Bufflao

[zete]

MAC Daddy Bulls push #13 WVU out of the way in OT.... Massinburg bombs home 43

[Siborg]

I DVR'd it and set it for 30 extra minutes. Just watched it and it cut off with Buffalo up 86-84 in OT. Massenburg was on fire.

[zete]

They could run the table this regular season 25-0

[hammb]

They are what BG should become in basketball. With our facility and our resources there is no reason why we cannot become the premier program in the conference. Buffalo has put some resources into basketball and it's paying off for them. I believe Oats is making more than their football coach, and definitely more than what we are paying for both our football and basketball coaches.

With the Bill Frack endowment we should be going out and finding the best coaches in the MAC. Buffalo has shown the blueprint with Hurley and now Oats. They're a damned good team, and actually if they were to get upset in the MAC tourney somehow could give us our first legitimate shot at 2 bids in a long time.

[Lord_Byron]

They are what BG should become in basketball. With our facility and our resources there is no reason why we cannot become the premier program in the conference. Buffalo has put some resources into basketball and it's paying off for them. I believe Oats is making more than their football coach, and definitely more than what we are paying for both our football and basketball coaches.

With the Bill Frack endowment we should be going out and finding the best coaches in the MAC. Buffalo has shown the blueprint with Hurley and now Oats. They're a damned good team, and actually if they were to get upset in the MAC tourney somehow could give us our first legitimate shot at 2 bids in a long time.

They've also slowly created a buzz around Buffalo. It used to be all the college hoops was focused on Niagara and St. Bonaventure, but now UB has taken much of the college spotlight. They are discussed on sports radio and in the paper.

It's funny listening to the sportscasters because there are Buffalo teams in both the MAC and MAAC. So, when the say "mack" on the radio, I'm sure many listeners think it's the same thing.

[hammb]

They are what BG should become in basketball. With our facility and our resources there is no reason why we cannot become the premier program in the conference. Buffalo has put some resources into basketball and it's paying off for them. I believe Oats is making more than their football coach, and definitely more than what we are paying for both our football and basketball coaches.

With the Bill Frack endowment we should be going out and finding the best coaches in the MAC. Buffalo has shown the blueprint with Hurley and now Oats. They're a damned good team, and actually if they were to get upset in the MAC tourney somehow could give us our first legitimate shot at 2 bids in a long time.

They've also slowly created a buzz around Buffalo. It used to be all the college hoops was focused on Niagara and St. Bonaventure, but now UB has taken much of the college spotlight. They are discussed on sports radio and in the paper.

It's funny listening to the sportscasters because there are Buffalo teams in both the MAC and MAAC. So, when the say "mack" on the radio, I'm sure many listeners think it's the same thing.

Obviously BG will never be close to Buffalo. And the closest large metro area is Toledo which of course has their own D1 team. It's going to be hard for BG to ever build THAT sort of fan base in the region.

That said, this area is a college basketball deadzone. Despite the inability to walk 10 feet without seeing UM or OSU gear on somebody, there is almost nobody that could name a player on either basketball squad. Hell, I'm not sure most could even name their basketball coaches. The casual fans of those schools are almost solely about football. Sure, they'll root for them in the NCAA tournament, but then they move on. Overwhelmingly we do see a lot of Duke, UNC, etc type fans but I'm certain that's anywhere in the country.

If BG built a perennial MAC contender I do think they could keep the Stroh center full on most nights. But we're a long way from that.

[Schadenfreude]

It's funny listening to the sportscasters because there are Buffalo teams in both the MAC and MAAC. So, when the say "mack" on the radio, I'm sure many listeners think it's the same thing.

I tend to think the MAAC ought to come up with another name, but I suppose they are as attached to their name as we are to ours.

[zete]

They (Buffalo) are what BG should become in basketball. With our facility and our resources there is no reason why we cannot become the premier program in the conference..

Over the years I have wondered why Ohio, with their fan base, and/or Miami, with Greater Cincinnati nearby were never able to create a program of national prominence. I know the argument against Miami is: DAyton, Cincinnati, X, and now Wright St and N. Kentucky getting into the act. BTW,, NKU and Wright St have two of the nicest arenas in the MidWest........ But it just seems Ohio and Miami are going nowhere and content with the same old same old year after year.

[Falconwriter]

They (Buffalo) are what BG should become in basketball. With our facility and our resources there is no reason why we cannot become the premier program in the conference..

Over the years I have wondered why Ohio, with their fan base, and/or Miami, with Greater Cincinnati nearby were never able to create a program of national prominence. I know the argument against Miami is: DAyton, Cincinnati, X, and now Wright St and N. Kentucky getting into the act. BTW,, NKU and Wright St have two of the nicest arenas in the MidWest........ But it just seems Ohio and Miami are going nowhere and content with the same old same old year after year.

Both Miami and Ohio are basically out in the middle of nowhere. So is BG, for that matter. Yes, a bigger city isn't far away, but having a university in the middle of a bigger metro area gives those teams a huge advantage when it comes to attendance. They don't have to rely solely on students to make up the bulk of the crowd, and alums can stay in those cities and find jobs. In more rural schools, like BG, Miami and OU, those types of job opportunities just aren't there.

[Schadenfreude]

It's worth noting that, for decades, Miami and Ohio were the premier basketball programs in this conference. Ohio's Convocation Center seems to have been built for a program that could have gone from mid-major to major at some point. But that never happened, for whatever reason.

[hammb]

They (Buffalo) are what BG should become in basketball. With our facility and our resources there is no reason why we cannot become the premier program in the conference..

Over the years I have wondered why Ohio, with their fan base, and/or Miami, with Greater Cincinnati nearby were never able to create a program of national prominence. I know the argument against Miami is: DAyton, Cincinnati, X, and now Wright St and N. Kentucky getting into the act. BTW,, NKU and Wright St have two of the nicest arenas in the MidWest........ But it just seems Ohio and Miami are going nowhere and content with the same old same old year after year.

Both Miami and Ohio are basically out in the middle of nowhere. So is BG, for that matter. Yes, a bigger city isn't far away, but having a university in the middle of a bigger metro area gives those teams a huge advantage when it comes to attendance. They don't have to rely solely on students to make up the bulk of the crowd, and alums can stay in those cities and find jobs. In more rural schools, like BG, Miami and OU, those types of job opportunities just aren't there.

Certainly, that's an issue. I do think, anecdotally, BG has just as many alumni in the Toledo metro area as UT does though. So if we were defining their potential attendance/fanbase as within, say, 30 miles I'd think BG should be able to have a decent fanbase to pull in. What BG probably lacks, compared to Toledo, is the number of people that root for the teams without a real affiliation with the school. There are people who root for UT because they grew up in Toledo, even if they perhaps went to school elsewhere. BG has a large surrounding rural population that root for them with no real affiliation, but in terms of numbers that is probably dwarfed by that of UT.

Either way, I'm still confident that if we built a winner in hoops we'd routinely put 3500+ butts in the Stroh Center seats. Our biggest problem right now is we have nearly 15+ years of alumni that have graduated with zero connection to basketball because we have done jack to even TRY to be good at the sport. We've twice let mediocre coaches play out their entire contracts with lame duck seasons. Again we've not shown the commitment to excellence with our current staff. If the Athletic Dept wants to keep sending the message that hoops is an afterthought then the students will not support the program, thus the alumni will not support the program.

Moose joked yesterday during the Loeffler presser that he didn't want to talk to the folks at the search firm for another 10 years. I am hopeful he somehow got a 2 for 1 deal in that, because if he lets Huger play out ANOTHER lame duck season for this program it will just further show how little regard the university has for the program.

[HoopsFan]

Odd. OU going nowhere? The attendance is pretty solid, tops in the MAC. tSUN has the highest percentage of attendance and OU and UT are 1-2 in MAC men's home attendance.

Marketing seems to be doing a better job of lowering prices and getting more butts in the seats, but it still has a long way to go. Maybe winning some games might help.

The surprise is EMU. Wow! When they first opened up the arena, I had arena envy. What a nice looking place and they average less than 1000 a game! Here are last year's numbers. https://www.hustlebelt.com/mac-basketba ... attendance" target="_blank

HoopsFan

[zete]

Yea, they have an wonderful fan base down there in there in the woods and owe a little something to those loyalist....maybe an Elite 8 or two.

[Globetrotter]

Has anyone ever been to a hs game at Margaret’ta. If I remember correctly the seats were full by jv. The answer is simple to getting a full stadium. Attachment. Make it an event where you are seeing your friends and neighbors from bg and the surrounding counties. What’s not simple is how to create that attachment.

[zete]

Has anyone ever been to a hs game at Margaret’ta. If I remember correctly the seats were full by jv. The answer is simple to getting a full stadium. Attachment. Make it an event where you are seeing your friends and neighbors from bg and the surrounding counties. What’s not simple is how to create that attachment.

people generally do this at the HS level...not so much at the university level in BG

They need to win at home 90% of the time and win on the road more than they have..... It is fairly well understood in the community the athletic dept.has decommitted to men's basketball -- thus the apathy.