Coach's show today

[Marty]

Coach Mac made the call for a new basketball facility. Says we need to have a place that's tough to play. 

Moulaye Sissoko was the guest, he's only been playing basketball since he was 15. Grew up playing soccer. He can speak 6 languages, fluent in 4. Impressive young man. 

[Glory to the Green]

2 hours ago, Marty said:

Coach Mac made the call for a new basketball facility. Says we need to have a place that's tough to play. 

Moulaye Sissoko was the guest, he's only been playing basketball since he was 15. Grew up playing soccer. He can speak 6 languages, fluent in 4. Impressive young man. 

FAU seated 3K versus us, it was sold out, and it appeared to be rocking.  

The Pit had 5K recently and it didn’t  appear nearly as raucous.  It’s a large space.  

Thinking out loud until a new arena is built:  black out the upper level?  Add clouds over the court (like the concert hall next door)?  

[NT80]

2 hours ago, Glory to the Green said:

FAU seated 3K versus us, it was sold out, and it appeared to be rocking.  

The Pit had 5K recently and it didn’t  appear nearly as raucous.  It’s a large space.  

Thinking out loud until a new arena is built:  black out the upper level?  Add clouds over the court (like the concert hall next door)?  

It's sad to think a school with 42,000 students needs to wall off their arena to only allow 5000 fans to attend.  Why not find 4000 more fans to come to games?

[Glory to the Green]

16 minutes ago, NT80 said:

It's sad to think a school with 42,000 students needs to wall off their arena to only allow 5000 fans to attend.  Why not find 4000 more fans to come to games?

I understand where you’re coming from, but the sellouts aren’t happening yet. Wish I had a better answer for you. 

[MrAlien]

The sell outs havent been happening because they have not been able to get big schools to visit the Super Pit.  Fresno was our biggest OOC home opponent this season.  In my opinion the bigger schools stay away because they are afraid of how it might effect their rankings.  I think that changes once we move to the AAC, its a much more competitive conference, and some of those big name schools will want to get an away game in.

[GrandGreen]

NT should build a new arena of about 1000 seats were it can build up demand by it's 40,000 students and 400,000 alumni. 

Ridiculous concept IMO, I bring up the same example.  UTA build apparently almost exactly what is being asked for, with no significant improvements in attendance or the program.  

NT will build a new basketball facility at some point, probably for recruiting more than anything else.  New sells.  The question is can NT's needs be better met by a renovation of the SPit or a new arena.  

[2020 Sucks]

This episode was really insightful!  Loved hearing Grant talk about crowd energy…he wants the pit crowd to be more engaged…stand up and cheer, chant De-dense, etc.

They got the practice in that they badly needed despite the ice storm!  That was great to hear and it showed vs Rice on Saturday.

And the gem was Sissiko.  As a fan, we always have questions when a player isn’t getting minutes…especially when he has the size to fill obvious gaps in our game.  But now we understand why it has taken 14 so long to get into the lineup for anything significant…he has a language barrier, he has very limited experience in basketball, and he’s been on several teams with different styles of play.  He has needed time to settle in and learn terms/concepts that were literally foreign to him.  This interview made me an even bigger fan and I can’t wait to see how big of an impact he will have in future seasons!  Go Mean Green!

[Cooley]

The most attended games were when the team was winning and scoring about 90-100 points a game; with a fraction of the students and without a conference affiliation) 

Hopefully,  we can get back to the point of doing both. 

[Green Crazy]

7 hours ago, MrAlien said:

The sell outs havent been happening because they have not been able to get big schools to visit the Super Pit.  Fresno was our biggest OOC home opponent this season.  In my opinion the bigger schools stay away because they are afraid of how it might effect their rankings.  I think that changes once we move to the AAC, its a much more competitive conference, and some of those big name schools will want to get an away game in.

The reason we're not selling out the pit isn't because our students/alumni are sport's snobs, it's because they aren't sport's fans at all.  Having a big school come in would bring a big crowd...for one game, then the next game would be back to normal.  

[NT80]

2 hours ago, Green Crazy said:

The reason we're not selling out the pit isn't because our students/alumni are sport's snobs, it's because they aren't sport's fans at all.  Having a big school come in would bring a big crowd...for one game, then the next game would be back to normal.  

Passive fans and students want the event and their time to be meaningful.  Playing Southern Nazarene, Paul Quinn, Omaha, FIU, et al at home doesn't excite anyone.  We must upgrade our OOC home schedule. 

Next season's AAC schedule will be better-name opponents.   I expect an uptick in attendance for regular season games.  We had a huge crowd to see La Tech when it meant something.  Same for the CBI Championship against USF.  The halftime entertainment and silly student games are lame and need more thought.  Frisbee dogs?

[Green Crazy]

46 minutes ago, NT80 said:

Passive fans and students want the event and their time to be meaningful.  Playing Southern Nazarene, Paul Quinn, Omaha, FIU, et al at home doesn't excite anyone.  We must upgrade our OOC home schedule. 

Next season's AAC schedule will be better-name opponents.   I expect an uptick in attendance for regular season games.  We had a huge crowd to see La Tech when it meant something.  Same for the CBI Championship against USF.  The halftime entertainment and silly student games are lame and need more thought.  Frisbee dogs?

Besides smu and Memphis, which teams do you think our students will get up for? Because passive fans/students probably barely know much about anyone else. Honestly, I bet most don't know Memphis. 

At my job where I've worked for 17 years, we've had 13 employees including myself that have graduated from UNT. Only myself and another man have been back to campus let alone go to a game.  Then you say, well, I'm sure they went to games while they were there, 4 have been to a game(including me and the guy).  I know because I beat them down about it. And it's not because they are disinterested and we were 6-6, it's because they could care less about sports and they could care less about UNT honestly. It's just a place they got a degree.  6 of them are recent grads and I interviewed most of them and would break the ice by asking them if they could name the coach and the QB (Mason in his prime) not o e could do both and one new Mason's name.  The only way we fix this is by winning for a long time and students wanting to come here because we have a good athletic program.  Because the current students don't care.

[GrandGreen]

30 minutes ago, Green Crazy said:

Besides smu and Memphis, which teams do you think our students will get up for? Because passive fans/students probably barely know much about anyone else. Honestly, I bet most don't know Memphis. 

At my job where I've worked for 17 years, we've had 13 employees including myself that have graduated from UNT. Only myself and another man have been back to campus let alone go to a game.  Then you say, well, I'm sure they went to games while they were there, 4 have been to a game(including me and the guy).  I know because I beat them down about it. And it's not because they are disinterested and we were 6-6, it's because they could care less about sports and they could care less about UNT honestly. It's just a place they got a degree.  6 of them are recent grads and I interviewed most of them and would break the ice by asking them if they could name the coach and the QB (Mason in his prime) not o e could do both and one new Mason's name.  The only way we fix this is by winning for a long time and students wanting to come here because we have a good athletic program.  Because the current students don't care.

Yes, but the reality is that it is the same at most schools.  The only exception are perriential winning programs that games have become an ultimate social event.  

[MrAlien]

11 hours ago, Green Crazy said:

Besides smu and Memphis, which teams do you think our students will get up for? Because passive fans/students probably barely know much about anyone else. Honestly, I bet most don't know Memphis.

Memphis and SMU will absolutely bring in a crowd, I also think Wichita should be a good crowd draw.  As for OOC games, I would be surprised if they cant get a big 12 or SEC school to visit.  UTA will probably be on the schedule, though I would prefer that as an away game (more meaningful in the rankings). 

[UNTLifer]

12 hours ago, Green Crazy said:

Besides smu and Memphis, which teams do you think our students will get up for? Because passive fans/students probably barely know much about anyone else. Honestly, I bet most don't know Memphis. 

At my job where I've worked for 17 years, we've had 13 employees including myself that have graduated from UNT. Only myself and another man have been back to campus let alone go to a game.  Then you say, well, I'm sure they went to games while they were there, 4 have been to a game(including me and the guy).  I know because I beat them down about it. And it's not because they are disinterested and we were 6-6, it's because they could care less about sports and they could care less about UNT honestly. It's just a place they got a degree.  6 of them are recent grads and I interviewed most of them and would break the ice by asking them if they could name the coach and the QB (Mason in his prime) not o e could do both and one new Mason's name.  The only way we fix this is by winning for a long time and students wanting to come here because we have a good athletic program.  Because the current students don't care.

And you hired them?

[Green Crazy]

39 minutes ago, MrAlien said:

Memphis and SMU will absolutely bring in a crowd, I also think Wichita should be a good crowd draw.  As for OOC games, I would be surprised if they cant get a big 12 or SEC school to visit.  UTA will probably be on the schedule, though I would prefer that as an away game (more meaningful in the rankings). 

I think you overestimate the sports IQ of the people on our campus.  I was going to say that most don't really know the history of Memphis' program. Since casual fans of college basketball keep track of it during one month of the year most of our students were 6 or younger the last time Memphis made it past the first round ( I think).  Not surebthey would remember Wichita St's run of a couple years.  People on this board do, but we're obviously not the norm.

[Green Crazy]

3 hours ago, UNTLifer said:

And you hired them?

I'd rather have another UNT sport's nut like myself, but I'd take all the UNT non sports students over a ut or utsa grad that does know sport's. 😉

[Shark84]

19 hours ago, Cooley said:

The most attended games were when the team was winning and scoring about 90-100 points a game; with a fraction of the students and without a conference affiliation) 

Hopefully,  we can get back to the point of doing both. 

Agreed, but the 90-100 points part ain't gonna happen under Mac. 

[CMJ]

22 hours ago, Cooley said:

The most attended games were when the team was winning and scoring about 90-100 points a game; with a fraction of the students and without a conference affiliation) 

Hopefully,  we can get back to the point of doing both. 

A lot less other things to distract people back then too.  Now there are about 50 sports channels with games on.  Back in the day very few games were televised unless you were a national power, so if you wanted to see a game you attended.

 

Almost everyone is having some sort of issues with attendance these days.  I live in LA and got on UCLA's sports backers email list about 15 years ago when I went to a basketball game.  About a week ago I received a one of those "open letter" messages from Mick Cronin begging people to sell out their last five home games (only the AZ game was sold out), because they're a top ten ranked squad two seasons from a Final Four run....and yet they're probably averaging Pauley being a quarter empty most nights.

Edited February 9, 2023 by CMJ

[NT80]

21 hours ago, Green Crazy said:

Besides smu and Memphis, which teams do you think our students will get up for? Because passive fans/students probably barely know much about anyone else. Honestly, I bet most don't know Memphis. 

Name recognition is the key.  College students with no sports knowledge are more likely to know Temple and Tulane than Omaha and Southern Nazarene.