Vonterius Woolbright

[jamesdhogan]

The WCU Cats are a four seed in the SoCon this weekend, but it's been a special season up here watching Vonterius Woolbright's stand-out senior year. He's easy to root for: fun to watch play, great guy off the court, exactly the kind of student you want wearing your jersey.

The SoCon has lauded him again and again, and in the last week of regular season play, Woolbright picked up his ninth SoCon Player of the Week award this season. According to the press release, that sets a new single-season SoCon record, surpassing one (*checks notes*) Steph Curry of Davidson College, who earned 8 awards in the 2008-09 season (but collected an impressive 16 throughout his three seasons wearing red and black).

We have the privilege of playing Furple Saturday night late, and if we make it through, Samford awaits on Sunday. Tough road to the tourney. I plan to be there in Asheville to catch V as many times as I can.

https://catamountsports.com/news/2024/3 ... honor.aspx

[catnhat]

Go Cats!

[Dr. Bliss]

Good luck. Not sure y'all can get by Samford.

[jamesdhogan]

Good luck. Not sure y'all can get by Samford.

They're gonna be a tough, tough out. But--drinking some kool-aid here--they sat three starters (sickness, rest, apparently?) and got thumped by Wofford. A guy can hope.

[Dr. Bliss]

Good luck. Not sure y'all can get by Samford.

They're gonna be a tough, tough out. But--drinking some kool-aid here--they sat three starters (sickness, rest, apparently?) and got thumped by Wofford. A guy can hope.

I noticed that Achor Achor sat for that one. He's their main man.

[Dr. Bliss]

Furple eliminates WCU in OT. Didn't expect that.

[citycat]

The NC legislature needs to eliminate WCU's $1000 tuition. If UNC Asheville and WCU compete for students on equal footing, UNCA will start to get back on a firm financial footing.

I have a son and a son-in-law who are WCU grads. I'm very happy with the school, but not enough to subsidize it so it clobbers UNCA.

WCU was the 4 seed and Furman was the 5 seed. This is not an Maryland over NCSU 1989 upset.

[jamesdhogan]

The NC legislature needs to eliminate WCU's $1000 tuition. If UNC Asheville and WCU compete for students on equal footing, UNCA will start to get back on a firm financial footing.

I have a son and a son-in-law who are WCU grads. I'm very happy with the school, but not enough to subsidize it so it clobbers UNCA.

I'll bite this time, with apologies to Vonterius Woolbright, who finished a fine career last night in our OT loss to Furple. I'm still hoarse.

First, our admissions data shows that WCU and UNCA don't really compete often for students, at least in the sense of students who apply to both schools, are admitted to both, and opt to enroll at WCU. It happens, of course, but not to the extent that we are robbing their yield. A limitation to this data point, of course, is that we don't know have a tally of students who enroll at WCU but would prefer to go to UNCA (and never apply because they couldn't afford tuition).

But if cost is a deciding factor for students making choices for college, count me in as a fan of lower prices. Full disclosure: I wrote an op-ed many years ago railing against NC Promise on the grounds that we are a consumer economy that associates price with quality, that this stood to harm WCU's (then) reputation, and that a better way to make college affordable and grow academic reputation was to fund a robust, first-class merit aid program. (Haha, I was working at Davidson at the time, if you couldn't tell.)

What does the data say? I happen to have just finished a paper examining groups community college transfer students at WCU before and after NC Promise. I can't extrapolate those results to the student body at large, but what I found was a significant increase in first generation and Pell-eligible student populations. Research shows those groups come with lots of academic challenges--but GPA, persistence, and credits attempted all stayed roughly the same before and after the promise. So: WCU is seeing increases in students who frequently have challenges in accessing college, and we're helping them succeed academically.

Recently, WCU's own research office found further data that evidences the economic impact of NC Promise around student loan debt. Last year, our students graduated with an average loan debt of $15,000 -- far below the national average.

Even more compelling: last academic year, 60 percent of our students did not take out student loans.

I'm very grateful that you're happy with WCU. I think it's a tremendous education for the price. One of the points I make in the final pages of my dissertation, though, is that NC Promise is public investment under the guise of a promise program. North Carolina's constitution demands our state offer higher education for free as far as practicable. Our state has long enjoyed the benefits of legislative bodies that have taken this charge seriously and channeled abundant public resources toward education. I would argue that UNCA needs NC Promise--not that NC Promise at WCU needs to go away. In one sense, NC Promise is a return to taxpayers helping students.

About two hundred yards from my house as the crow flies, there's a family that lives in a dwelling that consists of two single-wide trailers of different ages that have been frankensteined together to form a single unit. They heat their house with wood, and in the summers, the doors to the trailer house are often left open. There's a young girl who lives there who is in my son's fifth grade class. She's delightful--funny, witty, and smart. I'd bet right now that she could be successful in college.

The depths of poverty here in distant Appalachia are breathtaking. My accountant tells me I pay more than enough in taxes to the Old North State, but I firmly believe that the girl who lives across the holler has a future that's worth investing in. I'd be happy if we invested in the futures of people who need--as we all need, I believe--a public liberal arts institution that is equally accessible.

Last night's game was a slugfest. Back and forth the entire time. FU figured out a way to contain Woolbright for most of the game (although I think he was still only an assist away from another triple-double), but we spread enough offense around to stay in it. I couldn't ask for a better return on my GA ticket. We're graduating too much talent to celebrate an early exit from Asheville, but I'm determined to live in this moment and appreciate the heck out of this season.

Go Cats!

[i77cat]

Furple eliminates WCU in OT. Didn't expect that.

The final line I saw was Furman by 1.5 points. Hard to beat the defending champs.

[Dr. Bliss]

Furple eliminates WCU in OT. Didn't expect that.

The final line I saw was Furman by 1.5 points. Hard to beat the defending champs.

Samford is doing it.

Pegues is a fine player. Achor Achor is really fine.

[i77cat]

Samford was the 1 seed. Nice win. Now they get the Mocs/Bucs survivor.

[Dr. Bliss]

I ain’t gonna lie, I miss the long-term rivalries we had in the SC. Plus the tourney in Asheville.

[DC69Wildcat]

I ain’t gonna lie, I miss the long-term rivalries we had in the SC. Plus the tourney in Asheville.

Yep, my wife and I really miss the tourney in Asheville. A walkable, albeit hilly, city, great restaurants and bars, nice arena, great Davidson presence, and trout fishing with Dr. Bliss and raptorcat (and Jim Droney on one occasion). Not much trout fishing in Brooklyn.

[stevelee]

Not much trout fishing in Brooklyn.

But some. Just down Flatbush Avenue from the arena is Prospect Park.

Fly fishing is allowed in some places in Central Park. You might join Tucker Carlson there. The East River has stripers and bluefish. Guides are available.

Public transportation can get you to some of the other locales. https://www.outdoorfest.com/community/2 ... g-near-nyc

[i77cat]

I've caught small blues before, 2-3 pounds, and they are a blast. On my last fishing trip, I boated a big one. About 15 pounds. That's a crazy fish.