Men are #34 in the AP Poll

[615dawg]

First time receiving votes since 2012.

 

[BulldogBlitz]

People are still not going to show...other than to see their favorite team....Kentucky.

 

[ababyatemydingo]

People are still not going to show...other than to see their favorite team....Kentucky.

Historically, people don't get interested in basketball, even in seasons where the team is awesome, until conference play starts. If the team keeps improving, gets ranked, and attendance still sucks, then I'll be concerned. Really no reason to bash attendance right now, though. Not even the blue bloods have great attendance this time of year. Apathy in the fan base is a hard thing to overcome, though. And ours certainly has become apathetic over the last 7 or 8 years.

 

[Cow College]

It just looks terrible on TV. I watched the UT/GT game last night and they first 7-8 rows were students all the way around the court which made the arena look good on tv. However when I was at school the place would still be empty but not as empty as it is now. A lot of apathy in the program right now.

 

[bulldogbaja]

Keep performing like this and the hump will be packed. There is already more excitement around mbb than for several years.
Nov and Dec are just not basketball season yet.

 

[esplanade91]

This is a make or break year for attendance. I've disagreed with students/fans not going to games the last few years, but I understood why no one did. But it's been a concern of mine for a while that seniors or even 5th year seniors now haven't been enrolled at State while it was fashionable to attend games. The culture just hasn't been there since 2011/2012 and it's been a hard fight to try to get them back, with Howland directly lobbying in person to fraternities and sororities not even working out that great.

It's a shame, because mid-week games were a highlight of my time there.

To me, this says a lot more about Stricklin... letting State basketball get to this point, than taking Mullen to Florida ever will.

 

[maroonmania]

Bottom line is we have the same attendance issue for non-conference basketball that we have for 11:00 non-conference football games. And the issue is that we have many more fans that live in the 100-250 mile radius away from campus than we have that live inside a 50 mile radius of campus. People that are having to spend hours traveling just to be at the game always have to factor the importance of the game when deciding whether or not to go. I would be willing to bet that our average miles traveled per fan at any game is significantly higher than anyone else in the SEC. Just a negative we face because the campus is not located near any significant population center.