BASKETBALL Marshall @ Middle Tennessee, 7PM, Thursday, January 12, 2017

[Blueraider_Mike]

The students are in class yet. Why would Anyone expect more than 4K. I am astounded. When was the last time we had a big crowd for an early Jan CUSA game? I was out of town for work and didn't make it

While the program is better it's simply not ata point of having 7-8k for Marshall.

Meant to say not in class yet. Difficult on phone.

 

[RandallThomason]

The students are in class yet. Why would Anyone expect more than 4K. I am astounded. When was the last time we had a big crowd for an early Jan CUSA game? I was out of town for work and didn't make it

While the program is better it's simply not ata point of having 7-8k for Marshall.

"Not at a point of having 7-8k for Marshall."

First place in the conference was on the line. That should draw 5,800 IMO even without students there. With students on campus, it should have drawn 6,300 or more.

The frustrating part for me is that I see the following:

Marshall averaging 5,500 fans per game
UTEP averaging 5,839
ODU averaging 5,692

None of those programs have matched our accomplishments over the last 6 seasons and all are outdrawing us (we are averaging 5,284). Sometimes I feel like even if we won the national championship, we would have "fans" say, "Well if they really want the community and the students to get behind the team, they will probably need to repeat as national champions to show that it wasn't just a fluke."

The bottom line is that if you had told me in November, 2011, that we about to go on a 5 year run of:

** NIT Quarterfinal appearance

** NCAA at large bid

** C-USA Championship and first round win in a game that immediately was vaulted into the pantheon of all time great NCAA Tournament performances

**Receiving top 25 votes and ranking a better part of half a season in the RPI Top 10

**Wins over UCLA, Ole Miss (X3), Tennessee, Vanderbilt (X2), Auburn, and Michigan State

** Home record of 71-13

** Conference record of 79-24

If you had told me all of that in November, 2011, I would have a) pinched myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming, and b) been convinced that we would be averaging 7,500 per game by the 2016-17 season. For probably 6-8 other programs in our conference, had they replicated the results we have produced in the last 5 years, their arenas would be at fever pitch right now. Murphy Center isn't, and the athletic department seemingly just yawns at that. It's a huge problem.

We are living the "glory days" for MT basketball right this second, and a vast majority of the university and Murfreesboro community is completely blind to it, and sometime in the future the lack of willingness to support the program at the levels it has merited I fear will result in losing what we've worked so hard to gain.

I've said my piece.

 

[Stonesraider]

Aside from exhibitions, no game had less than 4k in attendance.

2016 attendance averages from NCAA:
MTSU 5,183

WKU 3,671
UTEP 7,385
UAB 4,945
ODU 7,037

UNCW 4,193
Evansville 5,147
Toledo 4,478
Belmont 2,536
Vanderbilt 11,135
Ole Miss 7,995

Gonzaga 6,000
St Mary's 2,611

Obviously the highly attended game or two help get our average above the otherwise 4.5k.

There are schools with winning records in urban areas with lower attendance than us (UNCW, UAB). I think a 7k average is as much as anybody can ask for. Both UTEP and ODU have great tradition. 5K should be our absolute low around the holidays.

We have a rare collection of size and athleticism. I wish people would realize the level of basketball we have here.

 

[Stonesraider]

Unfortunately, I think people will only respond to the top 25.

 

[RandallThomason]

Unfortunately, I think people will only respond to the top 25.

At this point, I doubt that is even true. Goes back to what I said in my above post. Even if we were ranked in the top 25, there would be a school of thought, "Well they will have to stay there more than a week to really gin up a big crowd" or "Well, let's see how they do in the postseason before we get carried away."

There's always a "Well, but..." when it comes to the community supporting the university, and part of it (maybe most of it) may be self-inflicted.

 

[MidTnBlues]

It's hard for me to get there on weekdays. I work in Franklin and live in Murfreesboro. I have to leave work at 5:00 - 5:30 to get there by 6:30 and then I'm home at 9:30. That's a long day. Judging by the traffic issues we always have I would assume a large number of people travel outside of the county to work. I don't have kids, but if I did I likely wouldn't have been there Thursday night.

 

[Stonesraider]

Now that football season is over I hear more about 8-8 Vanderbilt and Tennessee on the radio than us.

 

[Stonesraider]

I know the whole thing about the indoor track and graduation but the empty wooden bleachers look terrible on TV. Especially filming from floor level.

 

[FranklinRaider315]

I just didn't feel like making the 60-mile round trip. Maybe Saturday.

 

[Blueraider_Mike]

In 2015, our average attendance was 4037 per game, in 2016 we average 5137, over a 1000 fan increase per game and it was the 18th best increase. The average D1 school attendance was 4744. CUSA average was 3822, so we are way above the average.

So far this season we are at 5284, so 150 more fans per game...we should do a bit better the rest of the season. This is progress.

But here is the bottomline, we have won "ONE" game in the NCAA tournament this century, while our winning % has been solid, we have not arrived.

 

[SpaceRaider]

It's hard for me to get there on weekdays. I work in Franklin and live in Murfreesboro. I have to leave work at 5:00 - 5:30 to get there by 6:30 and then I'm home at 9:30. That's a long day. Judging by the traffic issues we always have I would assume a large number of people travel outside of the county to work. I don't have kids, but if I did I likely wouldn't have been there Thursday night.

I'd say three out of four days I'm on the other side of Nashville for work and I barely got home to walk the dog and change before heading over to the Murphy Center. I think the 6:30 start times on week nights are not good but then the game on Thursday was at 7pm. Used to be when the men and women played double headers that the women started at 5:15 the men's game didn't really get started sometimes until after 7:30. I wouldn't mind all mens games starting at 7:30.

There all sorts of other elements of attending a basketball game at Murphy Center that should be looked at - parking, campus and MC lighting, road construction on Middle Tennessee Blvd, entertainment/dining in walking distance of the Murphy Center. I just think the whole arena should be lit up at night, and the window shades that were installed raised if late afternoon/evening light is not an issue and in the winter and if the start times were 7:00 or later in the winter months sun light is not an issue. I posted a photo a month or two back from the 70s of an outside view of the arena, with the exterior all lit up. Right now if you are driving along Murphy Center on MT blvd you can't even tell if anything is going on there...

 

[RandallThomason]

In 2015, our average attendance was 4037 per game, in 2016 we average 5137, over a 1000 fan increase per game and it was the 18th best increase. The average D1 school attendance was 4744. CUSA average was 3822, so we are way above the average.

So far this season we are at 5284, so 150 more fans per game...we should do a bit better the rest of the season. This is progress.

But here is the bottomline, we have won "ONE" game in the NCAA tournament this century, while our winning % has been solid, we have not arrived.

And in 2013 we averaged 5,410, so we are flat at best with 3 years ago.

I'm not trying to sound like I'm arguing with you Mike. You're one of my favorite posters on here. I just think there are some numbers that on face value look "OK" but a deeper dive reveals a lot of reason for concern IMO. We should be leading the league in attendance right now, not just be above an average that is pulled down by FIU and FAU playing games in front of the band and about a dozen other people.

We may not have "arrived" in totality but I wish more of the community around the university would feel the desire to dig in and help push the program farther forward.

Anyway, let's beat the Toppers tonight and keep rolling!