Big Opportunity for Basketball.....

[Scotch]

with the announcement of CU to the PAC 12 in '11. With a $6.8 million hole to fill, and a buyout of Hawkins at the end of the season, the AD and University will probably be putting on an aggressive publicity/fundraising campaign to fill it. Not sure how much excitement the football program will be able to generate given the current situation(especially after the CAL game with the west coasters). Not writing off the football season yet, just saying the program isn't in optimal condition right now.

There is always a lot of question marks when a new coach comes in, but Boyle has a good corp group of players to work with this season. Higgins, Burks, Relphorde, etc. This team could turn some heads, and if they have a special year and make the tournament it would give Bohn and the AD some positive press they need badly right now.

In addition to making the tournament, beating KU in Boulder this season would be HUUUUUUGE!. Can't understate that. It would get national attention, and we still have 5 home games after the Hawks leave town. Kansas State and Texas are two of them. Hopefully we fill up the Foam Dome for the conference season and get some serious momentum for this program and AD.

 

[dyemeduke]

I agree. The Big 12 had an amazing year last year, but overall, the Pac 10 is the better bball conference. If we still had Bz, I'd expect nothing less than being a solid bubble team this year. I really hope Boyle knows how to coach and isn't just riding on Turgeon's coattails - I never watched UNC play, and I would have liked better evidence than his short success there. At this point, I don't trust Bohn's ability to hire coaches either. I'm still very hopeful for our bball program though.

 

[BehindEnemyLines]

It would be nice to see a real push now by the AD to sell the KU game tics here locally. Fill the foam dome with black-n-gold clad folks instead of those snooty gheyhawk fans.

 

[Buffnik]

We need to do all we can as fans to support the hoops team. Coors gets loud and hot when we draw a good crowd. We can have a great home court advantage there.

Here are the 2009 attendance figures that the NCAA put out:

Big 12 Home Attendance Avg.
1. Kansas (16,350)
2. Texas (13,316)
3. Iowa State (11,965)
4. Oklahoma (11,490)
5. Nebraska (10,286)
6. Oklahoma State (10,031)
7. Missouri (9.805)
8. Texas Tech (9.493)
9. Texas A&M (9,438)
10. Kansas State (8,940)
11. Baylor (7,066)
12. Colorado (4,637)

Pac-10 + Utah Home Attendance Avg.
1. Arizona (13,681)
2. Utah (9,913)
3. UCLA (9,843)
4. Arizona State (9,354)
5. Washington (8,875)
6. California (8.624)
7. Washington State (8,018)
8. Oregon (7,972)
9. Stanford (6,724)
10. USC (5,618)
11. Oregon State (5,223)

http://web1.ncaa.org/web_files/stats/m_basketball_RB/Reports/2009mbbattend.pdf

Our capacity at Coors is 11,064 and we have packed almost 300 above capacity in there to hit our single game record. It's going to be a slow build to get where we want to be, but I'd love to see us crack the 5,000 average this season. Between it being the last year in the Big 12 and what should be a very good team, I believe that's very achievable.

 

[Ruckus]

Yikes, that's an embarrassingly low number. I think 5,000 is a very realistic and attainable goal. Our basketball attendance is obviously a very volatile number depending on how the team is doing and more noticeably who we are playing. Since we can't help the latter during conference play, we need to continually field a better team that wins more.

I think this is an opportunistic year to begin that since we have some very highly touted players and some exciting newcomers. The challenge will be keeping the Higgins and Burks fans interested next year when both are gone. We will need some of the younger players to really step up this year and show that we are around to stay. It can happen. I'm pumped for this season.

 

[CarolinaBuff]

Pac-10 + Utah Home Attendance Avg.
1. Arizona (13,681)
2. Utah (9,913)
3. UCLA (9,843)
4. Arizona State (9,354)
5. Washington (8,875)
6. California (8.624)
7. Washington State (8,018)
8. Oregon (7,972)
9. Stanford (6,724)
10. USC (5,618)
11. Oregon State (5,223)

http://web1.ncaa.org/web_files/stats/m_basketball_RB/Reports/2009mbbattend.pdf

Our capacity at Coors is 11,064 and we have packed almost 300 above capacity in there to hit our single game record. It's going to be a slow build to get where we want to be, but I'd love to see us crack the 5,000 average this season. Between it being the last year in the Big 12 and what should be a very good team, I believe that's very achievable.

Utah ranks 2nd in attendance among Pac-10 schools, that's pretty impressive. Or maybe that's just an indication of mediocre support among the current Pac schools. :huh:

 

[SuperiorBuff]

It would be nice to see a real push now by the AD to sell the KU game tics here locally. Fill the foam dome with black-n-gold clad folks instead of those snooty gheyhawk fans.

KU should be sold with nothing less than a 4 game package. If the wheat wavers want to come they can help fund.

 

[CarolinaBuff]

KU should be sold with nothing less than a 4 game package. If the wheat wavers want to come they can help fund.

:yeahthat:

And it will piss off all the chickenhawk fans that want to go to the game in Boulder. :lol:

 

[absinthe]

Those Pac-10 numbers seem really low, Pauley seats almost 12,500 in mens configuration and it is was a very tough ticket when I lived in LA, nothing to indicate an average of 3,000 empty seats in a season.

 

[absinthe]

Huh after some digging ti seems totally true, last years numbers were even worse: http://blog.oregonlive.com/pac10/2010/01/pac-10_basketball_conference_a.html


Attendance rank by average, all games

1. Arizona, 13,240

2. Washington, 9,105

3. California, 8,272

4. UCLA, 7,842

5. Arizona State, 7,069

6. Washington State, 6,915

7. Oregon, 6,727

8. Stanford, 6,430

9. Oregon State, 5,298

10. USC, 3,883

Attendance by rank by average, conference only

1. Arizona, 12,828

2. California, 10,231

3. Washington, 9,865

4. UCLA, 9,266

5. Oregon, 7,650

6. Oregon State, 7,109

7. Arizona State, 7,058

8. Washington State, 7,050

9. Stanford, 6,733

10. USC, 5,370

 

[Mick Ronson]

KU should be sold with nothing less than a 4 game package. If the wheat wavers want to come they can help fund.

agree. and, FWIW, from reading UT and OU boards they have RRS tix tied to basketball tickets as well. so, you watch 4/5 games at the Erwin Center or Noble Center and there are empty seats everywhere. now, they get their packed houses for rivalry games and when the big boys come to town....but when Texas Tech is in town....you are looking at more like 7000 people than 11000. their numbers are a bit inflated, even more than usual with schools.

 

[BinaryBuff]

I have no problem with bundling the KU game with 3-4 other games. Good business and helps to keep the KU fans out (or at least make them fund our program).

 

[BinaryBuff]

but back on topic, this is a huge year for CU basketball, I'm expecting some big things this year! And a bunch of wins would help to pack the house, which can only help our AD to fund that 6.8 mil shortfall

 

[Mick Ronson]

i think reasonable expectations/goals are .500 or better in conference and if not the good side of the bubble....at least on some lists and an NIT home game. i'd love to say, we are a tournament team....but, lot of factors at play and the rest of the conference is as mysterious as i can remember. additionally, we haven't shown we can win games against quality teams when we need to board effectively (esp in the last 5 minutes). can't have games where the other team is in the double-bonus for the last 7 minutes of the game either....too often an occurrence that is related to inability to board. i think Harris-Tunks will show improvement and maybe the kid from Wisconsin gives us some minutes, but sure be nice to have a 6' 9" widebody to clean the glass and give us 5 legit in the paint fouls.

but, i'm optimistic. wish we had a spicier OOC to see and test our mettle earlier....be a long wait until January.

 

[Scotch]

i think reasonable expectations/goals are .500 or better in conference and if not the good side of the bubble....at least on some lists and an NIT home game. i'd love to say, we are a tournament team....but, lot of factors at play and the rest of the conference is as mysterious as i can remember. additionally, we haven't shown we can win games against quality teams when we need to board effectively (esp in the last 5 minutes). can't have games where the other team is in the double-bonus for the last 7 minutes of the game either....too often an occurrence that is related to inability to board. i think Harris-Tunks will show improvement and maybe the kid from Wisconsin gives us some minutes, but sure be nice to have a 6' 9" widebody to clean the glass and give us 5 legit in the paint fouls.

but, i'm optimistic. wish we had a spicier OOC to see and test our mettle earlier....be a long wait until January.

I'm hoping Dufault can find his mean streak down low. He didn't seem to know what his role was under Bzz, and to tell the truth I don't think Bzz did either. Both him and Harris Tunks have to establish themselves down low, and just get nasty on the boards. Last season Higgins and Relphorde started to pick up some of the rebound slack, but weren't getting much help. Anyone who has played a pickup game knows that for the most part rebounding is just wanting it more than the other guy.

The few times I saw UNC play last season they played tough D, and crashed the boards hard as a team. It wasn't an individual thing. My UNC buddies all said if you didn't do this you didn't play for Boyle. Higgins, Burks, and Relphorde should all have more freedom to create on their own as well.

 

[Scotch]

:bump: Well, so far they're doing it!


The time is now! The Buffs are playing their best basketball since '03 or even '97. Need to fill up the Foam Dome from here on out and blow the roof off!!!!

GO BUFFS!!!!!!

:rock::rock::rock::rock: