Anatomy of a Cougar regarding Respect and Hyphens

HOUSEKEEPING: This is the first in a seven-part series of posts somewhat relating to basketball that really are not all that basketball-ey to get us ready for the new season. It is somewhat modeled after the midmajority's essay season. Later, I will get some material up from SIUE media day. My laptop literally crashed (onto the ground) and this problem has since been resolved. I am now a Mac and not a PC. $35 to my name for two weeks. 


Respect consists of seven letters. It is defined by Webster's dictionary as "deference to a right, privilege, privileged position, or someone or something considered to have certain rights or privileges; proper acceptance or courtesy; acknowledgment: respect for a suspect's right to counsel; to show respect forthe flag; respect for the elderly."


More often than not, respect is earned rather than acquired. Gonzaga, Butler and Xavier earned respect as small schools on the basketball court. Memphis, a member of conference USA earned its respect through a variety of methods, including John Calipari's ethics. Marquette earned its respect through a certain man named Dwyane Wade, and its respect earned them an invitation to the Big East Conference. 


Others did not get as far. Half of those who have even heard of IUPUI still refer to them as "Ooey-pooey" despite an NCAA tournament appearance in 2003. George Hill was drafted by San Antonio in 2008, and the Jags still don't have a name but they do have four hyphens if you want to be a smart ass. Milwaukee still gets slammed with a UW-Milwaukee reference from time to time. I am guilty of getting it printed. 


Northwestern State? Oh, that's the school that beat Iowa a few years back. 


Gardner-Webb? Didn't they beat Kentucky in that pre-season tournament and did anyone ever say anything about them ever again?


It's a shame. 


SIUE, like Northwestern State and Gardner-Webb, still does not have respect. Sure, we haven't done anything, but if the NFL let in an expansion team, like the NCAA did with SIUE, people would quickly learn their name...right?


Whenever I am in a college environment, I like to gauge other individuals understanding of the grand scheme involved in college athletics. More often than not, the end result is me getting pissed off. 
When SIUE made the switch to NCAA Division I in 2007, it did not earn the respect it deserves. While we became a national footnote, one of the 347 Division I institutions, we should have known what we were going to get. 


I broke my Sony Vaio laptop Wednesday afternoon, directly after SIUE's men's and women's basketball media days. I was in the office at the Alestle trying to figure out how to fix the audio quality on the interviews, because we shot it from way in the back of the room. So much for supposed high definition.


After hyperventilating about the status of my website for about 20 minutes, it was time to get out of the office. We were headed to Louisville for the National Collegiate Press Association conference. Being a sports guy, my main mission - aside from having a night out in a different city and going to redundant seminars - was to get an outside perspective on SIUE basketball. 


I talked to a sports reporter from Arkansas State who knew nothing about college basketball, besides that his school was in the Sun Belt and the NCAA was going to stop allowing teams to schedule non-DI competition. He was surprised I knew what conference they reside in and has never heard of us before. Big shocker. 


We went to a session hosted by someone within the Knight Commission, a group advocating equality between athletic spending and academic spending. She babbled on about BCS conference schools and how having 80 football scholarships instead of say, 70, is detrimental to education. I think zero is the perfect number, although an FCS team would be nice and yes, that is a different story. It kept the staffers from UNC interested and me puzzled. The UT Pan American girl behind us was probably in our same position.


It came to the questions, and I was prepared to find out everything I could about money in college athletics. There were problems though. I stumped her multiple times and never got a satisfactory response. She read my name tag, overlooking the - Edwardsville written below my name. "Southern Illinois, are you in the Valley?" 

You can see my eyes rolling now.


"No. That's that other school in Carbondale. We are in Edwardsville. It's by St. Louis. We are a transitioning school. We have been doing this for two years now. We are not in the Valley [Missouri Valley Conference.] We are in the other, [Ohio] Valley. Well, sort of. We are an independent for one more year. Then we play a full...you get the rest of it."


I was cut off. She cared about SIUE as much as I care for the BCS, Santa Claus and talking porcupines. 


Friday night, we were at a bar. I saw this kid by himself. I struck up a conversation and the second he said he went to Southeast Missouri State, sports were the first thing on my agenda.


"We're in your conference..."


"Who are you?..."


"SIUE..."


"Who?"


Dan from Eastern Illinois was cool, but that was about it. 


When I was singing karaoke Friday night in Louisville, I feel as though my slurs resembling the Goo Goo Dolls were directed right at the kid from SEMO, the woman from the Knight Commission, the girl from Michigan State my friend and co-worker AJ was talking to and the guy from Arkansas State. 


"I just want you to know who I am..."


There are 347 Division I college basketball teams. Two-thirds go unnoticed.


On its bottom line, ESPN crawls "SIU-EDWRDS." The Big Ten network ran a score box against Wisconsin two years ago with the abbreviation SIU-E. I got an e-mail today from a fellow mid-major blogger whose work I respect asking about SIU-E. ESPN ran the Carbondale logo in place of ours when they ran highlights for the Wisconsin game as well. 


It's not his fault or any other college basketball fans fault to use the hyphen. It is just a punctuation mark used to join words and to separate syllables of a single word.


When it goes national, that's different. Southernillinoisuniversityedwardsville is not a single word. Edwardsville is a separate word from University however. It could very well be a part of our name. In this case, the (-) keeps us from establishing our own image. The (-) attaches us to some other school (which we will discuss tomorrow) and the (-) discourages unity between Edwardsville and SIU Edwardsville. The (-) is a negative. 


We are looking at the positives. 


Everyone is undefeated. 


SIUE has almost arrived.


Everyone better recognize it. 


The Ohio Valley Conference stylebook refers to "SIU-E" and "Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville as "unacceptable ways to refer to the school."


How lazy does a media outlet have to be to glance over this list for five seconds? Apparently, we have ever told ESPN to forgo the hyphen. It is still there. 


Milwaukee is probably the most publicized hyphen out there. This article from the UWM Post really brings this issue home.  


In 2005, the school changed it's athletic programs name to "Milwaukee." The academic side remained the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee.


In SIUE's case, the hyphen is not already a part of our name. 


It is strictly a creation of ESPN, the Big Ten network, and anyone who thinks they need to disadvantage disadvantaged Division I schools more than they already are. 


For now, we are what they say we are. You can call us a cupcake. You can call us SIU-E. You can call us whatever the hell you want. When the time comes, we will beat you. We will separate ourselves from the competition and the hyphen. Give it time.


You may think a hyphen is trivial, and in a way it is. National championships and competing for them shouldn't be the lone barometer for respect. Division I basketball isn't about three weeks in March. Sure, not everyone is going to know about each and every college, and Centenary and New Orleans' departure to Division III isn't going to throw out the orbit of the earth and affect very many people outside of those schools. I am guilty of not respecting non-Division I institutions and giving them their daylight. 


The fact is, they deserve it too. Illinois College and Millikin earned my respect. Maybe we can earn the respect of Iowa and Indiana this season. 

“The best thing to give to your enemy is forgiveness; to an opponent, tolerance; to a friend, your heart; to your child, a good example; to a father, deference; to your mother, conduct that will make her proud of you; to yourself, respect; to all men, charity.” - Benjamin Franklin. 

Part II will be titled "superiority 'c'omplex and be online tomorrow.

Posted in: Archives,Men's basketball