Saturday 12/14 in the MVC (5 games)

[Wufan]

Some interesting stat lines in the Drake game:

Richard Carter with 21 points. yawn

Senior Seth VanDeest played 20 minutes, scored 1 point and grabbed 4 boards.

Freshman Jacob E Jensen played 25 minutes, scored 4 and grabbed 13 boards.

Transfer guard Jordan Daniels played his first game for the Bulldogs. He came off the bench and played 37 minutes. IN that time he was 6-10 from the field, 6-7 from 2, 0-0 from 3. Scored 18 and had 4 assists. As a team (without Ricks) Drake had 5 assists.

[Wufan]

UE gothomed schooled yesterday by a team who has a RPI @ 150.

As usual sixth ace, I have no idea what that means.

Did you take an extra turn at communion this morning?

[uniftw]

Junior 30 minutes 1-8 fg. As long as a slow footed player with no business starting at any D1. Sees that many minutes the results won't be that good. I thought the Ford Center plus multi million $ practice facility us Marty was going to make UE a major player? Just got beat at home by a HBC with a high school budget and a small gym that serves for practice and games.
Same story every year. I'm getting tired of it. Marty isn't taking the team anywhere except to dwindling dc crowds and a fifth tier tourney.

Evansville averages 44% of its basketball arena capacity.

Cold hard truth time: You don't support the program as a fan base, you don't deserve to win.

It's easy to blame the coach, since he's the figurehead for the team. But there's a lot more to a team than just the coach. And Evansville fans aren't supporting the program enough to expect anything more than they're getting.

As a Florida State grad, I don't expect anything better than I get out of our basketball program. My alma mater does not support our basketball program, and the bits of success we've had in recent years are despite the pathetic institutional and fan support it gets. But at least FSU fills up 63% of a 12k seat arena.

Fan support needs to come before success, not after.

Putting more butts in the seats with the "talent" that UE has isn't going to win them more games....

[UNIFanSince1983]

At this point in time, the Aces are a last place team. Shot 34% from the field, 1-12 from 3 point land, out rebounded 41-29. Jackson State is better than your average SWAC team, but not that good. Aces looking ahead to Butler. Yea, you bet.

Wait a 3-7 Jackson State team is better than your average SWAC team? Either way the even the top team in the SWAC should not beat even the worst MVC team at the MVC teams home arena. Hopefully you can beat Grambling at home on the 28th...

[pafan]

Evansville averages 44% of its basketball arena capacity.

Cold hard truth time: You don't support the program as a fan base, you don't deserve to win.

It's easy to blame the coach, since he's the figurehead for the team. But there's a lot more to a team than just the coach. And Evansville fans aren't supporting the program enough to expect anything more than they're getting.

Can you please call up the UE athletics office and explain this? Please tell Marty to stop telling Evansville fans they're "the best fans in the country," because, well, we aren't. At least we don't deserve to have our collectivee ego inflated. Please tell our AD to spend even a little money on marketing, because you can't grow attendance without a real, dedicated marketing effort. To quote one of the posters at the UE site, "Four billboards don't count as marketing!"

[uniftw]

34-57

No, that isn't someone's FG numbers. That's Jackson Stats record the last 3 seasons

19-42 if you take the last two seasons.

Yeah...not really an above average SWAC team - though the SWAC is craptastic

[rlh04d]

Putting more butts in the seats with the "talent" that UE has isn't going to win them more games....

Not his year, no. But butts in the seat are what generates money. Money pays for facility upgrades, coaching salaries, etc.

I'm sure any claim that fan apathy results in poor long term performance will be unpopular here, since most MVC programs have poor attendance. But there is a reason WSU is far outpacing every program in the Valley in most factors that matter. They won't always have the best team year to year, but WSU will be by far the most valuable and strongest program long term. And it's because of fan support.

A couple good players or a great coaching hire can give you a few years of success. Butts in the seat are the only chance of long term success, though. Especially in this conference where you can't artificially create a program using TV revenue.

Wichita State is the only program in this conference that can afford to keep a coach that is good enough to be wanted in bigger conferences. When you can only hire coaches that aren't good enough to "move up," how much can you really expect from them? And even among MVC programs, Evansville is laughable -- Marty Simmons still has the smallest contract among MVC coaches, right? Last I saw Simmons was making $180k a year -- that's a joke in coaching salaries. Most decent assistant coaches make more than that. So Evansville fills less than half their arena and pays their HC peanuts, but yet it's the coach's fault that they aren't winning? Success is all relative. When you have the smallest HC salary in the conference, and the second smallest average home attendance (before Loyola joined), and you aren't finishing on Thursday night every year -- that's success. Simmons is succeeding beyond the resources and support he's getting.

Trying to look at problems in a short term context and ignoring the long term context is a fools errand. You'll just repeat mistakes.

[Ricardo del Rio]

If the Aces beat the Shockers twice this season, I am heading straight to the 6th floor at Wesley Hospital.

(Psych ward)

[rlh04d]

Can you please call up the UE athletics office and explain this? Please tell Marty to stop telling Evansville fans they're "the best fans in the country," because, well, we aren't. At least we don't deserve to have our collectivee ego inflated. Please tell our AD to spend even a little money on marketing, because you can't grow attendance without a real, dedicated marketing effort. To quote one of the posters at the UE site, "Four billboards don't count as marketing!"

Just about every coach tells their fanbase that they're "the best fans in the country."

I have this same fight with FSU fans that throw temper tantrums over our lack of success. We suck as a fanbase and we don't deserve success. And I think a lot of Valley programs need to recognize that about themselves as well. There's a disconnect between fan support and success -- you're not going to be able to sell out the arena for your next game and immediately start winning. But if you suddenly start selling out your arena for the next five years, you're going to be in pretty good shape that sixth year. But until then, you're going to have to be happy with mediocrity.

Like I said, Marty Simmons keeping Evansville out of Thursday night appearances is a huge success given what he has to work with. The main thing going for them there is that so few Valley fanbases are supporting their programs.

[sixth ace]

UE gothomed schooled yesterday by a team who has a RPI @ 150.

As usual sixth ace, I have no idea what that means.

Did you take an extra turn at communion this morning?

Let me help you out wufan. First off we use grape juice for communion at my church.
Had you bother to look at the match up jackson state has a senior laden and as of Saturday
They had a rpi at 146. We played at the Ford Center and our freshman/soph
Team was taught a lesson. Thus we got home schooled

As usual you didnt do your homework. I'm sure that 4 grade took a long 3 years
For you to get thru it

Sorry to be delayed getting back to you. I am slammed at work this time of year