Eagle61

I have some shocking news. We have been playing to at best a 60% empty house since the Blakeley days. The best under Johnny was about 4,000. For a school of 35,000, that is a disgrace. The attendance by year is listed if you go to meangreensports, to basketball, to stats and select the latest information link. It is at the top of the page. It has all our records, anything you want to know about basketball. We drew as little as 1200 average after the new pit was built. A crowd of 4,000 in a 10,000 is an embarrassment. Sometimes I think we should introduce the crowd to the players to start the game. So not showing up to protest the coach will be hard to detect. When we bring in a recruit, seeing half the bottom bowl filled and no one the the upper seats would not compare well with the full stadiums at OK state, as Marcus Smart said. Chicken and egg situation. If we had better teams, we could draw more fans and we can't get a good team until we draw more fans.

Anything that involves the city will be opposed by the neighborhood group south of the stadium - the Denia neighborhood group. I know they oppose the convention center. They oppose EVERYTHING and they have the ear of the city council. I live out there and stopped going to their meetings because all they did was oppose. They opposed the dorms, the stadium, Acme Brick, and everything else that upsets the status quo. Some residents went to Austin to oppose the dorm before the legislature.

The softball stadium is situated so that the sun hits the eyes of the spectators (and batter) in the late afternoon. I attended some games when the college league played there and it was not a good experience, always squinting to see the pitcher and batter. The designers should take a look at that before it is final. I stopped going for that reason. Very uncomfortable. Anyone else ever been to the stadium for a game?

I talked to a girl at a basketball game who works in our administration who had worked in Texas State's admin and we discussed our attendance and lack thereof. She said that at Texas State they would close the residence hall's cafeterias on weekend game days. The meal ticket was good at the consession stands. Hungry? Go to the game. On a side note, the admin and athletic dept.(coaches) reserve 3 rows of seats for the basketball games and never fill them. I sit in those seats, never had anyone show up with a ticket. Best seats in the house. She was using some of the admin seats that night, about 3 years ago.

You can always count on UNTnegative to chime in. Why 30 more? What would that bring the total? Go for volume. Maybe there is an Auto-gloom app that will post the usual posts to all threads.

I have UNT stickers on my car. I found an old NTSU bumper sticker that I put on a 2002 car, but no longer own it. I made a suggestion to Rick that we get rid of "donor" seats opposite the scorers table and replace with student seating. We need 200 wild-eyed fanatics 3 feet from the court, not folks in the 50+ age group.(unfortunately that is me.) I would also like to see a tuition give away; a drawing based on attendance at football and basketball games, done at the last basketball game. They know who attends when they swipe the student ID. The apathy is killing the future for UNT. Interest in athletics gets donations in all areas. I give to athletics(MGC season tickets in 3 major sports, suite tickets for football), but I made a promise to myself that I would donate $2 to academics for every $1 I give to athletics. My favorite is the Emerald Scholars program. Take a look at their program, you just might be convinced to give. It is for kids whose parents make under $40,000. That was me. I worked my way through UNT. It was possible back then. Minimum wage summer jobs would get you through. A lot of us went that way in the 60s.

Obviously, NO. I agree with the thought, but they all deteriorate to "UNT sucks".

every game had some future NBA star. Great times. I hoped to see those kinds of games at NT again, but i think it will never happen in my lifetime. Blakeley's teams of the 70s were close, but nothing since, too much apathy in the students.

I discovered that you can make a poster dissappear. Go to your profile, settings, Ignore preferences and you will never have to see that crap again.

No matter what the thread, it always deteriorates to "we suck". One thing that definitely sucks is seeing it over and over and over.

Original topic: No Texas Schools in NCAA tournament. Article last night on Ch. 5 about why top players leave the state. Marcus Smart said it was attendance. Look at SMU, TCU and UNT. When TCU played Kansas the crowd was like a Kansas home game. SMU draws less than us. Our problem is that the people (the students) financing the program don't care. I think that there were fewer students than non-students at games this year. UNT is not the first choice of most of our students and UNT is probably not their favorite college program. They are still fans of UT, TAMU, Baylor or some other Big 12 school. It was that way when I was in school in the 60s. We never sold out Fouts, don't come close to filling Apogee. Basketball attendance peaked in the late 70s with Blakeley, and then at only about 5500. Johnny's last year was the first time we averaged over 4000 since then. We had some years when the average was below 2000. When you are recruiting a kid and bring him to a basketball game with 3000 in a 10,000 seat arena, then he goes to OK. State and there is a sellout, where is he going to sign? We are what we are. When the school had the MGC members stand at the last game, it looked like 3/4 of the crowd. Winning won't help; look at attendance under Johnny's 20 win per season. I am still going to every game, football and basketball. I haven't missed a BB game in about 6 years. I have seen every home game the players on the current roster played. But when the attendance is announced at about 3000, we really sold 35,000+, they just didn't show up.

He corrected his mistake. He put a Russian in Canaan's second spot

Isaiah Canaan, 6-1, 195, PG/SG, Sr., Murray State This point guard from Murray State has really impressed the writer; so much that he gets two spots in the draft. Maybe this writer is not much of an authority. Back in the 60s, a preseason college football magazine named TCU's kicker as the all-SWC quarterback. Second rounders go to Europe, maybe a D-league. The second round is also known as the witness protection program.

I agree with this 100%. If I were recruiting against UNT I would direct the prospect to this site. "These are the alumni, they know their coach best. He will be gone before you ever put on a jersey. If not this year, certainly next year." Think recruiters against SMU don't remind the prospect that Larry Brown is 73 years old and will either be dead or retired in a few years? Recruiting is a dirty business. You should see "Pony Excess" on ESPN's 30 for 30. It killed the SWC. It is not complacency that stops me from posting that kind of stuff, it is the knowledge that there is a lot of potential damage. It would be different if this was a closed board that would only take UNT alums, but it is open to the world. Google "Fire Benford" and this site pops up. I know that this is not going to stop or discourage anyone from their vitriol and I don't need a lecture on how you are going to change things or how prospects never read this stuff.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1555317-why-is-scoring-down-in-college-basketball?hpt=hp_t3 Excellent article. My opinion is not calling fouls and allowing rough play. Players feel that and adapt quickly. Our game with Southeast Louisiana is an excellent example. Fouls weren't called and the game developed into a wrestling match under the goals. "Let'em play" is not for me. Look at the Kansas - Iowa State game in the last 30 seconds. That was an attack on the integrity of the game. (The no-call on the collision under the basket) Charge-block is called too much for the defense. I can't figure what the refs are looking at on most calls. I see defensive players sliding under the shooter. Excellent comments with the article. This topic is a sore spot for me. It reduces my enjoyment of the game. I hope something is done.

You are thinking about Ark. St. Holmen went 5-5 on threes and 8-11 overall for 21 pts. He scored 10 against ULL. Although the way Bob Marlin defenses Tony, cutters and 3 point shooters could have a big game. Would love to see it be Overlander. Bob is not going to let Tony beat him. When Tony gets the ball, he puts 3 guys on him. It works. ULL has won 4 of 5 against NT with Tony, and if not for Walton's 3 pointer with a few seconds left, it would be 5 for 5.

I think at some point we will be UNT-Denton, and it could be near. And as to PlummMG's signature: This site is the greatest tool an opposing recruiter could have, especiailly basketball. If I were recruiting against UNT, I would hand the recruit a paper with this site address and say, "Here kid, look at this. You want to be a part of that." I would never lose a recruit to UNT. It is like a family where the parents are divorcing trying to adopt I am not a cheerleader. I just don't air dirty laundry.

Last year's run in the tournament, after finishing 9-7 in regular season (4th in the west), North Texas (no. 200) beat no. 195 ULL and no, 224 ArkST, and lost to no. 171 WKU in the finals. Not a lot of power there. (numbers refer to RPI rank). The Sun Belt is full of those kind of teams, with the exception of MTSU. If we can avoid their bracket, another run to the championship is possible. I am hoping the weekend in Hot Springs is not over on Friday. I will be there with optimism.

Yes, I realize there is no support for this. I am a crusade of one.

The worm was the logo for NTSU. Will this shirt have NTSU on it somewhere? I would go for that. By the way, I wish we had never changed our name. A lot of things I don't like about UNT, but I have ranted about that before. and probably will again. Would the Florida University of Commerce call themselves FUC?

Women's game also on ESPN3 at 5:00.

Agree on your thoughts about Spika. Maybe our best coach ever. Either he or Blakeley; I would put Johnny third. Spika went 18-8 when we were in one of the strongest conferences, the Missouri Valley. He left too soon.

Harry miller did a lot of damage to the NT program. He came in after some really good years under Dan Spika. He had no recruiting class and took the Wichita job after one year leaving us with no recruiting class again. We didn't recover until the Blakeley Years.

calvin" post=1360761135"]Just curious here but didn't your basketball IQ take a huge hit when you said a 2-3 zone was used to defend the 3 point shot? Syracuse runs a 2-3 zone every time dowm. They rank no. 8 in 3 point defense. Maybe it is someone else's IQ taking a hit. Boeheim sucks as a coach. He probably won't last, oh, I don't know, maybe another 30 years. That zone will never work. Teams are tearing him up shooting 28 percent on 3s in that zone. It's like he plays NT every night.

I think the tennis complex has enough seating. I attended a match about 3 years ago. All the fans (both of us) were able to find a seat at any court we chose. When we can't get 1000 out of 35,000 students to attend basketball games (this year and last year and every year since the 70s), I think expanding the seating for tennis is not a good allocation of capital. There is a reason only Rice has such a stadium. UNT students just don't give a rat's ass about UNT athletics. When I was in school, we filled the old pit for every game. It was like Duke-UNC is now. I think some who didn't care that much about basketball just came to yell and scream Those were the most exciting athletic events I have ever attended, nothing else has ever come close. The adrenalin rush was the best high I ever had. I would go back to the apt. and couldn't sleep that night. I had hoped that I might see that again at NT, but not in my lifetime. If ever I want to see that again, I will have to go to Duke-UNC or Oklahome- OK State, but never again at NT. And before I am attacked, I hold season tickets for football, men's and women's basketball, MGC member and attend every game.