Move all Men's BB games to "Snake Pit"

Green Grenade II · March 14, 2005

Inasmuch as we cannot seem to draw flys at the Super Pit, let's return to playing our basketball games in the old Snake Pit (the Men's Gym). If you think I am kidding, we are in no way able to provide consessions, gate entries, available tickets to ever, ever have more than embarrasing attendance at our glorious Super Pit. I've seem it sold out in the past many times to standing room only, but that was when Bill Blakely was head coach and we "promoted our games to the outside ticket buyers everywhere." Those days are gone, and until we come up with someone who can run the Super Pit and a promotions department who takes building crowds seriously, the only other solution would be to win games, win games, and win games. Get my drift.

risinggreen · March 14, 2005

Sad to say but it's hard to disagree with you. The status quo is obviously not working so I'm game for any creative ideas that have a chance of making a difference. How about a dollar night for Denton County residents? How about more student promotions? We've got to find some way to market this thing and put butts in the seats! It's pretty frustrating to see this apathy going on year after year. By the way, does anyone know if the DePaul game back in the late 70's was the only sellout in the Super Pit's history? Trilli's upper level green seats (got to give him some credit) have yet to feel a warm body.

GrandGreen · March 14, 2005

Sad to say but it's hard to disagree with you. The status quo is obviously not working so I'm game for any creative ideas that have a chance of making a difference. How about a dollar night for Denton County residents? How about more student promotions? We've got to find some way to market this thing and put butts in the seats! It's pretty frustrating to see this apathy going on year after year. By the way, does anyone know if the DePaul game back in the late 70's was the only sellout in the Super Pit's history? Trilli's upper level green seats (got to give him some credit) have yet to feel a warm body.

The Depaul game was not a sell out. The only sell out in NT history at the Superpit was against SMU. My memory maybe gone but NT has never had great or even good attendence since moving to the Superpit. The early Blakely years were the best but not close to the numbers being quoted. I don't NT has ever had an average yearly attendence of over 5000.

Edited March 14, 2005 by GrandGreen

untbowler · March 14, 2005

Until the AD actually gets someone in a marketing position attendance will continue to be horrible. We hosted the conference tournament for crying outloud and there were no signs anywhere to be found on campus to get the average college student out.

I know the students are the favorite whipping boys for the alumni but like beating a dead horse what has the AD done to get the students out?

MeanGreenBuzz · March 15, 2005

If I remember correctly we are not allowed to use the SnakePit for BB games (men's or women's) because it is too loud. Stadiums like it were banned by the NCAA years back because it was too distracting to the players. I may not be remembering correctly though...

NT80 · March 15, 2005

The SuperPit is a great facility and no way should we go back to the SnakePit. Would you build a new football stadium then want to go back to Fouts? The main problems as many have mentioned on basketball attendance is lack of promotion/marketing, communication with students and alums, and hosting mostly no-name opponents with less than stellar home teams.

GreenN'walinsVet · March 16, 2005

If anybody out there in the Athletic Department is listing, i would gladly take the job of marketing all NT athletics for the small price of 30,000 a year.

CMJ · March 16, 2005

[The Depaul game was not a sell out. The only sell out in NT history at the Superpit was against SMU. My memory maybe gone but NT has never had great or even good attendence since moving to the Superpit. The early Blakely years were the best but not close to the numbers being quoted. I don't NT has ever had an average yearly attendence of over 5000.

Hard to argue with you since I wasn't around back then, but my Mom wrote for the Daily back in the day and was really close to the Blakely program(she was even in his office the night the NCAA and NIT snubbed us and tells a fairly amusing story of how infuriated Blakely was). While we weren't selling out - Mom assures me that during acouple of those years the place was packed for every game. I'd think our average attendance was closer to 9K than 5K.

Buford_Julep · March 16, 2005

A game with West Texas State (now West Texas A&M) drew a near sell-out crowd during the Blakely era. Believe it or not West Texas State had a very good team then. I think long-time NBA player Maurice Cheeks was on that team.

North Texas did schedule either one or two games in the old pit after the Super Pit was built. The games did not draw well.

If my memory is correct, the women played in the old pit for several years after the Super Pit was built. I have heard that NT did not own the super Pit and had to pay rent to the state of Texas each time it was used. It was done to save money. I can't swear that was the reason, but that was what I heard. Maybe someone can help.

Green Grenade II · March 18, 2005

If anybody out there in the Athletic Department is listing, i would gladly take the job of marketing all NT athletics for the small price of 30,000 a year.

I would take the job of marketing and promoting all NT sports, but I would want at least $40,000 per year-because I know how to fix the attendance and perception problem quickly.

dentUNiTe · March 18, 2005

a few observations....

During the heyday of "The Snake Pit", I was a youngster and went to every game. I remember distinctly that I could yell as loud as I possibly could at times, but could not hear myself. The stories we oldsters tell about this are TRUE. That place was unbelievable. But the truth is, we were not a very good team. It seems that we would lose by 30 to Louisville or Cincinnatti or Memphis at their place, and lose by 1 or 2 points at home. We were in a tough/great conference, and we were very tough at home, but really never competitive in the Missouri Valley. My father loved to tell the story of how Oscar Robertson came down with a rebound swinging his elbows, somehow a foul was called on a North Texas player, and the big O sank 2 free throws to beat us....and they (Cincy) were #1 at the time.

Also, remember the early 80's? We actually scheduled one game per year at the old "Pit" for awhile. I think it was because we held registration in the Coliseum at the same time there was a game scheduled. I remember sitting there at courtside contemplating pulling the leg hair of a Lamar Cardinal who was inbounding a pass. It was a joke, but we did it. I think we stopped when the Southland officials or AD's demanded we stop.

More stories upon request............

eulesseagle · March 18, 2005

you are right old timer......i remember from, i think, from 1969-1970 NTSU only lost 1 game in the Pit and that was to Louisville in 1969. That is when Denny Crum made his immortal statement about NTSU fans, "This is the worse crowd in the nation." Well yea man, fans would be sitting 2 feet from the playing floor screaming, beating our feet on the wooden bleacher, throwing ice on the floor on bad ref calls, throwing rubber snakes on the floor during bad calls.....With all the noise and the poor accoustics in that place it sounded like there were 20x more people in there than there was.

The best game was when Denny Crum brought his nationally ranked Louisville Cards in 1970 with all the banners that read, "Worse Crowd in the Nation."

The next best was the Drake game when we beat them in double or triple overtime in 1970. Drake got beat by UCLA in the semi-finals of the NCAA playoffs that year.....that is how powerful the old Missouri Valley Conference was in the 60's and 70s.

Those are my best memories of the best games I saw.....

I also saw the DePaul game with Mike McGuire in the 80's when Blankley was coach...that place was packed and rockin....but nothin like the ole Pit.

SUMG · March 18, 2005

Those are my best memories of the best games I saw.....
I also saw the DePaul game with Mike McGuire in the 80's when Blankley was coach...that place was packed and rockin....but nothin like the ole Pit.

Mark Aguirre. Blakely.

Moron.

ntsumgspe · March 18, 2005

I also saw the DePaul game with Mike McGuire in the 80's when Blankley was coach...that place was packed and rockin....but nothin like the ole Pit.

I believe you are referring to Mark Aguirre. Former Dallas Maverick great.

eulesseagle · March 18, 2005

smug, cant you make a comment without some sort of degrading remark???????

that was classless dude.

eeally · March 18, 2005

Please call me a Moron for a misplacing a name....I would love to see it! No wonder people don't want to post on here! Have some respect for fellow Alumni!

UNTLifer · March 18, 2005

smug, cant you make a comment without some sort of degrading remark???????
that was classless dude.

You have to understand that SUMG and Scottie from the other board spend their time looking for mistakes in other's posts and putting a negative spin on all things NT athletics. It is just the way they choose to look at the world.

MrStrange62 · March 18, 2005

Wow... You guys are crazy! First of all, have any of you seen the Snake Pit recently? The place is a dump! Second, have some patience. If you look at the Johnny Jones era compared to the last campaign, you cant argue the results. If we keep doing what we're doing, the progam will get there. It might be a couple of years but it will happen. Sun Belt basketball has been around for some time. We are kinda the pups in basketball. Give it time. This is ridiculous that you guys would even suggest something like this. Oh and those of you who are... how many games did you make this year? People will come. You just gotta keep having faith, and stick by your team... WIN or LOSE!

GMG!!!

Edited March 21, 2005 by MrStrange62

Eagle-96 · March 18, 2005

You have to understand that SUMG and Scottie from the other board spend their time looking for mistakes in other's posts and putting a negative spin on all things NT athletics. It is just the way they choose to look at the world.

Lifer, I cannot beleive you did not use commas to set your appositive apart from the rest of your sentence. What an idiot. <_<

Your sentence SHOULD read:

You have to understand that SUMG and Scottie, from the other board, spend their...

FirefightnRick · March 19, 2005

In case you haven't been inside the Snake Pit to support our volleyball team lately it's changed quite a bit. It's been renovated on the inside, painted white throughout with new windows on the north and south ends and the gym is completely airconditioned. And other than some new pull out seating on the south end of the floor, the rest of the floor seats have been removed. So you have some floor seats on the south end and then the old original seats in the upper sections on the east and west sides. The wooden floor appears to be a new one but it is configured to hold either two volleyball courts, running east and west or two basketball courts running east and west. There is not a basketball court running north and south, in fact the goals for that are gone. Only 4 ceiling mouted fold up goals exist for the east/west courts. It's changed so much you would hardly recognize the place these days.

The gym is the home of the volleyball team but they are really excited about moving over to the new facility soon.

Rick

UNTLifer · March 19, 2005

WIN or LOOSE!
GMG!!!

drex · March 20, 2005

OK, here goes my trip down memory lane. First, it was Maury Johns, the coach of the Drake Bulldogs who said that this was a snake pit and that these were the worst fans in America. The next home game there was a sign proudly proclaiming 'welcome to the snake pit, home of the worst fans in America. Soon thereafter, a rubber snake was thrown on the floor during a game. The old pit was a magical place...I wish each of you could have experienced it. Now, as to the Blakeley era...we had good crowds and at times played the likes of Sam Houston State and even Austin College. Why were the growds good for even these lightweights? Blakeley made it fun. His teams were run and gun and he was in the entertainment business. He always had a slogan on the back of his seat for each season and never made it past ten minutes into the game without throwing off his sport coat. He made fun of bad calls and prayed when our guys were at the free throw line. The fun is gone from our games and we are way too serious. There is a terrible disconnect between our teams and our fans, which is why our crowds for football and basketball are so terrible. It just is not that much fun to attend. Sorry, but that is the brutal truth.

letsgiveacheer · March 20, 2005

I believe people keep coming back to the pit days because there was nothing else like it at the time. Our football team wasn't doing much and no one seemed to care, even during the early Fry days. But once, MVC basketball started, it was a different story.

My little claim to fame while a student at North Texas was that Maurice McAdow's grad assistant quit during the middle of the season and he asked me to conduct the basketball band. I recall our first game at the new super pit. We were out of the MVC, the new place was decorated in orange, the crowd was small, and the acoustics swallowed up whatever noise the fans made.

As soon as the first tip-off in the new "Super Pit" happened, I remember remarking..."it's gone".