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When BG's new head coach walked to mid court with his two kids in tow, he must have looked around and thought, "This is the worst crowd (1,200) for a D-I basketball game I have ever seen. What in the Hell have I gotten myself into."

Good thing he's not the basketball coach.

zete wrote:When BG's new head coach walked to mid court with his two kids in tow, he must have looked around and thought, "This is the worst crowd (1,200) for a D-I basketball game I have ever seen. What in the Hell have I gotten myself into."

Zete, I highly doubt that was what he was thinking. Out of curiosity I looked up Fordham's home attendance for this season. Fordham, site of Clawson's first HC gig, plays D-I basketball in the Atlantic 10 conference. This season they are averaging right around 2,000. So my guess is he's seen similar or *gasp* worse D-I basketball crowds.

As many of you know, however, this little exercise has zero bearing on Dave Clawson the Head Football Coach at Bowling Green State University and more bearing on the perceptions of Zete the azz.com posting wizard.

zete wrote:When BG's new head coach walked to mid court with his two kids in tow, he must have looked around and thought, "This is the worst crowd (1,200) for a D-I basketball game I have ever seen. What in the Hell have I gotten myself into."

Holy crap, we had a less than average crowd for a non-conference game next to finals week. I for one, am freaking out.

When will these same repetitive topics about attendance finally go away? Attendance goes up and down, and when we win, it stays up a little longer. That's pretty much it, not worth stressing about.

If you were there and enjoyed the game, what else really matters?

I have always watched attendance figures at MAC schools. From the mid 60's on in fact, and they do corelate - good teams and high figures. The last time BGSU was in the NCAA tournament (over 40 years ago, but who's counting?) attendance in Anderson was at 5,100 for about all games and yes, even before finals week. Basketball was a hot ticket then. It's easy to become cynical over time, and I have, but BG seems to have become a b'ball coaching graveyard...
I was impressed with the Falcons Sunday, but I can't help to look around and wonder what it will take to recrate that long ago hype that was present on campus for the basketball team then. Maybe a new arena?

If Clawson has an incentive clause in his contract regarding attendance, then I think he will care.

transfer2BGSU wrote:.

In addition, students back then were a lot different than students today.

I was gonna say "Hey watch it about students back then, but I realized that the last time BG went to the NCAAs, I wasn't even a studentyet. Yikes! Not a flame, really, UT's dry spell is nearly as long, its just hard to believe since I am now well past retirement age.

zete wrote:and they do corelate - good teams and high figures.

I call BS. I'm going to need some hard data to back up this crazy assertion. Attendance goes up when the team is good? You're an insane person. I don't believe it for a second.

BG has a good basketball team. Hell, they [layed two Big Ten teams tough, but as I pointed out no one seems too interested. And yes, I understand TV and wii taking a chunk of the interest factor. But that is true everywhere. Small markets like BG, Oxford, Athens probably factor in as much as anything.

h2oville rocket wrote:...its just hard to believe since I am now well past retirement age.

The "old farts" posts are in the WBB forum. .

cowboyjoe wrote:If Clawson has an incentive clause in his contract regarding attendance, then I think he will care.

He has an incentive clause for basketball attendance? Wow, no wonder Brandon was pissed about attendance.

zete wrote:BG has a good basketball team. Hell, they [layed two Big Ten teams tough, but as I pointed out no one seems too interested. And yes, I understand TV and wii taking a chunk of the interest factor. But that is true everywhere. Small markets like BG, Oxford, Athens probably factor in as much as anything.

The problem with men's basketball right now is that we've had a losing product for quite a while now. Most of the student base just assumes we suck, and they will continue to think that way until proven otherwise. It will take a LOT of winning to do that, because I could see a situation where we rip off 5, 6, 7 games in a row to start MAC play, and the masses will be like, "it's a fluke" and they'll just keep waiting for the team to inevitably collapse.

It's going to take several years of 20+ wins to get this program to anywhere near respectability in the attendance department. That is, unless we start to bring in some real OOC opponents that people actually recognize. Big teams draw, small and bad teams don't. Look at Minnesota in football. Look at Michigan in hockey or Notre Dame for women's basketball last year, the people turned out in droves for those games. Men's basketball in the last four years has NEVER had an opponent like that come into AA.

Right on!!!!!!!!