Reggie bringing heat

[The Maroon Pug]

[Tweet]1156719028179734529[/tweet]

And State fans still argue/complain/nag with and at him. We have the most negitive fanbase ever.

This year attendance will be much better, but reseating the hump will improve everything.

 

[Puppychow]

Does Reggie stay after and sign autographs and take pictures with fans? Vic started this when he made his girls go into the stands after games and visit with fans. Small gesture, but it improved the fan experience and increased attendance. Winning helped too, but my point stands because more fans generally equals better play.

 

[DesotoCountyDawg]

It’s pretty simple. They win and most of the Hump is general admission. Let’s see how attendance does this year since they added more season tickets.

 

[MSUDC11]

I think the timing of everything that happened is hugely important with the men’s attendance issues. The reseating dilemma years ago played at least a small role, then Stansbury’s last two teams were very frustrating and frankly unlikable at times, then we were .500 or worse for five straight years after that. SEVEN YEARS where our men’s program had a really negative stigma attached to it. That means two graduating classes of MSU students came and went in four years and we sucked at basketball the entire time, and several other classes had at least most of their college careers filled with bad basketball. People stopped caring and honestly it was justifiable at the time and now it’s hard to get them back even now that we are winning. It also coincided with an era where live sports attendance is already less and less of a big deal than it used to be.

While all that was going on, the women stepped in and filled the void for a lot of people. And they haven’t done anything yet to make people lose interest (it will be interesting to see what happens whenever their next down year is plus now that the ticket situation has changed). I also don’t think the men’s program has had the same endearing personality that some of our other programs have had. Howland has done a good job but he’s not much of a rah rah guy that gets the fanbase fired up. Our star players in other sports have been big personalities or great stories (Dak, Mangum, Big T, etc.). I loved Q but his quiet and sometimes distant nature didn’t endear him to our fans like other stars on campus. It’s also been mentioned that our men don’t seem to make themselves as available to fans as many of our other teams, and unfortunately some of the only hints of personality we see from them is complaining about various things on Twitter.

The men deserved better support the last two years, I won’t deny that. But I also kind of understand why it hasn’t happened. There is a disconnect with our men’s program and our fans that we don’t have in other sports, and I think both sides have more that they need to do if this is to be fixed anytime soon.

 

[Seinfeld]

This sums up my thoughts pretty well. Using the word “endearing” to describe our women’s team is perfect because that’s exactly what they are. They work hard, they win, they stay 4 years, and they go out of their way to engage fans. They also have who in my opinion is the second best coach in women’s basketball, and he could easily be compared to a Coach K or Izzo. People just love him

Switch gears to the men’s team, and now we’re dealing with guys transferring out, unexplained suspensions, guys leaving early even though they have no shot at the NBA, and they still haven’t won an NCAA tourney game since 2008.

The team deserved better support last year, no doubt at all, but this isn’t exactly an apples to apples comparison. You said it well. One team is endearing, one is not

 

[Requiem For A Dawg]

Most of the State fans in his mentions right now are morons. They got zero support during the year and they were projected to be in the tourney all year. Really zero excuses as to why fans didn’t show up last year.

 

[mstateglfr]

Switch gears to the men’s team, and now we’re dealing with guys transferring out, unexplained suspensions, guys leaving early even though they have no shot at the NBA, and they still haven’t won an NCAA tourney game since 2008.

With the exception of not winning an NCAA Tournament game since '08, the rest of your comment applies to a huge number of major college programs that all have better attendance.

 

[DesotoCountyDawg]

Exactly. That’s men’s college basketball and the situation is not exclusive to State.

 

[Goat Holding Inc]

Students set the tone. I agree with Rosey on this.

Whatever it takes to get the students back is what we need to do. It may not be fixable, you can see their true colors during football games. But I would at least try to put the students down front like they used to be. Make fun of the Rowdies all you want, but that is an element of basketball that we are missing right now.

We will never improve our recruiting, in any sport, unless fans show up for games. I'm not saying we should or will (I personally don't care much about basketball). I'm just telling the truth.

 

[archdog]

Most of the State fans in his mentions right now are morons. They got zero support during the year and they were projected to be in the tourney all year. Really zero excuses as to why fans didn’t show up last year.

Yes, there definitely an excuse why the fans didn't show up. The seating in the hump is very, very, very ****** for men's games. Also note our starting times last year. Our starting times last year was inconvenient during the week and on the weekends somehow.

The biggest one for me is sitting in the upper bowl behind the goal and there being floor seats vacant for weeks on end. How about this, I bet we have a better atmosphere and more attendance if we make the entire hump except the first 4 rows general admission first come first served. For non-conference and midweek games, it should be first come anyway. Note if someone comes in with your ticket, you have to move. Otherwise, if you get there early enough and want to sit with your feet on the hardwood...... good for you.

 

[bulldogbaja]

Can we just pin this to the top for whenever this conversation comes up?

 

[T-TownDawgg]

There are many reasons MBK attendance is down, most of which have been discussed ad nauseum.

My gripe as a fan- don't 17ing call fans out on your insta-face-twit account. The fact that you feel you need to shame people into backing you instead of EARNING their support is, in my opinion, a big indicator of the level of disconnect between the fans and this team, which is a shame.

 

[Nunya.sixpack]

oh yay! another member of our men's basketball team taking to twitter to backhand or directly bash fans.

 

[patdog]

The simple fact is, the women have put a much better product on the floor the past 8 years. I can promise you that if the product is anywhere near equal, the men's team will always outdraw the women's team.

 

[Seinfeld]

In terms of a comparison to other men’s programs, I don’t disagree. Our guys deserved better last year

The issue I have is comparing it to attendance for our women’s games. Most other major college programs definitely do not have a women’s team like ours, and there are a lot of obvious reasons as to why Vic’s teams get the support that they do.

 

[patdog]

With the exception of not winning an NCAA Tournament game since '08,

That's a pretty freaking big exception.

 

[OliveBranchDAWG]

This whole situation is pretty sad. We had a good team last year that wasn’t supported. We can sit here and point fingers at whose fault it is but ultimately fans need to show up to games or the MBB program will start to feel a negative impact.

We’re lucky Howland is on the tail end of his career and wants to be here. He’s done a great job of pulling the program out of the dark ages and into the NCAAT. Time for us to show some support.

 

[THE Bruce Dickinson]

Does Reggie stay after and sign autographs and take pictures with fans? Vic started this when he made his girls go into the stands after games and visit with fans. Small gesture, but it improved the fan experience and increased attendance. Winning helped too, but my point stands because more fans generally equals better play.

Can't tell is this is a troll or not... If it is, it's very well done.

If not it's one of the dumbest things I have ever read on this board.

Both are impressive

 

[Goat Holding Inc]

The simple fact is, the women have put a much better product on the floor the past 8 years. I can promise you that if the product is anywhere near equal, the men's team will always outdraw the women's team.

Fanbases who wait for success, before they strongly support a program, generally are losing fanbases.

It's a chicken or egg situation. Most great programs initially get lucky and land a great coach, build a loyal fanbase, then keep building on it. Seems that happened with us and Shaffer, Alabama and Bear Bryant, etc.

Absent of the elite coach, you need to support the program, even in the bad years, to ever have a chance. Dropping attendance and donations to enact change only hurts.

 

[Goat Holding Inc]

There are many reasons MBK attendance is down, most of which have been discussed ad nauseum.

My gripe as a fan- don't 17ing call fans out on your insta-face-twit account. The fact that you feel you need to shame people into backing you instead of EARNING their support is, in my opinion, a big indicator of the level of disconnect between the fans and this team, which is a shame.

Players at winning programs don't have to earn support. They automatically get it, because the program matters to the fans. If the program is just for entertainment, again, you are probably looking at a losing program/fanbase.

Real Talk

 

[BlueRidgeMtns]

Dear Lord,

Please bring football back for the sake of SPS and all of its posters.

Amen

 

[patdog]

Every fanbase is fickle. You let Alabama football have a couple of 5-7 seasons and you're going to see a LOT of empty seats in that stadium.

 

[Goat Holding Inc]

Every fanbase is fickle. You let Alabama football have a couple of 5-7 seasons and you're going to see a LOT of empty seats in that stadium.

No you absolutely will not. Nor will you see it at Clemson. Or at Kentucky/Louisville basketball.

I was there in 2006 when Croom beat Shula. I was on the top row in the end zone. Stadium was full. Not packed, but full. You can split hairs about empty seats but the bottom line is they have a bunch of support. Much more than other fanbases. The overall trends will still have effect (like TV affecting the crowd) but you get the general picture here so don't waste our time arguing over trivial details.

You are misguided on this. It's a simple question. Do you want to be big time, or not? The blueprint is very defined. Executing it is the hard part. If you want to play tennis on Saturday (or whatever day in whatever sport) that's fine. But chances are the equivalent Clemson fan takes his happy *** to the game.

I may not be the best fan either but my head is not buried in the sand. I know the reality.

 

[Willow Grove Dawg]

The arrival of Dan Mullen & 10 consecutive bowl appearances for MSU Football contributed significantly also. Fans from Memphis, Jackson, Birmingham, & even further away were willing to make the trips to campus for men's basketball when football was wandering around in the wilderness for a decade. As fans became more invested in football & the men's basketball performance went to HELL, people just lost their level of commitment.

 

[Goat Holding Inc]

The arrival of Dan Mullen & 10 consecutive bowl appearances for MSU Football contributed significantly also. Fans from Memphis, Jackson, Birmingham, & even further away were willing to make the trips to campus for men's basketball when football was wandering around in the wilderness for a decade. As fans became more invested in football & the men's basketball performance went to HELL, people just lost their level of commitment.

There is something to this. As a smaller (as compared to the SEC) fanbase, is it really reasonable to expect us to have good support in all sports? I don't think so. Hard to pick, though. If I did, I'd pick football and baseball.

 

[Len2003]

With the exception of not winning an NCAA Tournament game since '08, the rest of your comment applies to a huge number of major college programs that all have better attendance.

One of the differences is that we have a women's program that is hugely successful.

 

[Len2003]

For me personally, I'm just not that interested in the men's basketball team, and I don't know if I ever will be again. I've moved on to other sports.

 

[philduckworth]

If men's basketball was general admission seating, we would have 7K+ there every conference game.

 

[StarkVegas Steve]

Does Reggie stay after and sign autographs and take pictures with fans? Vic started this when he made his girls go into the stands after games and visit with fans. Small gesture, but it improved the fan experience and increased attendance. Winning helped too, but my point stands because more fans generally equals better play.

Yes they actually do. They just do it a little bit later once they've done the postgame stuff with Howland. . I've seen them do it many times after games.

 

[Seinfeld]

There probably aren’t a ton of people that will readily admit it, but I think that there are others that feel the same way.

It’s easy to forget that during Stansbury’s heyday, men’s basketball was the one fairly constant glimmer of hope that we had as a fan base. Now, there’s a heck of a lot more to be excited about, and as has been pointed out many times, the SEC network has given us all many excuses to not attend a game

 

[StarkVegas Steve]

It probably wasn't the best way to go about it, but I like that it pisses our players off. Hell it pisses me off. And to the athletic dept. credit opening up basically all seats for GA to nonconference games this year will definitely help bring more casual fans to The Hump.

 

[archdog]

In terms of a comparison to other men’s programs, I don’t disagree. Our guys deserved better last year

The issue I have is comparing it to attendance for our women’s games. Most other major college programs definitely do not have a women’s team like ours, and there are a lot of obvious reasons as to why Vic’s teams get the support that they do.

Yeah, they deserved better last year. But if you remember, every time the hump was starting to gain some momentum and we were playing better. We **** the bed.

 

[archdog]

It probably wasn't the best way to go about it, but I like that it pisses our players off. Hell it pisses me off. And to the athletic dept. credit opening up basically all seats for GA to nonconference games this year will definitely help bring more casual fans to The Hump.

That is a good idea for non-conference. The only thing I would add....... they probably should do this for all non-conference and all midweek games. Save the ticketed seats for only SEC weekend games.

 

[archdog]

If men's basketball was general admission seating, we would have 7K+ there every conference game.

Oh yeah, and the majority of those would be sitting next to the court, not in the upper deck with 4k empty seats down low.

 

[Trojanbulldog19]

while the men's team was good last year, they are still far behind what the ladies have been doing last year. the men's teams didn't play in back to back ncaa championships and finish sweet 16 or better in last four years. The programs are in different place. I expect men's attendance to gain steam as long as the team continues to perform. Tickets are also a different beast for men's teams. you have season ticket holders that don't show up and don't resell tickets so it's always going to look less full. hopefully new initiatives will help with this.

 

[dog12]

[Tweet]1156719028179734529[/tweet]

And State fans still argue/complain/nag with and at him. We have the most negitive fanbase ever.

This year attendance will be much better, but reseating the hump will improve everything.

I realize that college BB is very diiferent than high school BB, but I played BB in high school and I never cared how many fans were watching.

I also played baseball and didn't care about attendance numbers.

What I did care about is this: winning the game.

In my opinion, at this time of year, a BB player should be focused only on training, so that he/she can maximize potential to help the team win.

Bitching about how many fans are in the stands is what losers do. (My opinion.)

 

[dawgstudent]

When the attendance can fit 200 people - attendance doesn't matter. When you have a 10K seat arena and only 3K come - it's disheartening as a player. I get where he's coming from. This isn't high school.

 

[Hanmudog]

Many people have had to choose between attending the men's or the women's games. Combines the teams play 40+ games a year at home which is near impossible to attend if you don't live near Starkville. I think one program takes from the other in a way. If the women ever come back down to Earth then I think more will start attending men's games.

Also, as someone already stated, our men's team has had an incredible knack for crapping the bed at home just as the attendance is starting to gain momentum.

I think it all changes this year and am buying season tickets for the first time since Stansbury left.

 

[dog12]

There are many reasons MBK attendance is down, most of which have been discussed ad nauseum.

My gripe as a fan- don't 17ing call fans out on your insta-face-twit account. The fact that you feel you need to shame people into backing you instead of EARNING their support is, in my opinion, a big indicator of the level of disconnect between the fans and this team, which is a shame.

This hits the nail on its head.

(My opinion.)

 

[VegasDawg13]

What I did care about is this: winning the game.

In my opinion, at this time of year, a BB player should be focused only on training, so that he/she can maximize potential to help the team win.

When Perry misses a game winning shot this year, let us all remember the 10 seconds he took to read and retweet this. Would one more rep in July have made the difference? Would that 3-pointer have made it just over the front of the rim if his leg's had just .000001% more stamina?

Who's to say? And because Perry isn't 100% focused on training for literally every waking minute, we'll never know.