Burwell: Billikens are doing their part, so where are the people?

[Prairie Bill]

Top recruits and large crowds are "trailing indicators" of a successful program. Did Burwell accompany TT to Chaifetz in December? I suspect not, but he's here now, and the STL public (especially local alums) will eventually come to see "their team" next year, AFTER they see them next month on CBS and realize there is BB in STL after all.

Current SLU students came here for many reasons, but watching our varsity athletic teams was not one of them, well behind "attractive urban campus" and student recreation center. I admit that in the future, more high-quality students may include SLU in their "common app" list if and when we become better known because of our basketball program. I presume that's why LB is spending so much dough on it.

[MusicCityBilliken]

A lot of things happened following the heyday of Spoonball, but the decline actually slowly started happening right after Claggett and Waldman graduated. Spoon was unable to capitalize on that success with recruiting success. The next year, the team made the NIT (and probably didn't deserve it with a 16-14 record) and the year after that, the team was dreadful. Too many bad recruits. Just two years removed from the height of Spoonball, attendance started to drop. Then, Spoon hit the lottery by getting Hughes and attendance climbed back up. Then Hughes bolted after just one year and the momentum came to a grinding halt. I can't blame LR, but I recall Spoon saying that Larry was even better than they thought. They didn't think he would only be around for one season. Well, that set the program back. A very mediocre season the year after LH and attendance slowly started to dip again. Spoon retires and that hurts some more.

Romar is hired and is pretty much unknown to most "casual" fans. While the Miracle in Memphis capped off his first season, it was very mediocre during the regular season with a 7-9 conference record. Then his next two years, the team gets progressively worse, no impact recruits are landed and interest continues to slowly decline. LR leaves and is replaced by an assistant who was part of a mediocre team. Not exactly a recipe for generating buzz. Plus BS was extremely dull. And then you couple that with leaving C-USA with high profile coaches like Pitino, Huggins and Calipari and you go to the A-10 where the "casual" fan has very little familiarity with... well, the interest in the program continues to erode. The product on the court remains mediocre and you throw in one disasterous seaon in the middle of that and the glory days of Spoonball became a distant memory. Somebody else mentioned it earlier... there is a lost generation of Billiken fans. Having a sustained run of success is the best way to build a new generation of fans. The key is that this can't be a two-year thing like Clag/Waldman, or a one year abberation with Larry or a "Miracle" in Memphis, this program needs to string together several consecutive years of success and truly build a program that competes that not only competes for NCAA tourney bids, but does some damage when they get in. We are just at the beginning of what will hopefully be a new era in Billiken basketball.

+1000. Great summation of the last 20 years. Your spot on.

[West Pine Jim]

Said it all. We can close this thread now......

Very well said, ACE.

[billiken_roy]

Couple of problems (I am sure no one will agree with me): 1) We do not have the AMAZING tailgating events that other Universities have. Tailgates at a lot of the big name schools are like Mardi Gras... but every weekend.... SLU is not a party school and when a student does get a little wild / drunk / etc, they are usually shushed by other fans and if they continue they are asked to leave the arena (have seen this more times then I can count over my 4 years, including being kicked out happening to me 3xs). Nothing like a death glare from someone the age of your grandmother. 2) SLU is a 2nd choice school for a lot of kids. Unlike Kansas, Kansas State, Mizzou, etc, our students didn't grow up living and breathing SLU basketball and many students I met didnt have SLU down as their #1 choice. They applied to Ivy League or Notre Dame type Universities and were denied, leaving them with attending SLU. That is the reality of our University - most students dont grow up wanting to come to SLU because of tradition like they do with Notre Dame and we are too low academically to get anyone excited to attend SLU over a better school. 3) Lastly, our student body overall is just lame. Just a fact.

i'll tell you what, i just got done interviewing presidential scholarship applicants last weekend that all wanted despartly to become billikens. i can tell you these are top notch students that would be accepted at any top choice university. no body my committee talked to was lame. they were fantastic and impressive beyond belief.

are they applying to saint louis university because of our basketball team? i doubt it. i think it becomes the schools mission then to convert them from top students to top students that want to also be billiken fanatics.

[billiken_roy]

the two things that i think spoonball era had that we currently dont have are 1. spoon himself, he was the ultimate program cheerleader. he loved the limelight as much as the coaching. and 2. local stars surrounded by a solid support cast.

rickma is what he is. he wants to coach and that is it. at this stage in his life that isnt going to change.

the local stars, well i definitely dont advocate bringing in local players for the sake of having local players. i would take cody ellis every time over the 3rd or 4th player at say desmet or hazelwood or belleville west just to have a local player.

however that said, if we have a local player that might be willing to come that is just as good as someone out of the area, my gosh, lets go after them hard. i know there are recruiting rules that limit visits and contacts that might make it prohibitive to continue a futile effort, but in the same respect, there are ways of working the networks that can get the needed and legal assistance to nudge players in our direction as well. i am not sure that is being utilized as well as it can.

now that said, i am not sure any coach previous to rickma did much to enhance local recruiting between spoon, romar and soderberg. probably the last billiken coach that seriously chased the top local talent was grawer. it is a fine line to walk and standing on the wrong side could really send us to mediocrity. especially if you miss (see romar) or connect but at the lower level (soderberg).

best thing to do is just get the best talent you can and sustain it for a long period of time. only then will you earn the long term loyalty from fans. let's face it, any quick fan turnout now, in reality isnt going to slap down bigtime billiken club bucks and buy the billiken wardrobe i got. they are warm weather fans. one bad season they are back at home watching american idol live or driving to columbia or champaign depending who is having the better season.

[slufanskip]

-so with Rick do we have food bars all over campus?

No, but I think they planted some Lasagna trees

[SShoe]

A lot of things happened following the heyday of Spoonball, but the decline actually slowly started happening right after Claggett and Waldman graduated. Spoon was unable to capitalize on that success with recruiting success. The next year, the team made the NIT (and probably didn't deserve it with a 16-14 record) and the year after that, the team was dreadful. Too many bad recruits. Just two years removed from the height of Spoonball, attendance started to drop. Then, Spoon hit the lottery by getting Hughes and attendance climbed back up. Then Hughes bolted after just one year and the momentum came to a grinding halt. I can't blame LR, but I recall Spoon saying that Larry was even better than they thought. They didn't think he would only be around for one season. Well, that set the program back. A very mediocre season the year after LH and attendance slowly started to dip again. Spoon retires and that hurts some more. Romar is hired and is pretty much unknown to most "casual" fans. While the Miracle in Memphis capped off his first season, it was very mediocre during the regular season with a 7-9 conference record. Then his next two years, the team gets progressively worse, no impact recruits are landed and interest continues to slowly decline. LR leaves and is replaced by an assistant who was part of a mediocre team. Not exactly a recipe for generating buzz. Plus BS was extremely dull. And then you couple that with leaving C-USA with high profile coaches like Pitino, Huggins and Calipari and you go to the A-10 where the "casual" fan has very little familiarity with... well, the interest in the program continues to erode. The product on the court remains mediocre and you throw in one disasterous seaon in the middle of that and the glory days of Spoonball became a distant memory. Somebody else mentioned it earlier... there is a lost generation of Billiken fans. Having a sustained run of success is the best way to build a new generation of fans. The key is that this can't be a two-year thing like Clag/Waldman, or a one year abberation with Larry or a "Miracle" in Memphis, this program needs to string together several consecutive years of success and truly build a program that not only competes for NCAA tourney bids, but does some damage when they get in. We are just at the beginning of what will hopefully be a new era in Billiken basketball.

Good post, but there is one other thing I want to add and it goes along with the theme that building a program's popularity takes time. While Spoonball was great and was kind of the pinnacle for the program, I recall the Rich Grawer teams of the late 80s being pretty popular. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, because I was 5 years old at the time, but I've grown up believing it was those teams that began rebuilding the fan base. Spoon just took it to the next level. I bring this up, because it's my hope that Majerus is at the edge of the rebuilding phase and we're about to blow up like we did with Spoon.

[Adman]

the two things that i think spoonball era had that we currently dont have are 1. spoon himself, he was the ultimate program cheerleader. he loved the limelight as much as the coaching. and 2. local stars surrounded by a solid support cast.

rickma is what he is. he wants to coach and that is it. at this stage in his life that isnt going to change.

the local stars, well i definitely dont advocate bringing in local players for the sake of having local players. i would take cody ellis every time over the 3rd or 4th player at say desmet or hazelwood or belleville west just to have a local player.

however that said, if we have a local player that might be willing to come that is just as good as someone out of the area, my gosh, lets go after them hard. i know there are recruiting rules that limit visits and contacts that might make it prohibitive to continue a futile effort, but in the same respect, there are ways of working the networks that can get the needed and legal assistance to nudge players in our direction as well. i am not sure that is being utilized as well as it can.

now that said, i am not sure any coach previous to rickma did much to enhance local recruiting between spoon, romar and soderberg. probably the last billiken coach that seriously chased the top local talent was grawer. it is a fine line to walk and standing on the wrong side could really send us to mediocrity. especially if you miss (see romar) or connect but at the lower level (soderberg).

best thing to do is just get the best talent you can and sustain it for a long period of time. only then will you earn the long term loyalty from fans. let's face it, any quick fan turnout now, in reality isnt going to slap down bigtime billiken club bucks and buy the billiken wardrobe i got. they are warm weather fans. one bad season they are back at home watching american idol live or driving to columbia or champaign depending who is having the better season.

Roy, you are right on. There's one more reason. Only then will you earn the long term loyalty from the top notch local players we want, too. Much easier to get into the consideration set of the Beals, the Berrys when you have a legit, winning team.

[TJHawk]

Pistol, the state of Kansas has a rule where anyone who has graduated from an in-state high school gets accepted. They of course then flunk out and go back to the farm. This policy will be going away soon because it has caused KU's national rankings to fall. Now to the point that SLU markets itself well, how come I can't find a SLU sweatshirt to buy.

[GOSLU68]

One of the problems this year opposed to the Spoon years possibly is that the wrong games are being televised. The best situation would be only a few home games early in the year to get the team exposed to the casual fans and most all away and neutral court tournament games should be on local TV. Wasn't last nights game on channel 11? If you can sit home and watch why go in person, says the average lazy dork.

I wonder since I've been enjoying all the last 10 or so games on my computer if even the kids in the dorms are doing the same thing? I wouldn't be surprised, this is the wired generation.

It may take a few more years to turn things around for the masses. A good run in the Dance will help a lot next year.

St. Louisans especially east siders (having to across the bridges) treat driving rain like an ice storm. It's a double whammy with the game on TV

I am all for blacking out local broadcasts unless KPLR or someone broadcasts all the conference away games

RM hasn't done the program a service by undercutting the importance of the A 10 rivalry

[AlumniFan]

If you listened to the guys on 590 this morning, it would give you a great deal of insight into the state of our program. To be fair, I have only listened to 590 about twice in the past several years (not a big talk radio fan), but at least today, the themes I heard were 1) the A10 sucks, 2) SLU is not Missouri, 3) the A10 sucks, 4) no one cares about SLU, 5) the A10 sucks, 6) SLU never wins (I guess 21-5 is not a winning season) 7) SLU is just a commuter school. The point is that unlike the mid to late 90s when the LOCAL MEDIA was gaga over the Bills, today, there is very limited positive emphasis on the Billikens from the PRIMARY source of sporting news: THE LOCAL MEDIA including the Post-Dispatch/STLToday.com.

I agree that winning will help. Majerus could be more media friendly. I think the conference excuse is pure, unadulterated BS as is the whole "they play a boring style of basketball". But, at the end of the day, until the proverbial "casual fan" hears from sports radio and the local paper that the Bills are a big deal, you can forget selling out the Chaifetz on a regular basis. Period.

EDIT: Perfect example: On SLToday.com, the Mizzou story in the banner is tagged "Bernie/MU"; the SLU story in the banner is tagged "Burwell" no mention of SLU. This is not a shot at the Post (I am too tired to care anymore) it is just an observation of fact.

[TJHawk]

I've said it once and I'll say it again, take KU out of the Big 12 and is it really that much better than the A10. Oh and Bernie, Mizzou never plays anyone out of conference at the Paige. KU has beaten Arizona, Ohio St. and KY in that last couple of years. Mizzou plays Morgan St at the Paige, it will NEVER be Allen.

[Schasz]

Since I don't live in St. Louis it is hard for me to know why another 2500 folks did not show up to fill the empty seats at last nights game in support of a very good SLU team. I was a season ticket holder until I moved from St. Louis in '96. Spoon was my favorite HC and he had the charisma that the media and fans really enjoyed. I agree that the local stars on the early teams surely helped with fan interest, but I have always felt the average St. Louis sports fan would support a winner. One can hope that an extended trip to the Big Dance will get more fans excited about Billiken basketball and tickets for next season will be hard to find.

[Clock_Tower]

Too many are missing the point. Attendance is not there yet - not at 10,600 - because the casual does not yet realize this is a really good basketball team. We have not had an NCAA appearance in 11 years, this is RM's 5th year as our coach and last year was our worst season in years. To the dedicated, informed and loyal fans, we knew this year had the potential to be good but I'd suggest that, prior to the season, many/most of the die hard SLU fans themselves thought this would be a good, improved, 20 win but NIT team. I had several casual Billiken fans, one a former season ticket holder, ask me if I thought they'd get rid of RM after this year? Another such fan asked me what's wrong with the RM and the Bills. Face it. Last year was devastating. To the casual fan, it is normal to expect a winning season in a coach's 4th year at a school.

In short, the casual fan still doesn't really know about our Bills. Many of the points made by other as good but I'd suggest that our "quiet" 21 wins have still largely gone unnoticed. A home win against MO State would have shown the spotlight on our Bills. Just wait. Badwagons don't start real fast. Getting them started is the hardest part. Once rolling, the speed will increase.

[68Alum]

Been away from St. Louis for a long time and apparently some things haven't changed. Some of the local students are happy with their high school pals and disappear at 4PM every day. The people that choose to grow up along with the resident students can get involved in school activities or not.

Didn't miss many games when I was a student. As the team has become respectable again in recent years, I started following it again as best I could from reports in the web and the occasional game on TV. I suspect that I am not alone, and with continued respectability the following will build.

Returned to St. Louis over the holidays, and attended a game and was surprised that reasonable seats were $25. Just noted that seats for the Fordham game run $12-20-32-$40 and these are not anywhere close to center court. Maybe I've been out of touch with major college basketball too long, but these prices strike me as being a little steep and maybe this is a factor in the attendance figures.

[JMM28]

I blame John Cook for the poor attendance. Seriously.

[GOSLU68]

One of our group invited two business types: lawyers or bankers from slightly outside St. Louis by the end of game they were asking me about my season tickets. I told them the last couple years the program has had a starter pack of 5-6 better games. I said befor you make a commitment to buy season tickets see if you like it. They were enthused because they had played high school ball and could see holding pretty tenacious opponent to 50 points was a feat worth watching. With 5 minutes to go we were up by only three. No one was leaving early.

[Clock_Tower]

Another comment about the "empty" seats down low:

My parents have had tickets since Grawer and now have really good seats only several rows from the Court. My siblings and I are season ticket holders, attending most games, and bringing kids from age 11 down to 1. Bringing friends or sitting with cousins is frequent. Among us, ticket sharing is common as we are more concerned using the tickets to get in the door rather than sitting, each game, in the seats use. Once in, and in order to sit together, we often use these "empty" seats. Just last game, a season ticket holder 2 rows behind my parents asked my parents about the seats having noticed they often go unused, sometimes have their "grandkids" in them but also are sometimes used by different people. Apparently, he had asked SLU about more/better seats but was told all seats in front of him (these "empty" are in front of him) are not available. This would be consisent with the fact that these seats were marked as taken when my parents selected their seats 5 years ago. In short, Fr. Biondi/SLU is saving seats. Empty seats being noticed by fans at the game and by fans at home watching on TV is not all about people paying for seats but not using them.

[billiken_roy]

Another comment about the "empty" seats down low:

My parents have had tickets since Grawer and now have really good seats only several rows from the Court. My siblings and I are season ticket holders, attending most games, and bringing kids from age 11 down to 1. Bringing friends or sitting with cousins is frequent. Among us, ticket sharing is common as we are more concerned using the tickets to get in the door rather than sitting, each game, in the seats use. Once in, and in order to sit together, we often use these "empty" seats. Just last game, a season ticket holder 2 rows behind my parents asked my parents about the seats having noticed they often go unused, sometimes have their "grandkids" in them but also are sometimes used by different people. Apparently, he had asked SLU about more/better seats but was told all seats in front of him (these "empty" are in front of him) are not available. This would be consisent with the fact that these seats were marked as taken when my parents selected their seats 5 years ago. In short, Fr. Biondi/SLU is saving seats. Empty seats being noticed by fans at the game and by fans at home watching on TV is not all about people paying for seats but not using them.

or maybe they are the seats owned by one of the corporate suite holders and just dont get used because they are upstairs in the comfortable spacious confines of the chaifetz luxury suites.

[ACE]

Majerus is coming on 590 right now. I've never bought this RM is not "media friendly" myth. While he doesn't have a weekly show, which the die-hards like myself would enjoy, his approach of appearing on a wide variety of shows periodically (McKernan, Cususmano, the Fast Lane, Bernie, Ackerman to name just a few where I've heard him) is more effective in reaching the "casual" fan. One of the first things RM did when he came to town was cultivate a relationship with Bernie, who had often belittled the SLU program pre-RM. And even with these goofballs in the morning on 590... RM took them to Adrianna's last year. Two of the regulars are big Mizzou guys and they used to poke fun at SLU. Not anymore. Just this morning they were talking about how SLU could make a nice run in the Tourney. RM has even gotten them to take up the "Mizzou should play SLU" cause. Recently, they were interviewing the Mizzou radio announced and they asked him about what he thought about SLU playing Mizzou. It caught the guy off guard and he was fumbling around trying to justify Mizzou's stance on the issue. It was great! So RM has cultivated this relationship and helped change the perception of the program. And we already got a peak into the power of RM earlier this season. After Anaheim, Vitale, Katz and his RM's other buddies and ESPN were really talking up SLU. If/when we get picked for the Dance, you will hear the ESPN guys talking up RM and SLU. More great publicity for the program! I think we can burry the RM is not "media friendly" myth right next to the RM is a "lazy recruiter" myth.

[dlarry]

As much as we want to blame the students and complain about the blue hairs, the real problem is the lack of people aged 25-40.

This is the age group that should be filling up the last 2-3 thousand seats but they just arent there.

I am a 32 year old season ticket holder and when Im at the game and take a look around, I hardly see any other people in my demographic.

IMO these are the people we have lost from the Spoonball days.

Most of these people left for college in the late 90's early 2000's. When they left the team was in a decline and the intrest was already fading. When they returned four or five years later the team was awful and would continue to be awful for the next 6-8 years. This is where the problem is. While people my age were away at college they were unable to follow the Billikens very easily, the internet wasnt what it is today and there was only 1 ESPN. While they were gone they picked up new teams to follow, this team could be the school they are attending or a national power that was always on TV.

When they returned from college, the internet had exploded and ESPN had a dozen new channels. Now, even though they are back in STL, the need to follow the home town team was gone. Since almost evey game can be watched from home a hometown team could now be in the Pac 12.

This demographic could stay "loyal" to their new team and watch almost all of the games either online or on HD TV.

These are the people that are missing from the Spoonball days.

When I would go to those games they would be loaded with grade school kids and now those same kids arent going.

When I have an extra ticket and ask a buddy to go, most times I get answer like this; "no thanks, the (insert BCS school here) game is on Im going to watch that."

Many of these people are having kids now, and at least in my circle of friends, these people all say something like "I cant wait to be able to take my son/daughter to a Bills game when they get older" so hopefully we will begin to see a new group of 20 and 30 somethings attending the games with kids in tow.

But the question is how do they get the 30 year old guy to come to a game with his girlfriend are a group of buddies?

IMO that is the missing link to a sell out, I just have no idea how to get them to the game.

[Bizziken]

As much as we want to blame the students and complain about the blue hairs, the real problem is the lack of people aged 25-40.

This is the age group that should be filling up the last 2-3 thousand seats but they just arent there.

I am a 32 year old season ticket holder and when Im at the game and take a look around, I hardly see any other people in my demographic.

IMO these are the people we have lost from the Spoonball days.

Most of these people left for college in the late 90's early 2000's. When they left the team was in a decline and the intrest was already fading. When they returned four or five years later the team was awful and would continue to be awful for the next 6-8 years. This is where the problem is. While people my age were away at college they were unable to follow the Billikens very easily, the internet wasnt what it is today and there was only 1 ESPN. While they were gone they picked up new teams to follow, this team could be the school they are attending or a national power that was always on TV.

When they returned from college, the internet had exploded and ESPN had a dozen new channels. Now, even though they are back in STL, the need to follow the home town team was gone. Since almost evey game can be watched from home a hometown team could now be in the Pac 12.

This demographic could stay "loyal" to their new team and watch almost all of the games either online or on HD TV.

These are the people that are missing from the Spoonball days.

When I would go to those games they would be loaded with grade school kids and now those same kids arent going.

When I have an extra ticket and ask a buddy to go, most times I get answer like this; "no thanks, the (insert BCS school here) game is on Im going to watch that."

Many of these people are having kids now, and at least in my circle of friends, these people all say something like "I cant wait to be able to take my son/daughter to a Bills game when they get older" so hopefully we will begin to see a new group of 20 and 30 somethings attending the games with kids in tow.

But the question is how do they get the 30 year old guy to come to a game with his girlfriend are a group of buddies?

IMO that is the missing link to a sell out, I just have no idea how to get them to the game.

Great post! 100% agree...I am barely in that age group (25) and it is unbelievable how, out of all my friends, there is only 1 other guy (thankfully, my roomate) that is as rabid a Billiken fan as I am...all of my other friends go to the annual 'Young Alumni Game' and that's about it. It's pretty pathetic...

[RiseAndGrind]

I will say i do think the culture is changing. People are taking more interest in the Bills, and now it's all about getting them into the seats.

I've had more people than ever ask me about the Billikens and if the games are fun. Eventually, if the BIlls keep winning, these people will start to show up.

[NH]

It seems to me that the most important problem is TV deal. Not conference affiliation (A-10 is best feasible thing we can be I think in that area, I think), not game-day atmosphere (though perhaps that would play a bigger role with students, I can't speak for that). But the more you get on tv, the more people recognize your name and notice when you're doing well, like us this year. Also, being ranked helps tremendously since it gets you on ESPN.

All my friends that are sports fans wouldn't be any more excited to play Drake than they would be to play George Washington. They would however be excited to watch a team play they knew was good. So getting on TV, getting ranked, and winning tournament games seems to be the most important thing.

ACE, good call on the Butler thing. That said, I predict that Stevens is around for the long haul and that they turn it back around in the coming seasons. They're recruiting well and still doing well in the Horizon.

Kids at Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Wash U. etc. wish they were Ivy Leaguers.

Maybe I'm the exception, but Vanderbilt was my first choice, over a few Ivys. There's a very good chance I would've gotten denied at some of those places but I'm just saying maybe some other factors can make a place that's a little lower ranked more appealing. I don't know though.

[Clock_Tower]

Been away from St. Louis for a long time and apparently some things haven't changed. Some of the local students are happy with their high school pals and disappear at 4PM every day. The people that choose to grow up along with the resident students can get involved in school activities or not.

Didn't miss many games when I was a student. As the team has become respectable again in recent years, I started following it again as best I could from reports in the web and the occasional game on TV. I suspect that I am not alone, and with continued respectability the following will build.

Returned to St. Louis over the holidays, and attended a game and was surprised that reasonable seats were $25. Just noted that seats for the Fordham game run $12-20-32-$40 and these are not anywhere close to center court. Maybe I've been out of touch with major college basketball too long, but these prices strike me as being a little steep and maybe this is a factor in the attendance figures.

68Alum.

Welcome to this Board. Post more often.

Your observations sound like the same I noticed during my time on campus from '90 to '93.

As to the students, sure they could have been better. Sure, the excuses have been taken away with the beautiful on-campus facility. Still, "crowds" of 50 have been the norm at SLU for years. Was the crowd of 7,xxx fans and a 100 students or more disappointing? Sure.

At the same time, bandwagons take awhile to get going. Not picking on Taj, but if he (a non-casual fan) predicted 7 and 9 for us, then why would the casual fan have had any greater expectations. We won 14 lousy games last year!! after 4 years of RM (a HOF coach) and the same casual fan probably thinks Coach Haith is better than RM b/c he is putting a great season together in his first season at Mizzou!! Casual fans don't understand, or want to understand, "the Situation" and how devastating it was. Casual fans don't want to listen to "the cupboard was empty", "our roster was full of marginal D1 players", "we were the youngest team in country", "SLU cannot bring in JUCO's for academic reasons like the others", "KM and WR were our core players and no team can withstand such a loss the day before practice begins - especially with Freshman".

Also, had we played SIUC and/or MO State at home, then the local casual fan would have taken notice sooner. Had we strung a long winning streak to make the local media go crazy (like we did under Spoon or like MO State did a few years back before they fell apart during their conference games), the local media may have created a buzz. Instead, I'd suggest that we have quietly put together a really good season.

Relax. Barring a disappointing end of the year, the local media will start to buzz, with or without an effective marketing department, local fans will reaize that RM has built something special and butts will start filling all the seats.