Students? Students? Anyone?

Shark84 · February 16, 2018

Why don't our students attend the basketball games? I know that the last 4 years were bad but they came back out and supported football when SL arrived. I know football is king in Texas but for a school as large as UNT, you would think we could get more than 20-30 students show up. It's embarrassing. This team plays their butts off and are fun to watch, win or lose. They deserve support from their peers. I don't expect 5,000 to show up like at our football games, but 3 to 4 hundred would be nice. It's free! Any ideas on how to get them to care enough to show up? It isn't just winning or who we are playing. I'd love to hear from the greek organizations and campus groups? Why don't they go and what can the school do to get them to support the teams? Most of us on this board attended UNT. I know I never missed a football or basketball game at home and made a lot of the away games. It was part of the "college" experience. We have to find a way to get that back. Go Mean Green! Beat Marshall.

RiseUNT · February 16, 2018

Get to the NCAA tournament to get it back to what it was during the height of JJ. Win games in the tournament to be on the same level of MTSU. Be consistently good every year with top 25 wins sprinkled in to be like WKU.

UNTLifer · February 16, 2018

It shouldn't take that much. I always felt that marketing for BB was weak under RV and should be much stronger. This team really is fun to watch. I would think a little effort would go a long way in getting students to the game.

RiseUNT · February 16, 2018

Thursdays are college nights at bars and clubs. Very few students have Friday classes so the weekend starts Thursdays. Movie's come out on Thursdays now. Students who don't care about basketball need a lot of motivation to go. Like me throughout school I worked and had to pull strings to get off for games.

So yes it will take more then just advertising to get students to come see them play.

MCMLXXX · February 16, 2018

They are also sitting outside the student section. Three were sitting in my season ticket seats when I arrived and they just moved over a bit.

Shark84 · February 16, 2018

On 2/10/2018 at 6:58 PM, CMJ said:

Honestly, I don't think that hurts nearly as bas as being -13 turnovers. It might have even been worse than that, but the last I saw I think that was the differential.

I think those things are in our near future with McCasland but whatever happened to just going to a game and having fun watching an exciting team play? We had 3 to 4 thousand students attend the games back when Blakely was here and we never went to any post season tournament. The Macs still sell out every night because people have a good time. The team isn't good but has some exciting young players.

RiseUNT · February 16, 2018

20 minutes ago, Shark84 said:

I think those things are in our near future with McCasland but whatever happened to just going to a game and having fun watching an exciting team play? We had 3 to 4 thousand students attend the games back when Blakely was here and we never went to any post season tournament. The Macs still sell out every night because people have a good time. The team isn't good but has some exciting young players.

Really can't compare attendance now to the 70's and 80's.

Shark84 · February 16, 2018

That's true. Lot more things to do but also about 23,000 more students. Just wish we could get this team some support. Hopefully continued success will be the answer. Really need people to attend the conference tournament in Frisco next month.

AustinFromUNT · February 17, 2018

I am currently a junior so here is my honest perspective:

Freshman Year: I was really excited to watch basketball after football had been really disappointing. My first game I went to we got blown out by 30ish points and became really discouraged. I went to about 35-40% of the games that season and was consistently disappointed.

Sophomore Year: BAD! I went to maybe 50% of the games, even though it was absolutely terrible. I was just so upset that we would lose every game that I was like what’s the point.

Junior Year (This Year): We hired McCasland so I was really optimistic. We lost some games that we really shouldn’t have but I was still excited. I’ve been to about 65% of the home games this season, usually sitting in different places.

Realisitcally, we need to be a good team in order to get more students to show up. I’m on the board, so I obviously care about UNT sports and even I can only bring myself to about 65-75% of the games.

BTW: I haven’t missed a single home football game in 3 seasons, so I really do care.

drex · February 17, 2018

I know the average student at UNT is probably a different animal than when I worked out there in the late 80s and early 90s. That being said, I am skeptical of social media and cutsy videos to stir student interest in our teams. It will take a lot of one on one from the athletic department to student organizations to get the job done. UNT athletics must fan out all over campus and talk to the groups and simply tell them how much they are needed at games. A rapport must be established for this to happen. I am a big Wren Baker fan and I think ultimately he will get student involvement....it is a lot of work. Hopefully, Wren is doing a lot of things that I am not even aware of to get the students back....I will keep the faith, given some of the huge things he has already done.

MCMLXXX · February 17, 2018

I watched the UAB at LaTech game on BEIN Sports after I got home from the game last night, and I don't know who counts their attendance (their stats show they have more in attendance for the season) but we had more in attendance last night.

RiseUNT · February 17, 2018

20 hours ago, Shark84 said:

I think those things are in our near future with McCasland but whatever happened to just going to a game and having fun watching an exciting team play? We had 3 to 4 thousand students attend the games back when Blakely was here and we never went to any post season tournament. The Macs still sell out every night because people have a good time. The team isn't good but has some exciting young players.

Being a whippersnapper I googled the Blakely era and there was a run of 20 win seasons and UNT was even ranked top 20. If that were to happen again the pit would be rocking.

RushnStudies · February 17, 2018

The WKU game was supposed to be "Greek night". I don't know about y'all, but I didn't know because I didn't see one Greek-letter shirt in the crowd. That's disappointng.

GMG24 · February 18, 2018

4 hours ago, RushnStudies said:

The WKU game was supposed to be "Greek night". I don't know about y'all, but I didn't know because I didn't see one Greek-letter shirt in the crowd. That's disappointng.

That's on GREEK life.

BillySee58 · February 18, 2018

On 2/16/2018 at 6:22 PM, AustinFromUNT said:

Realisitcally, we need to be a good team in order to get more students to show up. I’m on the board, so I obviously care about UNT sports and even I can only bring myself to about 65-75% of the games.

BTW: I haven’t missed a single home football game in 3 seasons, so I really do care.

That just sounds to me like you like football more than basketball if you weren't missing a football game when we were 1-11 but can only bring yourself to go 65-75% of basketball games when we're going down to the wire with the best teams in the conference.

Hunter Green · February 18, 2018

Just win, baby. Win and they will come. It's going to take a lot of winning and work to get our fans back from the debacle of the Benford years.

BTG_Fan1 · February 18, 2018

6 hours ago, BillySee58 said:

That just sounds to me like you like football more than basketball if you weren't missing a football game when we were 1-11 but can only bring yourself to go 65-75% of basketball games when we're going down to the wire with the best teams in the conference.

Or it’s because he has classes at night potentially..

BTG_Fan1 · February 18, 2018

The problem with the basketball attendance is similar to what we had in SLs first year and early in his 2nd year.. nothing to get excited about outside of the coach.

I fully expect to if UNT has some success in the CUSA tournament and gets a big then you will see a much larger turnout from the students, but as of now students are not super excited about the team.

Year 1 under SL we wondered when the students would come, then we made the bowl game and attendance increased slightly, then we had the game vs UAB which hyped people up, the 10K giveaway to organizes vs UTSA which brought in more people and the come from behind gave students a bit of excitement which lead to larger crowds to end the season.

Also, I think it would help to play and beat a few regional bigger schools, I know we played OU close but that was a long time ago and the AD office was going all in on Football at the time.

GrandGreen · February 19, 2018

If you can't get excited about this basketball team, than you are likely not going to get excited. Every game is down to the wire and NT has a couple of very good players.

It is not students are spread all over the arena, my guess there hasn't been a game if you exclude the spirit groups that there have been over two hundred students at any game.

The Thursday night is party night and everybody goes home on Friday, are just lame excuses. Going out after the ball games worked fine for me and if everyone heads home on Friday, why is the square so crowded during the weekend.

The pathetic student attendance is my guess more of a herd mentality thing. It is just not "cool or whatever the current expression is" to go to basketball games.

The oldsters are drifting back to basketball, and they actually have to make an effort and spend money to do that. I don't know what has happened to the students groups that used to support basketball, but getting those started again just might start a trend.

Shark84 · February 19, 2018

2 hours ago, Prettylittleeagle said:

I never attended a game in my 4 years there.

However, as someone mentioned above, we have a new coach and that is about it. Yes, our team is better than last year, but big deal. It's not enough to get me out there as an alumni and it's not enough to get our students out there. It's reality folks.

Edit: I LOVE that people down vote the students on view things I.E. Austin. It's the truth, accept it.

Sadly this is probably true about most of our students. Showing support and loyalty for your school is no longer cool unless they are winning. Same thing is true at the HS level. I'm just to old to understand this attitude. I went to my HS basketball games because I loved my school and supported my friends who played. We also had a great time just being with our buddies and yelling at the refs. When I came to North Texas, I had the same attitude, but then I walked 5 miles to school and used a worn piece of chalk and slate in class! Go Mean Green!