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With the dismissal of this program killing head coach and his bench of underachieving assistants only 1 week away I for one am finished talking about him. I'm ready to look to the future and I want the athletic department to seize this opportunity to breathe life back into this program. I'd like us to come up with suggestions for what we would like to see happen that would bring fans back and create the atmosphere I believe is possible inside the Stroh Center. This is an opportunity for the athletic department to create something great and since I'm an optimist I'm going to look at this through my orange and brown glasses and believe that it can happen.

What do we have going for us?

1. The right size arena, with quality amenities built in such a way that when full and rowdy could make for a very difficult place for opposing teams to play.
2. A young AD who I believe has the passion and enthusiasm to make changes that will not only bring in a quality head coach but will change the culture of the program.
3. A student body that has proven it will support athletic events as evidenced at the football games.
4. A serious financial commitment made toward the basketball program.

What do we need?

1. A head coach who not only knows the X's & O's but can also recruit and most importantly DEVELOP players.
2. A head coach who has those qualities but can also be a passionate salesman for the program. This new coach needs to reach out to the student body and the community, both of which have been alienated by the passionless personality of the previous head coach. He needs to exude this passion on the sidelines and imbue his players with it.
3. A head coach who brings an up-tempo exciting brand of basketball back to BG-no more shoulder shrugging.
4. An athletic department employee dedicated to reaching out to the students to create a student cheering section. Once a quality product is on the floor the atmosphere at a college basketball game is entirely on the shoulders of the student body. My daughter attends OU, I've been to many games at the Convo, and their "O-Zone" is a group worth modeling. It is an official student organization with a student president and an athletic department employee who guides it.

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The UT game a few weeks ago proved what a difference a large and rowdy student section in the Stroh can make. Those students were outstanding, and in a 5,000 seat arena, 1,500-2,000 rowdy students at each game could spell doom for opposing teams.

5. A commitment to reaching out to the BG community to make this "their" basketball team by providing opportunities for more local groups to attend games and market the product to the townspeople.
6. Stronger marketing
7. A more dynamic game day experience, from the introductions, to the timeouts, to the music chosen to play, to the level of that music, to the video board gimmicks, to the student competition gimmicks, to the MC of those competitions. The athletic department needs to visit other venues to gather ideas for increasing the excitement level once fans get inside the venue.

This turnaround CAN happen, and we do not have to fill a 10,000 seat arena to make it happen!

Those are some of the areas I see we need improvement in, but I'd love to see additions to this list.

Point 4. The Falcon Fanatics already exist and they are awesome. With a fun product on the court I can see the Falcon Fanatics being the model student section in the conference, not the O Zone.

The students who show up as "Falcon Fanatics" do the best that they can with small numbers, but there just is not enough organized student support because the product has been so poor. I give those students a tremendous amount of credit for attempting to create a great atmosphere. Aside from the UT game this season, I'm not sure there have been more than 200 students at any other game, so no matter how enthusiastic the group is, it just cannot carry the entire arena.

I too believe that they could be the model student section, but they are going to need support from within the athletic department. Right now I don't think Falcon Men's basketball is on the radar of most BG students and who can blame them? The "Falcon Fanatics" is a GREAT name for a spirit group but since this program has been so diminished under the so called leadership of this head coach like everything else associated with this program, some marketing is going to need to be put in place.

Students are going to have to be given a reason to come and a concerted effort to recruit students into a group like the "Falcon Fanatics" is a way to begin the rebuilding process.

This is not a knock on those dedicated students. But one trip to Athens or even a trip to that school up North illustrates we have a ways to go to rebuild student interest in this program (I went to the UT/OU game at Savage-they announced that 2,000 students were there. Attendance was 5,800 so I suppose that's possible. Regardless, it was a "white out" and the students did do a nice job)

With the interest levels for the Men's Basketball program at historically low levels I would rather see the athletic department take a pro-active approach rather than simply hoping that students start showing up again.

So perhaps they can use the core group of "Falcon Fanatics" to recruit other students to become a part of the new and improved student section.

I do believe this: The exciting atmosphere of a college basketball game has as much to do with the student crowd as anything else. The poor students at BG have not been given ANY reasons to support this program and it's time that changes.

The Falcon Fanatics are not just a basketball only group. And the Athletic Department does support the group. The AD has found some funding for this group (not sure if it is through the Athletic Department or if he found a generous donor). But there has been some financial commitment to this group.

I saw a large contingent of Falcon Fanatics at the home football games. We took bus loads of Falcon Fanatics to Kent and IU as well as to the MAC Championship and the Pizza Bowl.

We have seen the Falcon Fanatics (a little smaller in number) at the home basketball games for both the men and women.

The Falcon Fanatics were present at most of the soccer games this past fall (and rallied for the AD as he took penalty shots from the different coaches).

We saw the Falcon Fanatics at our home gymnastics meets and hope to see several of them at Kent State this Thursday evening for our weeknight match.

I'm sure if we had been able to have our usual crowds for swimming, that we would have seen the Fanatics at Cooper Pool as well. With the SRC renovation being completed next year, hopefully the swimming program will be able to hold its usual number of home meets and we'll have a rowdy Falcon Fanatic section present.

I disagree with the statement "The poor students at BG have not been given ANY reasons to support this program and it's time that changes." There are 16 young men wearing the orange and brown and they deserve our support.

I like unicorns and rainbows.

homo....