Student support abysmal so far, still time to turn it around
This morning's Kaimin has a story on the results so far. It's not good. Up to this point the men's team is averaging 390. It's only 10 off the pace of conference-leading NAU but still abysmal when compared to the goal for the season. O'Day now says he'd be content with a bit less than the original 900.
According to the article, O'Day now says he would have to see 700 at each game to consider displacing the 450 season ticket holders. Five of the Griz's final seven games are at home so the students have plenty of opportunities to get out there.
O'Day also says that it's not just about showing up:
In addition to more students, O’Day said he would like to see more enthusiasm and passion from the students at the games. As it is, students often filter in after games have tipped off and sit and watch passively, he said.
“It reminds me of a Lakers game in Los Angeles,” O’Day said, alluding to an atmosphere where it is more important to be seen supporting a team than actually trying to bolster it.
O’Day said an unenthusiastic crowd rubs off on the team and that his primary goal in potentially relocating the students is giving a boost to the team.
“I know that that’s been frustrating to (the Griz), and that‘s one of the things that I hope we can do down the stretch here,” he said.
The Griz are making efforts to get it started with Saturday's Griz-Cat game. Doors will open a half hour early—at 5:30—and free t-shirts will be given out to the first 800 students as part of a white-out.
this game saturday will have a huge number of people obviously because its a rivalry but it kind of pisses me off at the same time because where have all these people that will be here saturday been all year??? We gotta support our team every game not just have these large showings at a few games...i think the Sac St game afterwards will be absolutely dead and the Eastern game was pathetic our student body needs to step up and support the griz everygame
Colin,
this is what Ian wrote on his blog
>>>>>>>>>
Posted by Ian Ruder February 01, 2008
In the post game media room someone mentioned that last night's 70-68 win over Montana improved Portland State's record to 9-1 in games where the Vikings have scored 70 points.
Barely.
In a game of runs, the Viks came out on top thanks to two late free throws by Jeremiah Dominguez and a lucky bounce that knocked Cameron Rundles last-second floater out of the basket.
Portland State survived a career-high 15 points from point guard Ceylon Elgin-Taylor and a torrid first half from Matt Martin.
Depending on your perspective, credit is also due to either P S U's second half defense or Montana coach Wayne Tinkle's decision to go away from Martin in the second half.
After a perfect first half, in which Martin made all four of his shots including three threes and four free throws and had four assists and two rebounds.
After Martin swished one of his threes and then went to the bench, Glanville shook his head and asked why the coach would take him out. Told it might be for defensive reasons, Glanville delivered the line of the night:
"You don't ask Liberace to carry the piano."
Sanchez -
This isn't relevant to this post. If you want to talk about Martin some more, put this in the PSU post, where he is discussed at length.
On Ian's comments, Glanville is a football coach. Football players don't play both sides of the ball. Playing defense in a sport where you're supposed to is a bit different than liberace carrying his piano.
I think his more interesting comments were on the passion of Cam and Martin vs. the lack of passion of Jordan and Drew. I am by no means saying Jordan and Drew play devoid of passion or emotion or effort but when was the last time it looked like these guys were having fun out there. When was the last time these guys, or anyone for that matter, got someone else fired up?
- Colin
You're right, Glanville is a football coach. Is and has been a college coach and a pro coach, but a coach, a good coach. He knows how to spot athletic talent.
He also knows when and where to play that talent, and how to get the best from of the talent he has.
The Griz should be so lucky as to have a coach with those qualities. They're not that lucky this or last year, but maybe, hopefully, next year.
Heh, maybe he can coach PSU football AND griz basketball.
I don't deny that Martin has talent, it's just I wouldn't put too much stock in something an opposing football coach has to say. Martin should've played more, gotten more shots in that game etc etc etc but it's over. Let's move on, discuss something else.
Colin, I'm an old fart who occasionally gets to see the Griz on TV, watches gametracker over the internet, but usually ends up having to listen to a streaming radio broadcast. You get to go to the games. But we are both fans, hell, students of the game. We participate because we enjoy the game. Winning is always sweet, but we don't consider it a waste of time to have attended a game we lost. People with this perspective are often not highly demonstrative fans, either. I'm guessing that when student body attendance is way down, you have a disproportionate percentage of the "basketball fans."
Most of the student body sees basketball as just another option in their menu of student activity & entertainment choices. It's hard to put bodies in the stands when the product on the floor doesn't generate much "feel good excitement".
Unfortunately, for the school to excite the student body in general, they have to create a "bandwagon" for the unwashed masses to climb aboard. Winning does that. Winning creates excitement, the "hot ticket" effect, and offers something for the fan who's not there simply to watch a ball game. This fan is there for the overall social interaction and experience of being part of a winning environment, including an insane zoo.
Right now, no one has more power to create this "bandwagon" than Coach T. Losing those close games the way we have loses audience share. When the coach isn't getting it done, expecting much support from the student body isn't very realistic. It's not like Griz students are Cubbies' fans. Coach T needs to put an exciting, winning program on the floor. Most people need to feel a reasonable expectation of the "thrill of victory" before they'll select basketball from a rather large menu of entertainment options.
To date, Coach T has taken a boatload of talented athletes and molded them into a team that continues to struggle for every win, even against the bottom feeders. Worse, the struggle has become a continually inefficient, repetitious, and predictable effort to yank defeat from the jaws of victory. How realistic is it to expect students to back that?
It's a circular pattern. The fans do for the team. The team does for the fans. Both need to give a good effort to turn things around. That includes Coach T.
I think all basketball fans will agree, a good point guard is very important to the success of any basketball team.
I remember, just a couple of years ago, when the Griz won back to back BSC tourney championships, and made it to the NCAA tourney back to back.
If I remember correctly, the Griz had a young true freshman point guard back then. He was the only freshman picked on the first five of the BSC all tourney team. As a sophomore he also ran the point, and I'll be darned if the Griz didn't win the BSC tourney and go back to the dance again.
I wish we still had that point guard to lead us back to another BSC tourney championship and another trip to the dance. Wait a minute … we do … That kid was Matt Martin.
HEY TINKLE, have you ever head the saying,
"DON'T FIX IT IF IT AIN'T BROKE"???????