Texas Southern Commits to Building Basketball Program
Written by HBCU Digest, Posted in Sports, Texas, Texas Southern University
Yahoo! Sports today profiled Texas Southern interim basketball coach Mike Davis as he preps for the upcoming season.
The thrust of the story was Davis’ embrace of the challenge of coaching in the SWAC, and his preference in taking an interim gig versus sitting at home without being involved in the sport. But what was most interesting about the article – a look into TSU’s commitment to building its men’s and women’s basketball programs.
They’ve increased coaching salaries and recruiting and travel budgets in football and men’s and women’s basketball. They’ve hired ex-NCAA staffers to beef up the compliance staff and assist in instituting academic reform. And they’ve drastically upgraded Texas Southern’s athletic facilities, leasing the Houston Dynamo’s newly built stadium as a permanent home for the football program, installing suites and a new floor in the basketball arena and renovating the locker rooms and offices for both men’s and women’s hoops.
“We want to increase our status in basketball, and I think you’re starting to see that Texas Southern is starting to put the resources in,” McClelland said. “Our budget for men’s and women’s basketball has doubled since I’ve been athletic director, and it shows our level of commitment. We know resources is the name of the game.”
Resources is indeed the name of the game, and it takes commitment from the administration, vision from athletic executives, and support from alumni and the surrounding community to make it happen. McClelland and Texas Southern deserve credit for making the investments, and hopefully, the rest of the SWAC sees the value in doing the same.
