The Wiz Posted February 10, 2004 Share Posted February 10, 2004 Just returned from a business trip to Louisville. While there, I managed to catch the L'ville vs UAB game. L'ville is so athletic. They will be a handful for the Bills. There strong suit is forcing turnovers. That was one of the reasons they were able to dominate a good team like UAB. The Bills will have to take care of the ball on Mar 3 if they are to have a chance. On another note, I am really looking foeward to our new arena. After being at Freedom Hall, you can really see the difference in atmosphere. Our new arena will be similiar in size to Freedom Hall and have the same intimacy. Even without sellouts the new facility will have a "full feel" to it. Im the lower decks at Freedom you are on top of the floor. Even the back part of the upper deck is closer to the action than the rear of the lower sections at Savvis Center. The new arena will definitely create a better and more excitimg environment As far as tomorrow, Bills by 5 1/2 over DePaul. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billiken Law Posted February 10, 2004 Share Posted February 10, 2004 actually Freedom Hall seats over 19,000 and I would hope the new arena isn't anything like Freedom Hall, where a majority of seats are behind the basket. To get a better look at what the arena will be like check out Xavier's Cintas Center. Also, most schools could only dream of the support and enthusiasm of Louisville fans. That is their professional team - it's all they have to root for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted February 10, 2004 Share Posted February 10, 2004 i agree with billiken law. i hate freedom hall. however i love their fans. i was totally blown away by the over the top fan support. thy had 60 year old men leading cheers and doing handstands on upper deck rails, everyone in the stands is wild. it is like they enter the front doors and are infected with a crazy disease. FAN-TASTIC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Wiz Posted February 10, 2004 Author Share Posted February 10, 2004 It just seemed smaller. Much lower ceiling also turned up the volume and made thimgs seem closer. I agree though, the end zones left much to be desired. I saw the 60 yr old handstander on the rails. Pretty amazing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slufanskip Posted February 10, 2004 Share Posted February 10, 2004 Louisville fans also travel to see their team ... I will not be surprised to see 1000 or so at the game. They are passionate ... and really not obnoxious or anything ... Great fans. Official Billikens.com sponsor of H. Waldman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
courtside Posted February 11, 2004 Share Posted February 11, 2004 I have some good friends who are Louisille fans(from there)...they have great knowledgeable fans, and they do travel extremely well....with that said...they have plenty of yahoo fans too who literally live and die with the program. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Major Majerus Posted February 11, 2004 Share Posted February 11, 2004 And, of course, in St. Louis, we're rooting for ... UMSL? WU? Fontbonne? Webster? DeSmet? Vashon? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STLBlazer Posted February 11, 2004 Share Posted February 11, 2004 Louisville is very good. They press and crash the boards....we just press. The game was closer than the score indicated but UL made 23 FT's. Both of us shot around 30% that night. UL has a lot of weapons. Dean, Garcia, and Daniels for 3's...Whitehead for rebounding, OBannon for this and that, Dartez is a good role player, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kshoe Posted February 11, 2004 Share Posted February 11, 2004 nm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billiken Law Posted February 11, 2004 Share Posted February 11, 2004 >And, of course, in St. Louis, we're rooting for ... UMSL? >WU? Fontbonne? Webster? DeSmet? Vashon? The Cards, Rams and Blues. In a pro sports town those teams come first. I would think it would be different with no pro hoops team here but with this being such a great pro sports town the Bills get overlooked. The lack of coverage from the PD and having to split space with Mi$$ou and Illinois doesn't help either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tonka Posted February 11, 2004 Share Posted February 11, 2004 1000? So that will mean it will be like an Illinois vs. Mizzou game as the Savvis will bew split evenly then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Major Majerus Posted February 11, 2004 Share Posted February 11, 2004 If we had pro hoops, you might have a point, but how does having non hoops pro teams affect your choice of whether or not to support the local D1 hoop team? Is your point that there is nothing else to do in Louisville than go to Freedom Hall, even if you're not a hoops fan? I can't believe there is one person in SL who won't go to tonite's game because he's tapped, financially or emotionally, from rooting for the Cardinals, Rams, or blews. Sorry...I'm sure there's one... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NashvilleBilliken Posted February 11, 2004 Share Posted February 11, 2004 "with that said...they have plenty of yahoo fans too who literally live and die with the program." I think we have a few of those on this board. What's wrong with that?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kshoe Posted February 11, 2004 Share Posted February 11, 2004 St. Louis sports fans have only so much to spend on their entertainment $. While we may be a cheap option, try telling the average Joe that isn't a die-hard he should attend our games in addition to the mnoney he spends on pro sports. If we were the only game in town we would get an article a day in the post, people would have considerably more sports income to spend on our games and people would look forward to the season because nothing else would be going on. This is how it is in Louisville. Don't forget the best (or nearly the best) attendence year we ever had was the year hockey was on strike. More $ to go around for the average Joe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iggy Posted February 11, 2004 Share Posted February 11, 2004 There may well be a hockey strike/lock-out next year which could really help our attandance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kshoe Posted February 11, 2004 Share Posted February 11, 2004 highschool athletics in STL would be a much bigger deal if we didn't have the 3 pro sports teams. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted February 11, 2004 Share Posted February 11, 2004 i disagree unca. i think there is a limited amount of "sports entertainment" dollars on most fans. i know when i started getting billiken tickets, i gave up my st louis cardinal tickets. i dont think it is a coincidence that the billiken season ticket sales began to fall as the rams got better. so the fact that louisville has zero pro sports franchises makes the cards the top sports entertainment draw in town. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted February 11, 2004 Share Posted February 11, 2004 stlblazer, granted i have not seen the two teams this season in person. but i did see both of them last year in person for about 4 games worth. the major parts of both teams are back and i maintain that uab has the better additions. the difference right now is that louisville has pitino and uab has williams. not that williams is not a good coach. in fact i think he is an excellent coach. but pitino has the team, the program the city believing they are elite and are supposed to win every nite. uab is good, but they may still be in self questioning mode. i will take uab in cincy over louisville if that matchup occurs. that said, homecourt may be hard to break for the bearcats. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kshoe Posted February 12, 2004 Share Posted February 12, 2004 Our attendence is bad but not that bad. Speaking of bad attendance. The stated attendence for the Mizzou game last night was 9,300 but people there said it was far less than that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Major Majerus Posted February 12, 2004 Share Posted February 12, 2004 I don't get it - If the Bill's went D2, that would never influence me to attend a hockey game. If you love hoops, you support hoops. I assume people who spend money on those other teams think it's well spent. I doubt they just attend because they have empty lives so they might as well join an expensive crowd... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
courtside Posted February 12, 2004 Share Posted February 12, 2004 Louisville has better players than UAB, who is solid. It isn't just coaching. Louisville can be beaten because they do not present anything inside on offense, and sometimes get caught up not defendindg like they should. Talent-wise, I would take Louisville over UAB all day. But UAB is improved. They obviously made a great run last year as well. Louisville however is beatable. SLU...win games, and create an atmosphere with students, marketing etc...and people will come. Playing teams like AZ is a good start. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STLBlazer Posted February 12, 2004 Share Posted February 12, 2004 who was played and coached w/ Nolan Richardson for 20 years. Thanks for the compliments though. We are in a rebuilding stage and have done better than anyone would've expected at this point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted February 12, 2004 Share Posted February 12, 2004 unca, the 8-10k that have been there since 1993 are our diehards, but the other 8-10k that no longer come are somewhere? that is the casual fan that puts the billikens behind the cards, rams or blues. i am just the opposite. now that i am a billiken die hard season tix holder, and have been since 1988, i go to very few rams, blues and cards games. in the early to late 80's i was a season tix holder for the cards and attended other pro events as much as i did billiken games. but once i was hooked on billiken basketball, the others went to the wayside. i am sure there are plenty of others that predominately go to one over the others as well. that is what we are talking about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlumniFan Posted February 12, 2004 Share Posted February 12, 2004 The way the fans behaved tonight, they didn't look like diehards...they looked dead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Wiz Posted February 12, 2004 Author Share Posted February 12, 2004 I agree with courtside. L'ville has better players than UAB. Their D forced 18 turnovers against a good team. They also forced 2 8 min droughts without a FG. With that said, I think the Bills have a better chance to beat the Cards than UAB did. Our D would be bothersome to them. They would beat us because their depth would wear us down. If the game were tomorrow L'ville would only be favored by 5 1/2. Hopefully, we can build some momentum by winning a few games before we play them. I was glad to see we had fewer turnovers tonight. That is a good sign. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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