Seven things that should be on Malcolm Turner's "to do" list

On Tuesday, Dec. 11, Vanderbilt named NBA G League commissioner Malcolm Turner as its new athletics director. Turner will start on February 1, 2019, and on Tuesday's media call, said he intended to spend his first few months listening to athletes, coaches and other stake-holders in Vanderbilt's athletics fortunes.

No doubt, that feedback will form the backbone of much of Turner's work. There are also some other issues that are easily identifiable that could use some attention, too.

With that, here is what Turner's "to-do" list could look like once everything is said and done. Items are listed in general order of importance and aren't necessarily chronological.

Vanderbilt athletics has generally been managed by crisis. In many cases, nothing happened until last-ditch efforts were made to keep coaches from going elsewhere, which has especially been the case in football and baseball.

That's all about to change.

Inside sources make no bones about it: Turner was hired because of his strategic management and planning ability. If you heard Turner's introductory media call on Tuesday, barely a minute went by without that being mentioned.

Turner's months ahead will be spending time with coaches to develop strategic plans for each sport. Those plans will be dictated by each coach's vision for his or her sport, so much is to be determined.

However, expect significant movement in these areas, at a minimum.

- A renovation to Memorial Gymnaisium.

- Behind-the-scenes capital improvements for basketball--improvements to locker rooms, the practice gym, etc.--that will impact recruiting.

- Significant improvements to Vanderbilt Stadium.

And, while we haven't heard as much on this, we'd be stunned if tennis facilities aren't addressed also.

We have been told for months that unprecedented university commitment and buy-in lies ahead. We don't believe Turner took the job without autonomy to make significant changes. The months to come could include changes that have positive ramifications for Vanderbilt athletics for years, and probably decades, to come.

Once plans are laid out, Turner will have to solicit the funds. That'll be a new role for him. But a few things should play in his favor:

- Efforts prior to Turner have been minimal. While he learns the role, he should find some quick success in just making some easy asks that outgoing AD David Williams didn't make.

- A source with knowledge says there will be a university matching campaign to accompany this. Details are far from clear, but again, this makes Turner's job easier.

- A source with knowledge has said that "limits" placed on Williams have been overblown. That remains to be seen, but certainly, the bad publicity coming from the series of Tennessean articles in August that blasted VU have at least shed public light on what was widely perceived as an issue, and put pressure on Vanderbilt in that regard.

Vanderbilt was a black hole when it came to marketing and communication over the last few years of the Williams tenure. One day there were big plans for a new stadium, followed by silence, followed by denials that sometimes included pointing a finger back at a fan base. As little as was being done behind the scenes, silence probably wasn't the worst strategy.

But what it did was almost completely demoralize and disenfranchise a fan base. For "exhibit A," simply look at how many times over the past three years VU football fans were out-numbered in their own facility.

The reality is, there are a lot of good things happening at Vanderbilt. Two months from now, the baseball team will enter 2019 ranked first or second in preseason polls. Football is headed to a bowl, and just beat Tennessee for the third-straight time. Despite the loss of Darius Garland, Vanderbilt fields a talented basketball team and is recruiting at a high level. Tennis and golf are national powers. Women's soccer could be on the way next.

And winning aside, I have covered so many intelligent, articulate, thoughtful athletes who continually put Vanderbilt's best foot forward and defy the stereotypes that contradict the decades-old image of VU as a stuffy and aloof institution.

But promotion and marketing of the good things things has been spotty over the years. Worse, allowed itself to be dragged into the forefront of the news by things like the stadium and attendance debacles that were brought about by institutional laziness and neglect.

Turner did tremendous work in the G League in regards to branding and publicity. He has a great opportunity to completely flip the script on Vanderbilt athletics and how its story is told.

The ticket office has been a frequent source of message board complaints, whether it's about botched orders, failure to return communications, or the lack of any sort of outreach to former ticket holders.

This dovetails on the last item, but VU could do a better job of promoting its fan events and making more of them, not to mention getting its coaches and players in the community more often.

And then there are the never-ending complaints about concessions and bathroom lines at events. Though some of that obviously will have to wait for capital improvements, even a simple acknowledgement of "we hear your frustrations, here is a temporary plan to make it better," would probably go a long way.

If any Southeastern Conference school should get this right, it's Vanderbilt. Its fan base is a small fraction of others within the league. Sadly, it is one that's had its loyalty put to the test more often than it should over the past few decades.

Most of all, there should be a greater overall strategy to build a fan base. It's been said that over 100 new people move to the area every day. VU has to have some sort of corporate strategy to attract new fans and better serve the ones it has. The same applies to the student body.

Vanderbilt went out of the box with its AD hire. It should do the same here by taking a look at some of the best customer service organizations around and modeling its customer service, or perhaps even stealing some of its employees. Again, this is an area where Turner seems to have a skill set to make an easy difference.

One of the football staff's better ideas has been to hit the transfer market hard. Kids near the ends of their careers realize there's more than football, and when they start thinking about their futures, a Vanderbilt degree has more value than ever.

However, transfers sometimes happen mid-term. Sometimes, the lack of a quick answer causes a player to move on. My understanding is that this has particularly been an issue in basketball.

Not that sports should run the school, but coaches should be able to get quicker answers regarding getting players in school. More exceptions should be granted for mid-term enrollees, too, if coaches still find that to be an issue.

How many times has Vanderbilt changed its shade of gold over the years?

How many times do you see logos from 20-plus years ago on basic items on campus like trash cans, or shirts that ushers at sporting events wear?

And a common complaint has always been the lack of finding quality merchandise at outlets other than the bookstore.

Turner knows a thing of two about branding through his G League experience. There should be some quick and easy fixes that could quickly make a difference in terms of VU enhancing its image and its brand.

Everything the school says and does needs to look first-class, and VU easily has the resources to make sure that happens.

Vanderbilt's women's basketball program, through 2 1/3 seasons, is 25-45 under coach Stephanie White. The number to the left of the dash was once attainable in one year. With the team at 4-5, and in jeopardy of even being able to field a five to take the court despite 15 available scholarships, things aren't looking good. It wasn't t a good look for White when esteemed assistant Carolyn Peck departed just before the season, nor is it each time fewer than 500 fans show up for games.

White's case for more patience rests on the fact that she's brought in a completely new system, has two former ESPN top-50 freshmen on the roster now, and, has a seven-person class coming in next year. But even then, only two of next year's recruits rank in ESPN's top 100, and they're barely in, at that.

Not long ago, VU went to NCAA Tournaments in 25 of 26 seasons. This should be a top-20 job. Since arriving, all White has done of significance is to drive away even more fans from a situation where it was virtually impossible to do so. Another single-digit win season is probably coming, and with it, Turner may have to decide whether to keep White, or start a coaching search with what should be quite an attractive vacancy.