thanks for the support you have shown our football aspirations as well.
Posted by: Software Development Company | March 31, 2012 at 09:34 AM
What if somebody wanted to put down serious money on Sunday afternoon football, and he or she knew about the bounty program New Orleans has made famous?
If Team B's offense is good was because of its quarterback, and you know that Team A is trying to take that quarterback out of the game, might you be tempted to invest a few bucks on Team A?
If you were connected, and close to the team, you might even offer to enhance the bounty yourself.
I'm not saying this happened. But it is feasible.
What's not feasible is a locker room full of players accustomed to being treated like royalty keeping the story private.
People talk. Ask the NFL.
That's why it's tough to believe that Drew Brees, a gracious man I've spent a little time around, knew nothing about the bounties. While the offense and defense often socialize with their own kind, Brees is a leader, the guy doing the pre-game dance in the middle of the circle. He's everybody's Saint.
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