Despite Adversity, Nt Basketball Defies The Odds

[MeanGreen61]

Despite adversity, NT basketball team defies odds

Miguel Artiga and Abel Prado

Issue date: 3/14/07 Section: NEWS

For the first time in 19 years, NT students and alumni will gather to watch the men's basketball team battle for a national championship.

In the past four years, play has been dismal, winning only 20 conference games in the four years prior to this season.

The numbers show that the 2006- 07 basketball season has been a vast improvement.

"I think if something should happen to me and I can't be here tomorrow, people should know that we basically built a program from scratch," said Athletics Director Rick Villarreal. "And now we're at the point where we won 23 games and set an all-time school record."

A recent graph published in the March 5 issue of "Sports Illustrated" showed that NT was the second poorest team in the nation, but officials in the athletics department claim that there is more behind the numbers.

Out of the 300 Division 1 college basketball programs in the nation, NT had the second lowest revenue. The total cost of expenses for the NT basketball team is $1,029,462 while revenue is only $184,057, creating a profit loss of approximately $850,000.

"They basically subtracted the operating expenses by the amount of revenue we receive," said Eric Capper, associate athletics director. "But the report that they obtained from the university doesn't include money generated by donations, media contracts and other sources of income."

Low attendance records for the Mean Green illustrate that 21,506 fans and alumni attended home games this season, which represents an average of 2,390 fans in an arena where the average capacity is 10,500, said Stephen Howard, assistant sports information director.

Officials in the athletics department said the Sun Belt title and the bid to the NCAA tournament should cure the woes.

"We know that fan support is a work in progress, but we have to win games," Villarreal said. "Fans and students want to watch winning basketball, and more than that, they want to watch exciting basketball.

Though the Mean Green lost three home games this season, the largest margin of defeat was a mere four points, setting a school record for least points surrendered to away teams.

Despite suffering the windfalls of being the program with the second lowest revenue, the Mean Green has beaten the odds and earned a bid to March Madness. Eventually, financial compensation will come to NT depending on how many wins it garners in the tournament.

Villarreal said the compensation system is set up in units. The first unit is calculated by how many teams from each conference make the tournament (the more teams that earn a bid, the higher the compensation) and how many rounds deep they go.