I remember in my first couple of years at State (last 3 of Stans' tenure) the announcers and everyone associated with the department get the fans on their feet with ease. They gave an iPad away at every game and the halftime show was always spectacular.
1. Nevermind we suck, we don't have any good players... If we had just one superstar I think people would show up.
2. I realize it's hard to get sponsors to give away free **** when no one goes to games. Vicious cycle.
3. The fans who were there for the end of the good times ('10 UK game was the highlight of my time at State) are all gone. This team is all the freshmen and sophomores know.
Get one guy who can at least play in Europe and things will fix themselves. We might give up a ton of points but we're fun to watch on D... just need some shooters.
There was one play that stuck out to me tonight and it was by UF and I can't even remember which player it was. The guy came down on the wing, drove down inside, hit a wall 5' from the basket, and in the most flawless motion he turned around and hit a fade-away with complete ease off his right foot. All I could think about was how we don't have a single guy on our bench who could hit that once or make it look as pretty in 100 tries. WE'VE GOT TO GET SOME TALENT. We're going to have a ****** atmosphere until we do.
Agreed. The atmosphere now is bad. The student section is full but not the rest. We don't have the talent to make the game fun to watch. This isn't about past coach v. this coach. It is about players. I went to 2 of our recent games that we WON, and I left almost bored. First games in 2 years attended even though I still bought 4 lower level tickets to support the program. (Use to have calls each week asking me for tickets - NO calls now.) Tonight's game - I cut it off in the middle as it was boring; had other things I needed to do. We don't have elite players to watch. In the recent past, we could watch Dee Bost take over games or Moultrie skying for dunks/rebounds or Ravern hitting numerous 3's (the ones that Fred misses 80% of the time) - we don't have anyone on our team that can score and is fun to watch. (Sword gets close sometimes but can only drive to score.)
I watch every game I can still. I even got excited about going home and seeing us on national TV yesterday, but I get what he is saying. I wasn't even upset when we lost. The person I was watching it with had no knowledge about MSU and as the clock got down to 0 she said something like "Dang, that sucks!" My response was that we were predicted to lose big and that I expected to lose like this. It used to not be that way, and as a guy who grew up watching us knock off teams like UF, Bama, and UK at least every once and a while I was really disappointed with myself on the attitude I showed towards last night's game.Without going into great detail, I will just say I think you have a terrible attitude about all of this. Sorry you are not personally entertained more.
I watch every game I can still. I even got excited about going home and seeing us on national TV yesterday, but I get what he is saying. I wasn't even upset when we lost. The person I was watching it with had no knowledge about MSU and as the clock got down to 0 she said something like "Dang, that sucks!" My response was that we were predicted to lose big and that I expected to lose like this. It used to not be that way, and as a guy who grew up watching us knock off teams like UF, Bama, and UK at least every once and a while I was really disappointed with myself on the attitude I showed towards last night's game.
It's not apathy because I still love MSU basketball... I just feel like one of those kids on the playground who wants to be friends with the bullies who beat me up every single day.
There's plenty of blame to go around, but I'll say this. The near empty arena tonight shows me that all the people who said that they'd rather watch a losing team that hustles rather than a lazy winning team were full of crap
Apparently those who made this vow were a very vocal minority.
For the record, I'd much rather be complaining about inconsistency from a talented team with relevant wins (that can fill up the gym) than a scrappy but hopelessly out-manned squad of (no offense) no-names who are highly unlikely to beat anybody of any consequence.
I will give Ray some credit. He has his team playing hard. Not yet playing smart, nor playing well, but hard. I think he still has a ways to go to even reach the level Stans was with his last team and thus the jury is still out in my book as to whether or not making the change was the right move. Stay tuned sports fans.