..,,and Now the Students Leave

[Billinikens]

I'm having an "I told you so" moment tonight that I'm about to share....

Before the season started I got on this board and criticized the scheduling because we had 4 games total at home before break, one of which was over Thanksgiving break, 2 were against Jackson St. and Kennesaw St. (not exactly draws). The last was the only decent game of the 4 against SIUC. That game, our only decent home game while students were around, was 11/30. I said at the time that not if you want to build student participation this is not the way to do it. It'll be 1/25 before any student thinks about going to another game (that's almost 2 full months). Now we get a game like this for them to see. Trust me, as an undergrad that just graduated that was a member of the Exec Board of Blue Crew, none of those kids will be back. And most of them saw all of 2 games the whole year, maximum. We have to have games early on that are intriguing that get the kids out and involved with the team. Relying on conference play to bring them out hasn't worked in the past and sure isn't going to work this year when you lay an egg in front of everybody.

[Band Legend]

The only thing that is going to get students to the game is being able to walk to the arena and back. At that point some strategy to get them to come is appropriate. SLU isn't a school that is jam packed with sports crazed idiots like you or me. The only strategy to get all the students to come is to win one hell of alot of games so walking to the on campus arena is the thing to do. Until then you're tilting at windmills.

[slufanskip]

Tell the students who don't want to make an effort to see a game to just stay away. Who cares? I don't. I think all these conversations about how to get students to come is ridiculous. We don't need them. I'd rather have the 75 Blue Crew members who care.

I say we need to keep track of who goes and how often and then they get tickets to the games in the new arena depending on how well they supported the team at the Savvis.

Official Billikens.com sponsor of H. Waldman

[kshoe]

at the time but still don't see how you can say "I told you so."

You basically want to live in a world where SLU plays all of its games between mid Nov and early December against top notch non-conference opponents, then play all the games between mid Dec. and mid January against buy teams and on the road just to appease the students?

Never mind that we had a very young team and playing only good opponents at the beginning of the season probably isn't a good idea.

Never mind that your opponents also have to have available dates to schedule games.

Never mind that the Savvis is not always available when we want it.

Never mind that far and away the best attended game was against Gonzaga while the students were gone and most of the people that showed up actually paid for their tickets.

The simple fact is that the college basketball season starts at Thanksgiving, giving us only two weeks to schedule games before final exam week. How many "big-name" opponents do you expect to play in two weeks?

[Billinikens]

>You basically want to live in a world where SLU plays all of

>its games between mid Nov and early December against top

>notch non-conference opponents, then play all the games

>between mid Dec. and mid January against buy teams and on

>the road just to appease the students?

I'm not trying to appease anyone, especially students that don't support the team. The point is, this board will light up with people criticizing student attendance but they haven't had a game to truly be excited about in over two months. Since student attendance is nearly nonexistent and has to be built from essentially ground zero, going almost two full months without a meaningful home game is not allowing for any momentum be built. At this point, students aren't going to come of their own accord so you might as well do you best to give them reason to come.

>Never mind that we had a very young team and playing only

>good opponents at the beginning of the season probably isn't

>a good idea.

Not sure how this goes against my point. Originally my point was that by the time we played St. Joe's on 1/25 our season could be effectively over with the students only seeing a "mid-major" team that created any interest.

>Never mind that your opponents also have to have available

>dates to schedule games.

Which every team in the country has to deal with.

>Never mind that the Savvis is not always available when we

>want it.

Which we should be adept at handling by now since we've been there quite long enough.

>Never mind that far and away the best attended game was

>against Gonzaga while the students were gone and most of the

>people that showed up actually paid for their tickets.

Once again, this has nothing to do with student attendance.

>The simple fact is that the college basketball season starts

>at Thanksgiving, giving us only two weeks to schedule games

>before final exam week. How many "big-name" opponents do

>you expect to play in two weeks?

In a reasonable world, play two intriguing matchups (as simple as Mo St. and SIUC or something - I never argued we should play Duke at home every year) and play someone worthwhile when the students come back right away. Alford said on the radio that he'd love to keep the SLU games going so get Iowa in to start the new year or something. Just BE CREATIVE in finding reasons to get students to come to games rather than just complain about how they are. The coach could use some of the creativity when drawing up an offense too.

[kshoe]

what does that mean its been two months since we've had a meaningful home game? The students haven't been in school for the past month. You obviously aren't including games over that time since we played Gonzaga and Iowa during that stretch. You are upset that from Dec. 1st to December 14th or so we didn't have a "meaningful" home game? Come on man.

The point of mentioning Gonzaga is lets say in a perfect world Gonzaga said to us, "we'll play you any date you want, just name it." You obviously feel that game should have been played in early December so that the students could have a big game to go to. I believe the date was nearly perfect on Dec. 22nd as it was the highest attended game in 4 years (including an early Dec. matchup vs. a top 5 Arizona team) and the timing right before Christmas definitely increased attendance.

Your initial posts way back when basically accused SLU of poor scheduling. Nobody argued that student attendance wouldn't be poor for all but the SIU game so I just don't see how you have an "I told you so" point.

[bluecrewprez]

It is midnight right now, and I--along with about 8 Blue Crewers--personally handed out/posted on doors 1,800 flyers on every single door on this campus (yes, every buliding). I personally knocked on every door of the Gries complex telling them to come to the game. I think we may have salvaged a few, but Saturday will be the real test.

I had a few freshmen say that they had never been to a game before and they went because there was so much promotion around campus, and that they had so much fun that they'll be back on Saturday (yeah, fun...who knew).

I think we'll have a somewhat good turn-out...maybe not what it was on Wednesday, but a good crowd nonetheless.

Also, I talked to the events person today about the bus situation, and it shouldn't be a problem anymore (though I didn't see a problem before).

[billiken_roy]

what i think you are missing is that you are saying that people come to watch our opponent. i come to watch the billikens. and they could be playing a pickup game against floyd irons cut players and i would still come out to the game.

[Billinikens]

>what does that mean its been two months since we've had a

>meaningful home game?

I mean we played SIUC on 11/30 and St. Joe's on 1/25. We're talking about student attendance so games over break do not factor into the equation.

All I was saying, from the very beginning, is that student attendance at the start of the year was obviously quite minimal. If you don't play mildly intriguing home games for students to go to early on to establish basketball as an event, it will be difficult to do so later on. Our program is not at a point where it can expect students will just come of their own accord (I hate that fact as much as you do) so helping out with some games of interest would be nice. I understand and appreciate your point that doing so is not the easiest thing in the world, but at some point the Ath. Dept needs to do something to drum up the numbers. I don't believe that going almost three weeks before break and two more after break without any games of interest is acceptable. I'll stop polluting the board with my droning on this topic after this post, nice discussing with you.

[dewey33]

Good job....keep up your hard work....

If we win, they will come....if not they will find something else to do!

Winning in an on-campus arena will give us the opportunity to have the kind of atmosphere that Xavier has...

All the Billikens can control right now is the winning part...

Thanks to the Blue Crew for keeping things rolling!!!

The Band Wednesday was BIG TIME too!!!! The extra horns were impressive....at least it sounded like there were extra horns!

[PM PeteNice]

for a jersey chaser you're doing a lot of work to get the players' attention. Pretty impressive.

[Battlecat455]

Asinine post.

[bluecrewprez]

If I were a guy and doing all of this promotion you would not have made that comment, so I'm just going to write you off as a sexist and not give you any of my energy.

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