Woj

[ohs73]

In the last several months, Bona has connected on two grand slam hires in Bob Beretta and Woj.

Woj has a virtual encyclopedia of contacts and his communication skills (honed at Bonas) are second to none.

In this era of change in collegiate athletics, SBU is now a good distance ahead of the curve.

[bub]

Sept 18, 2024 13:42:11 GMT -5 bigcat said:

Not a completely new concept. Athletic programs began hiring GMs a couple years ago. It has picked up steam in the last 6 months. Good to see Beretta and Schmidt on the cutting edge. We might be the first in the A10.



Dan Wetzel of Yahoo Sports reported that "At least one other major college program, upon hearing rumors of Woj's move, offered him a similar spot with them and the lure of trying to win a national title. He said no"

If I had to guess, I would say UConn since he lives in CT.

[78francis302]

Sept 18, 2024 14:41:29 GMT -5 ohs73 said:

In the last several months, Bona has connected on two grand slam hires in Bob Beretta and Woj.

Woj has a virtual encyclopedia of contacts and his communication skills (honed at Bonas) are second to none.

In this era of change in collegiate athletics, SBU is now a good distance ahead of the curve.

“Encyclopedia”! I agree with you, but I would guess many under the age of 50 don’t know what an encyclopedia is. Of course, most who have time to fritter away on the bandwagon are much older than 50. 

[78francis302]

Sept 18, 2024 15:58:08 GMT -5 78francis302 said:

Sept 18, 2024 14:41:29 GMT -5 ohs73 said:

In the last several months, Bona has connected on two grand slam hires in Bob Beretta and Woj.

Woj has a virtual encyclopedia of contacts and his communication skills (honed at Bonas) are second to none.

In this era of change in collegiate athletics, SBU is now a good distance ahead of the curve.

“Encyclopedia”! I agree with you, but I would guess many under the age of 50 don’t know what an encyclopedia is. Of course, most who have time to fritter away on the bandwagon are much older than 50. 

😃

[78francis302]

nypost.com/2024/09/18/sports/how-adrian-wojnarowskis-st-bonaventure-dreams-became-reality/

[skeller6]

Woj is just the best.......how many folks do you know that would give up a million dollar job to come back to Bonas to lead the Brown and White...........?

Only in Bonaland could this occur........we as members of this very special fraternity are unique..................

[orangehater]

Based on this excerpt, I wonder if the immediate impact of Woj will be our developing players staying put after THIS year.


"This isn’t the first time a sportswriter has worked their way into a front office: Lee Jenkins and Luke Winn—both previously of Sports Illustrated—have made that leap. But neither had the kind of cachet that Woj immediately steps into St. Bonaventure with. More than any bit of exclusive reporting he’s done over the past 15 years, how Woj builds up Bonnies basketball in the still-early days of the NIL era will show us just how well he’s leveraged his connections in the basketball world and beyond. His responsibilities will reportedly include recruiting and NIL allocation. There’s no mystery as to how he might be able to curry favor in those realms of college basketball.

He made his intentions clear on his way out of Bristol: “I am hopeful that I can bring value in a lot of areas to our basketball program and open doors for our young men’s futures in ways both professionally and personally,” Wojnarowski told ESPN. There’s no reading between the lines here: He has the resources and connections to get players paid. In building a reputation for looking out for players’ futures both at the NCAA level and beyond, there’s a nonzero percent chance Woj can find ways to transform the program in ways similar to the early years of John Calipari’s time with Kentucky."

www.theringer.com/platform/amp/media/2024/9/18/24248522/woj-bomb-adrian-wojnarowski-retirement-espn-nba

[pete's mom]

from the BV

A press conference welcoming Wojnarowski and his wife Amy back to the Bonaventure community will be held on Wednesday, Sept. 25 at 4 p.m. in the Quick Center for the Arts.

[kccgold]

Woj is giving up millions from ESPN to help our school out, it can't be understated how awesome that is. He has 6.5 million followers alone on Twitter, let alone who else is viewing and now they are seeing St. Bonaventure all over it. Big time stuff there

I think you also have to give some props to the new AD Beretta.

I think a lesser man would reject this. He just gets the Athletic Director job and there's discussion about a popular alum managing the flagship athletic program from him? Some of our other ADs would not have been receptive to the idea. But Beretta is an alum too, no questions he's on board with making our school/basketball team better!

[thesocalkid]

So what .... will he be here today and gone tomorrow ? His business. I returned back after 30 years.

Let's go ..gers!!!!

[demourse]

Fascinating to see how this all plays out. While I agree and belive this this is a monumental change for the program,

What are realistic expectations and how quickly? He brings name recognition for certain but that doesn’t always translate. His connections are NBA related and reporting on sources for player transactions, he isn’t a scout a recruiting personality.

He should be able to open doors but I wonder what level of connection does he have at the college level, especially outside of SBU alumni/fan base. While programs are flush with cash today, they need a consistent revenue stream. SBU seems to always rely a few heavy pocket donors to come through. What happens when that money runs out?

I’m optimistic but this may have a bigger impact if he were a former player that had great success in the NBA and could relate to players.

The school has many accomplished journalists in main stream media that hasn’t resulted in an advantage for the school. Perhaps the difference is that none of those worked directly for the university until now.

I don’t see any negatives with this hire, I just wonder how much of 8mpact it could have on a small school like SBU, with limited resources. If he went to the larger school, rumored to be UCONN, the hire would be supercharged with their current success and deeper pockets.

[localfan]

Speaking to the serious posters on this board and ignoring the others:

This is the most consequential hire our program has probably ever made. That sounds drastic, but it's the truth. Those of us who understand the program know that Woj was one of the few people Schmidt was "accountable" to over the last few years for a number of reasons. The NIT situation of the offseason proved that even the president and the AD take a backseat to the basketball coach on our campus. It's the way it is.

Woj is now the face and the voice of the basketball program. His hiring most likely extends Schmidt's career here as now Mark can focus more and more on coaching. Woj's influence helps every major aspect of the program, none more than recruiting. Any prospective athlete coming to campus knows who he is, and his presence in the program on a full-time basis will allow those athletes to have connections around the basketball world.

Does this mean we're now a national championship contender? No. But what it means is we are solidly positioned to deal with the new landscape of NIL, transfer portal, collectives, pay-for-play, etc. There is no one more qualified to do this than Woj.

[ohs73]

Sept 18, 2024 15:58:08 GMT -5 78francis302 said:

Sept 18, 2024 14:41:29 GMT -5 ohs73 said:

In the last several months, Bona has connected on two grand slam hires in Bob Beretta and Woj.

Woj has a virtual encyclopedia of contacts and his communication skills (honed at Bonas) are second to none.

In this era of change in collegiate athletics, SBU is now a good distance ahead of the curve.

“Encyclopedia”! I agree with you, but I would guess many under the age of 50 don’t know what an encyclopedia is. Of course, most who have time to fritter away on the bandwagon are much older than 50. 

If not an encyclopedia, then Woj has a Rolodex full of contacts. Maybe several.

[ctm77]

Sept 19, 2024 11:26:13 GMT -5 localfan said:

Speaking to the serious posters on this board and ignoring the others:

This is the most consequential hire our program has probably ever made. That sounds drastic, but it's the truth.

Hard disagree. Schmidt is still the very definition of consequential hires. If they make the wrong coaching hire in 2007 none of this matters.

[dadster81]

Really good article with more background info


buffalonews.com/sports/college/basketball/woj-st-bonaventure-basketball-general-manager-espn-adrian-wojnarowski-bob-beretta/article_fdece054-761e-11ef-b2c2-3bf46c92a179.html#tracking-source=home-sports