Giacoletti

[Black]

The Knapp Center is the greatest auditorium in college basketball ... ya dumbarches! Anything related to Drake and the City of Des Moines is by far more superior to any and all of mankind.

Who do I sound like?

Yourself?

[PantherSigEp]

So.....will UNI fans will be less than 55% of the crowd in the Knapp Center this year for the first time in years?

Unless the panthers season nose dives it will likely be about half purple.

[rlh04d]

Play exciting basketball, get butts in the seats, start selling out games, win a few conference championships (or a lot) and I think money will not be an issue.

But hey, that's just my opinion.

Of course money is an issue. Money is an issue for WSU, and we sell out every game while charging a ton for tickets, with a strong booster base. Even given that, I'd assume we're incapable of going beyond $2.5 million, and that would be stretching things to the limit without TV money. Drake is operating under far greater financial restraints than WSU.

[shockem]

I'm not sure how the Keno thing went down, but I don't blame Drake for not stepping up to retain him. He had the one fluke season and was gone, it's difficult to judge if he could have maintained that momentum. With Gregg Marshall, his program was a gradual evolution that allowed WSU to gradually build up his salary as his success grew. I think it makes it a little easier to evaluate and maintain a coach that way. Hopefully Drake can duplicate the success over a 5-6 year period and eventually get him a salary in the $1 million + range if he has proven that he deserves it.

[DUBulldog]

I'm not sure how the Keno thing went down, but I don't blame Drake for not stepping up to retain him. He had the one fluke season and was gone, it's difficult to judge if he could have maintained that momentum. With Gregg Marshall, his program was a gradual evolution that allowed WSU to gradually build up his salary as his success grew. I think it makes it a little easier to evaluate and maintain a coach that way. Hopefully Drake can duplicate the success over a 5-6 year period and eventually get him a salary in the $1 million + range if he has proven that he deserves it.

I was told by somebody "in the know" that Drake could have made a couple of phone calls and come up with the same money that Providence offered, but chose not to do so. I have no way of verifying if this is true or not. I don't think Keno could have maintained his success at Drake, as his one recruiting class was horrible. Coming off Drake's first winning season in 20 years in 2006-07 and going 28-5 in 2007-08, he put together this recruiting class

Sean Jones: 7 footer who stayed at Drake for 2 years, and literally never played a minute. Transferred across town to Grandview, an NAIA D2 school, and didn't start there.

Jared Vlastuin: Never played college basketball...ran track at South Dakota State

Alex Weldon: Played D2 ball at Minnesota state for one year, where he was told he didn't fit into their future plans. Finished his career at D3 Bethany Lutheran

Craig Stanley: juco point guard, who had been offered a walk-on position at Drake two years earlier. The only player in this class who played a minute of D1 basketball.

Nothing against Craig Stanley, but when you fill an open scholarship in the spring of a season in which you went 28-5 with a guy you wanted to walk-on two years earlier, that shows some recruiting deficiencies.

I think that Keno's career since Drake has shown that he wasn't quite ready for the prime time.

[uniftw]

So.....will UNI fans will be less than 55% of the crowd in the Knapp Center this year for the first time in years?

Unless the panthers season nose dives it will likely be about half purple.

I figured/knew that. I was fishing

The games against Creighton were likely 60% Creighton fans - but they wore blue as well so you couldn't tell.
The games against UNI are almost always at least 55% UNI - a couple times it's been closer to 70% UNI.

Maybe if the Drake fans believe in the coach it can get to a 50/50 split in their own building

[Drake2010]

So.....will UNI fans will be less than 55% of the crowd in the Knapp Center this year for the first time in years?

Unless the panthers season nose dives it will likely be about half purple.

I figured/knew that. I was fishing

The games against Creighton were likely 60% Creighton fans - but they wore blue as well so you couldn't tell.
The games against UNI are almost always at least 55% UNI - a couple times it's been closer to 70% UNI.

Maybe if the Drake fans believe in the coach it can get to a 50/50 split in their own building

Years of futility and a poor gym will do that to you. Sustained winning is the only thing that will make those percentages less embarrassing.

[PantherSigEp]

Unless the panthers season nose dives it will likely be about half purple.

I figured/knew that. I was fishing

The games against Creighton were likely 60% Creighton fans - but they wore blue as well so you couldn't tell.
The games against UNI are almost always at least 55% UNI - a couple times it's been closer to 70% UNI.

Maybe if the Drake fans believe in the coach it can get to a 50/50 split in their own building

Years of futility and a poor gym will do that to you. Sustained winning is the only thing that will make those percentages less embarrassing.

In Drake's defense UNI has placed a large amount of its graduates in the Des Moines metro area ever since it became one of the country's top entrepreneurial and financial centers. It really isn't that surprising that a lot of these grads show up for the Drake game and to a lesser extent the Big 4 classic since it's more convenient than the trip up to Cedar Falls. 2 hrs isn't awful but 15 minutes is much better.

[uniftw]

In Drake's defense UNI has placed a large amount of its graduates in the Des Moines metro area ever since it became one of the country's top entrepreneurial and financial centers. It really isn't that surprising that a lot of these grads show up for the Drake game and to a lesser extent the Big 4 classic since it's more convenient than the trip up to Cedar Falls. 2 hrs isn't awful but 15 minutes is much better.

And Drake has less alumns and fans living in the city the school is located in?

[UNIFanSince1983]

In Drake's defense UNI has placed a large amount of its graduates in the Des Moines metro area ever since it became one of the country's top entrepreneurial and financial centers. It really isn't that surprising that a lot of these grads show up for the Drake game and to a lesser extent the Big 4 classic since it's more convenient than the trip up to Cedar Falls. 2 hrs isn't awful but 15 minutes is much better.

And Drake has less alumns and fans living in the city the school is located in?

Actually yes I think that is probably true. Drake has ~3000 undergrads. UNI has ~12000. By sheer numbers we would have more graduates. I feel like being a private institution they get a lot of out of state kids as well. This means these kids get their education and the move back out of state.

Although this is just my hypothesis, and I could be completely wrong. I would assume there would be more UNI grads in Des Moines than Drake grads. Plus a 2hr drive for UNI fans from Cedar Falls where we get to visit the great city of Des Moines. It always gets me even though I hate that crap gym.