Stony Brook Basketball: Support for the Underdog

Posted on: March 30th, 2016

Stony Brook Basketball

It’s a slam dunk! Stony Brook basketball is having one of the best seasons in the history of the school’s basketball program.

After having a run of 18 straight wins and coming off a defining comeback victory against the Vermont Catamounts in the American East Conference Finals, the team looks poised and ready to face off against a dominating, Kentucky Wildcats team in the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship.

This will be the team’s first time in the tournament and will be faced with its toughest matchup yet. As the players get primed for this game, by doing extensive studying and research as to how to win, Attract Capital looks at what it’s like to be an underdog in any pivotal game such as this one.

So, what’s “underdog”? It’s a person or group that is expected by the general consensus to lose. In business, the smaller and middle market companies are often thought of as the underdog because the expectation is that bigger companies, or bigger team in this case, will just bully the smaller businesses and dominate how the market is run.

Underdogs that achieve more than is actually expected are known as the “Cinderella” team. For middle market companies and underdog teams to succeed, they must play to their strengths.

They must think outside the box and out-smart their competitors. They must reinvent the rules to fit their unique advantages, or out-maneuver their opponents. They must also work harder than everyone else and out-perform their contenders.

It takes a lot to out-smart, out-maneuver and out-perform someone who is bigger than you, but those that do will find the most success and prosperity.

In the acquisition financing arena, capital availability is destiny as companies require reliable access to capital to grow over the long term. Unforeseen capital needs usually arise when acquirers least expect it. This can cause some concern for the acquisition financing provider, especially when covenants tighten up and that working capital availability is utilized faster than expected.

Mezzanine debt borrowing is usually a straightforward activity that many companies use for funding of transitional growth. Mezzanine debt lenders are highly transparent about their due diligence approach and their post-closing loan management making it easy for companies to engage with.

Elections have consequences and positive ones at that for the acquisition financing middle market. While much media attention is paid to the direction of the yield curve and the Fed’s likely rate cuts, scant attention is paid to the more important drivers of the acquisition financing market – business psychology and regulatory climate.