High Point Game

[eggers76]

We only have one Mountaineer men's basketball team to support at this time and we should get behind them, especially this early in the season. Noone here (except cantamount lurkers) likes to see us get blown out at home by an in-state non-conference foe. That was ugly but we need to support the coaches and players we have now instead of wasting time thinking about what might have been or if we still had one of our former coaches (choose any one) at the helm. We have, over my 35 years of following the App men's teams for the most part been up and down over those 35 years with hardly any consistant pattern of wins or losses. We all want us to be what we think we can be. I don't know if coach Capel can take us there or not and I was not a fan of the hire (nor Buzz's second coming either for that matter) but shouldn't we at least give him a shot?


The biggest cluster in all of this is the very poor decisions (plural) made by the powers that be concerning the Men's program over the last several years. Some how, some way, we need to duplicate the excitement and support we have for our football program over to the Men's basketball program. Just like all our programs they deserve that much.

[asumike83]

We only have one Mountaineer men's basketball team to support at this time and we should get behind them, especially this early in the season. Noone here (except cantamount lurkers) likes to see us get blown out at home by an in-state non-conference foe. That was ugly but we need to support the coaches and players we have now instead of wasting time thinking about what might have been or if we still had one of our former coaches (choose any one) at the helm. We have, over my 35 years of following the App men's teams for the most part been up and down over those 35 years with hardly any consistant pattern of wins or losses. We all want us to be what we think we can be. I don't know if coach Capel can take us there or not and I was not a fan of the hire (nor Buzz's second coming either for that matter) but shouldn't we at least give him a shot?


The biggest cluster in all of this is the very poor decisions (plural) made by the powers that be concerning the Men's program over the last several years. Some how, some way, we need to duplicate the excitement and support we have for our football program over to the Men's basketball program. Just like all our programs they deserve that much.

Good post. For the most part, I agree.

This is our team, the kids deserve our support and wondering what might have been if we'd ponied up for Buzz, gotten someone else, etc. does us no good.

I also think it is too early in the season to throw in the towel. For what it's worth, High Point handled UNCG in their first game and the Spartans are the favorites in the SoCon North. They have to be given some credit for a strong performance. Now, if we have a repeat performance on Friday against Campbell who just lost at home to Northwestern State, then my concerns about the potential for a truly awful season could really start to creep in.

As far as Capel goes, I think that in his third season, it is fair to say he's been given a shot. Unless things really get out of hand, he should be allowed to coach this season out but we won 16 games (10-8 SoCon) his first year, 13 games his second year (7-11 SoCon) and if the downward trend continues this season, we need to make a change. I hope that some game action together and the eventual return of Mike Neal will help but I am beginning to lose confidence that Capel can get us there.

I know it was only one game but we didn't just look like a poorly coached team last night. We looked like a team that hadn't been coached at all. Going to the wrong end of the floor coming out of a timeout, half the team playing zone while the other half is playing man, etc. should not be happening at the Division I level. I can deal with offensive struggles but we have enough athletes to at least get after it defensively.

[eggers76]

I agree that in the third year we should show signs that we are moving forward. I hope that we will. My concern is that we have made use of so many transfers over the last couple of years that this may not be possible. Hopefully with this year's class and the one committed for next year we will see some stability and progress. Go Mountaineers.

[Appfrom05]

If Davidson, Butler, Gonzaga, VCU, Richmond, Charlotte etc. can have successful basketball programs, there is no reason why ASU can't. Its simple, we have to win. Not just every 4-5 years, we have to be successful year in and year out. Its insane that we have 17,000 students and only 1,000 people at a basketball game.

Many alum's simply can't make the trip to Boone for a weekday game, so attendance has to come from the students. We have to make the Holmes Center an environment that students want to be a part of. This means scheduling better opponents, putting a better product on the floor and getting a devoted group of students to make the environment at HCC special. If we can ever make the basketball games social events that can't be missed, we'll see much better attendance. If ASU could capture just 15% of the student population and get them to every game, the rest of the fanbase would then feed off of those students and help grow the program.

We could do this by employing a better marketing strategy for the games. Football has the advantage that basically every game is held on a Saturday. I'm no longer on campus so I can't say what is being done currently, but we need to make sure every student knows when the games are. Further, we need to make an attempt to get commonly known opponents on the schedule (maybe we are doing all we can, again I don't know). If we could promote the games as being special, it will get our student population more involved.

Also, bring back special events like Mountaineer Madness to open the season. Make every effort to be involved in things like the 24 hour college hoops marathon, bracketbusters etc.

I will conclude by saying, maybe all of these things are being done and if so kudos to the admin, hopefully they will work. If not, we need to employ any and all stratagies to improve our basketball program.

[cbarrier90]

If Davidson, Butler, Gonzaga, VCU, Richmond, Charlotte etc. can have successful basketball programs, there is no reason why ASU can't. Its simple, we have to win. Not just every 4-5 years, we have to be successful year in and year out. Its insane that we have 17,000 students and only 1,000 people at a basketball game.

Many alum's simply can't make the trip to Boone for a weekday game, so attendance has to come from the students. We have to make the Holmes Center an environment that students want to be a part of. This means scheduling better opponents, putting a better product on the floor and getting a devoted group of students to make the environment at HCC special. If we can ever make the basketball games social events that can't be missed, we'll see much better attendance. If ASU could capture just 15% of the student population and get them to every game, the rest of the fanbase would then feed off of those students and help grow the program.

We could do this by employing a better marketing strategy for the games. Football has the advantage that basically every game is held on a Saturday. I'm no longer on campus so I can't say what is being done currently, but we need to make sure every student knows when the games are. Further, we need to make an attempt to get commonly known opponents on the schedule (maybe we are doing all we can, again I don't know). If we could promote the games as being special, it will get our student population more involved.

Also, bring back special events like Mountaineer Madness to open the season. Make every effort to be involved in things like the 24 hour college hoops marathon, bracketbusters etc.

I will conclude by saying, maybe all of these things are being done and if so kudos to the admin, hopefully they will work. If not, we need to employ any and all stratagies to improve our basketball program.

Win. Everything else takes care of itself.

[JTApps1]

Win. Everything else takes care of itself.

In 2006-2007 we had the most wins in school history inclduing wins over teams from the ACC, SEC, CUSA, and Valley. Despite that our attendance was still terrible. Win's over SoCon and D2 teams at home will do nothing to get students excited. Leaving the SoCon and winning in a better conference is the only thing that will fill seats.

[Gonzo]

Win. Everything else takes care of itself.

In 2006-2007 we had the most wins in school history inclduing wins over teams from the ACC, SEC, CUSA, and Valley. Despite that our attendance was still terrible. Win's over SoCon and D2 teams at home will do nothing to get students excited. Leaving the SoCon and winning in a better conference is the only thing that will fill seats.

If leaving to SoCon at the drop of a hat was easy, we'd be long gone. We have to speculate with the assumption that we will still be in the SmallCon.

I think bringing big time OOC opponents to the HCC is ultimately the key, but if we're not going to be competitive with them, it won't make a bit of difference. Priority 1: Get the unqualified, apathetic Tar Hole out of here and get the team better. Once we have a decent squad, bring every big name to the HCC by any means necessary. Playing ACC and other bigger league teams on the road doesn't do anything but pad our loss column.

I doubt the actually marketing efforts themselves will be an issue. Kids follow GoASU on Twitter. They know when the games are. Once we start winning, there will be a buzz. If an ASU student goes to one game where the HCC is packed and we're beating a team they've watched in the NCAA tourney, they're hooked for life.

[Johnmoc1]

Clear this up for me- and I'm seriously not trying to troll. Just to understand.

Does CAA basketball really bring in more fans to Appy than SoCon basketball? Does Sun Belt basketball really bring in more fans to Appy than SoCon basketball? The Sun Belt is considered a better conference overall, but is the North Texas or Louisiana-Monroe game in mid-January going to move the needle anymore than Georgia Southern? What about Northeastern, Towson, or George Mason? Does George Mason bring more than Davidson? I don't know. Maybe it does.

Let's say that Appy goes 9-9 in the SoCon this year. Would going 7-11 in the CAA against Northeastern, Towson, and George Mason really bring more fans? Would going 9-9 in the Sun Belt against North Texas, Louisiana-Monroe, and Western Kentucky bring more fans?

So what would bring more fans? Winning. Doesn't matter if it is a better conference or not. Winning is what brings more fans.

Unless the plan is to move up to the ACC or SEC. If that's the plan, then absolutely- go right ahead. That would bring more fans.

[hapapp]

ASU has eclipsed the 6000 mark in attendance 22 times. Only twice in the Holmes Center. The opening of the facility versus UNC drew 8325. The largest crowd in HCC was in 2009 against Davidson when 8350 were in attendance. The largest crowd to witness an ASU home game was in 1990 when 8564 packed into Varsity Gym to witness a classic battle with ETSU.

ASU's best year for attendance was in 1977-78 with a 5111 average. In 2002-03 was the best average in the HCC when the average was 2887. Out of conference home games that year were North Greenville, Montreat, Campbell, and Brevard. Last year the Apps averaged 1761 at home.

ASU home games with more than 6000 in attendance by team:

Charlotte 5
Davidson 5
ETSU 4
Western 2
Marshall 2
Lenoir-Rhyne 2
UNC 1
Georgia Tech 1

Looking at the first 12 years in HCC and the last 12 in VG, the top HCC crowd would rank 9th in that list of 24 seasons. Not once has ASU averaged over 3000 in HCC but they eclipsed that mark 7 times in the last 12 years in VG. In the first 12 years in HCC ASU has averaged 2252 per game. Over the last 12 years of VG the average attendance was 3095.

Over the last 12 years in VG, ASU had 8 winning seasons, four losing seasons, and one .500 season. In the first 12 years in HCC ASU has 5 winning seasons and 7 losing seasons.

When ASU set a record for wins in 2006-07 it saw home attendance jump from 2043 the year before to 2530, a gain of almost 500 per game. However, when the team reached the 24 victory mark in 2009-10 it only averaged 2025.

It should be noted that the three most successful years in VG were from the 1988-89 season thru the 1990-91 season. Attendance generally began to drop off from those years with a slight rise at the end of the decade when Buzz Peterson's teams won 20 games three years in a row. BP's last year and the last year of play in VG, saw an average of 3570. The first year in HCC averaged 2572, a drop of 1000 per game.

[Roachout]

Looks like another banner yr. for ASU basketball. No mistery why nobody goes to game. Probably several goos 4A high schools that could beat us. PITIFUL!

[appgrouch]

Need to throw the first year of the HCC out for accounting reasons. Most of the good seats were bought by people that wanted to come to the Carolina game and had to get season tickets to get that ticket.

Going back to an earlier post, the one of the best student attendance season was orchestrated by a couple of assistant coaches and some of the seniors. Houston went around to most all the Greeks with Shawn Hall and Graham Bunn and got them excited about the season and they turned out to the HCC. The current "apathetic" coach won't even make time to come speak to the Yosef Club in the Convo before a game, much less get his rear out in the community and market the team.

[JTApps1]

Clear this up for me- and I'm seriously not trying to troll. Just to understand.

Does CAA basketball really bring in more fans to Appy than SoCon basketball? Does Sun Belt basketball really bring in more fans to Appy than SoCon basketball? The Sun Belt is considered a better conference overall, but is the North Texas or Louisiana-Monroe game in mid-January going to move the needle anymore than Georgia Southern? What about Northeastern, Towson, or George Mason? Does George Mason bring more than Davidson? I don't know. Maybe it does.

Let's say that Appy goes 9-9 in the SoCon this year. Would going 7-11 in the CAA against Northeastern, Towson, and George Mason really bring more fans? Would going 9-9 in the Sun Belt against North Texas, Louisiana-Monroe, and Western Kentucky bring more fans?

So what would bring more fans? Winning. Doesn't matter if it is a better conference or not. Winning is what brings more fans.

Unless the plan is to move up to the ACC or SEC. If that's the plan, then absolutely- go right ahead. That would bring more fans.

I was thinking more along the lines of CUSA (playing Charlotte, ECU, and Marshall would be a huge upgrade), but yes I think CAA would help as well. A move to the Sun Belt would be more about Football than Basketball so I doubt we would see much difference. One thing that would help is by being in a better league we would have better TV deals which means we could offer more $$$ to get decent OOC teams to come in. Plus our RPI would be much better which always make scheduling easier. Of course winning is the main thing, but we have seen that winning in the SoCon doesn't bring out fans the way it once did. The only two SoCon schools with decent attendance numbers are Davidson and CofC which are basketball schools. When we had big crowds in the 70's and 80's the SoCon was much much better than today. There are too many D1 teams these days and the talent pool is getting spread thin.

[JTApps1]

I just hope the football team makes a long run in the playoffs so we can have something exciting to talk about. If we have an early exit from the playoffs I'll be 1) mad about losing and 2) sick of the thought of waiting until late February when baseball starts to have an ASU team to get excited about.

[appgrouch]

I just hope the football team makes a long run in the playoffs so we can have something exciting to talk about. If we have an early exit from the playoffs I'll be 1) mad about losing and 2) sick of the thought of waiting until late February when baseball starts to have an ASU team to get excited about.

Indoor Track has a good shot of a double sweep.

[JMappfan5]

I just hope the football team makes a long run in the playoffs so we can have something exciting to talk about. If we have an early exit from the playoffs I'll be 1) mad about losing and 2) sick of the thought of waiting until late February when baseball starts to have an ASU team to get excited about.

We can always pull for Darcie's women!!! or a very young, but promising Wrestling team.