2023-24 PSU MBB Thread
- Thread starter Tom McAndrew
- Start date
Coach Rhoades has done a good job. I thought their ceiling was 15 wins at most, and I doubted that was achievable. He walked into a bad situation and has been able to have a competitive team.
If all games were played at Rec Hall there would eventually be a hailstorm of complaints from people that couldn't get tickets. Tickets for last night's game were only available to students and season ticket holders. Any empty seats would have been filled if they were available to those that wanted to get in.
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I’m guessing if it wasn’t a one time event, the tickets would have been available for purchase to more than those two groups. When’s the last time bball sold out the BJC?
Do I like the BJC? No. Do I wish we could have done a Gallagher-Iba renovation of Rec Hall? Yes, even though it was physically impossible. Having a game each year there is a good idea, but calling to move all games there or to Pegula is one of the most short sighted ideas ever.
According to Penn State, the current capacity for Rec Hall is 6,502. Pegula is even less. Average home attendance through 15 games this year (which includes the games at the Palestra and Rec Hall) is 8,053. To turn away fans that are willing to make the trek for weekend games is idiotic. I remember many loud and lively games in RecHall. I also remember a lot of pin drop games there as well. The BJC can be loud, it's a matter of getting a program that is consistently good enough to get it to 10-12,000 in attendance for every game. Going back to a capacity of 6,500 makes no sense.
According to Penn State, the current capacity for Rec Hall is 6,502. Pegula is even less. Average home attendance through 15 games this year (which includes the games at the Palestra and Rec Hall) is 8,053. To turn away fans that are willing to make the trek for weekend games is idiotic. I remember many loud and lively games in RecHall. I also remember a lot of pin drop games there as well. The BJC can be loud, it's a matter of getting a program that is consistently good enough to get it to 10-12,000 in attendance for every game. Going back to a capacity of 6,500 makes no sense.
But what is the average home attendance for midweek games at BJC? Moving those to Rec Hall may be prudent.
Analysis I posted elsewhere...
Looking at our last two NCAA caliber teams, here are the numbers down the stretch...
Saturday 1/11/20 - ranked 20th hosting Wisconsin - 10,139
Saturday 1/18/20 - Ohio St (Thon Game) - 14,785
Wednesday 1/29/20 - ranked 24th hosting Indiana - 7,656
Saturday 2/8/20 - ranked 22 hosting Minnesota - 15,261 (bravo)
Saturday 2/15/20 - ranked 13th hosting Northwestern - 14,402
Tuesday 2/18/20 - ranked 9th hosting Illinois - 9,506 (really disappointing)
Wednesday 2/26/20 - ranked 16th hosting Rutgers - 8,345
Tuesday 3/3/20 - ranked 20th hosting 16th Michigan St - 13,437
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Wednesday 1/11/23 - Indiana - 8,502
Saturday 1/21/23 - Nebraska - 11,297
Sunday 1/29/23 (Thon Game) - Michigan - 12,047
Wednesday 2/8/23 - Wisconsin - 7,213
Tuesday 2/14/23 - Illinois - 7,297
Sunday 2/26/23 - Rutgers - 12,082
Sunday 3/5/23 - hosting 21st Maryland - 10,672 (really disappointing)
There isn't another team in the conference outside of Northwestern that has this many empty seats in their building as they're pushing for an NCAA bid. There are many factors here (BJC too big, fanbase too spread out for weeknight games, lack of fans that make attending basketball games a priority, etc)...but they are factors that no one other than Northwestern faces (and it's that much tougher to recruit bringing high school kids into a morgue when our peers have packed houses night in and night out, most even in their down years).
Without even looking at the attendance numbers, moving all weeknight games would be a logistical disaster.
PSU playing solid basketball going for season sweep of Hoosiers.....and no one commenting on the game. My how times change.......
Can't say enough about what these players and this staff have done to bring this team together over the past year. Great win!
Kids had basketball and gymnastics this afternoon so I finally got to finish watching the game. Team is really starting to understand their roles offensively. Still look like a sieve on interior defense though.
I do not see them winning the Big Ten tournament but I could definitely see them getting a couple wins now. It’s a shame that they have three or four ugly losses from December on their résumé.
I do not see them winning the Big Ten tournament but I could definitely see them getting a couple wins now. It’s a shame that they have three or four ugly losses from December on their résumé.
Is that tickets sold or actual attendance? Sometimes they are much different. The BJC can seat 16,000. Even if that number is attendance, there are still 8,000 empty seats on average. Not much of a home court advantage.
Tickets sold. Do you know what tickets sold also means? Revenue. Want to know a sure fire way weaken any sports program? Reduce revenue and possibly increase costs by moving every other home game to rec hall.
I get it. It’s just not a good look and adds to the perception that PSU basketball is irrelevant and nobody shows up, even if they are doing well. That makes retaining a coach and recruiting even harder than it already is. Which environment do you think the coach and players (and recruits) would prefer? A smaller, full, louder environment or a dungeonous, 1/2 full, echoing environment?
At the time, I thought PSU should have hired Knight. He was supposedly friends with Paterno and I thought it was PSU’s best shot at being relevant in basketball. The hire would have probably been controversial though as it turned out Knight wasn’t that nice of a guy.
The BJC is obviously a tremendous home advantage for the Lions. None of the visiting teams ever play in any other half-full echoing arenas HAHA! 
Do you have any idea what level of logistical hell that would be?
