kreed5120

We could fix all the things people here mostly complain about and attendance would probably go from 3,000 to maybe 3,200 over the long run. Apathy surrounding the program is very real. College basketball has never really seemed to be a big deal in the Cleveland/Akron/Canton area. At least not compared to hot beds like the northeast or Kentucky/SW Ohio/Indiana. It has further been hurt by a generation of fans being taught by ESPN and other outlets that if you aren't first you're last. There used to be a lot more community in sports.

Probably not much worse than the 6PM start time we had for Kent. If someone works an 8-5 it's a nightmare or even logistically impossible to drive home from work, gather the family, and then make it to the JAR before tipoff. The 9PM tipoff is kind of only bad for those with kids ~<10. That's a much smaller amount of people impacted. Heck, even my fiancé who works a 10 hour shift this Saturday and has to be up at 6AM is planning to make the game. I don't think the JAR will be packed, especially coming off a deflating loss. I don't think it's as much about the start time and more about the casual fans who are the difference between 3k in attendance vs. 5k really only get excited about Kent and the MAC tourney.

I don't really know enough about him to weigh in, but I hope his scheme is similar to what the Browns have been running.

They won at Marshall while we beat Kent at home so that's a significant difference. Our best OOC road win is at Tulane so that's a ~70 spot difference compared to their Marshall win. In conference it would be at BGSU who just got boat raced by a SBC team that is worse than Marshall. You seem hyper focused on our losses. What I've said repeatedly is Miami has better wins as well. It doesn't matter if you schedule tougher if every top 200 team you schedule you lose to. You criticize them for having 2 top 200 OOC wins. We meanwhile sit with a goose egg. I don't want anything I've said to be misconstrued that I feel we can't beat Miami. I think if the season restarted today and Miami was to replay all their games again they would have 2-3 losses right now. They have had a number of bounces go their way and are fortunate to be where they're at. My main point is it's not as easy as it appears to win every night that you and others try to make it out to be. I'll say it again we were favored in 4 out of our 5 losses. That means we scheduled teams that were perceived to be weaker than us, but still lost those games. Tons of great MAC teams over the years have gone through MAC play (forget even OOC play) and aren't where Miami is right now.

Their road win at Marshall is better than any win we have currently. And yes it's a top 200 NET (In fact it's top 150) win so you should fact check yourself. What's our best OOC win? Road win @ #202 Tulane? You shouldn't throw stones if you live in a glass house. I don't think they would be undefeated with our schedule, but we wouldn't be 24-0 with theirs. We've lost to every half decent team we faced, including to Miami. Like I said, it's not easy to win every game even when you're favored. That's why you have to go back to 1958 to find the last time a MAC team went undefeated in conference play. They aren't one of the top 25 best teams in the country, but they deserve the recognition they receive. If Akron was 24-0 I would expect the same attention.

I mean we were favored in 4 out of our 5 losses so it could be argued that we should have won more than 2 of them. That's why it's hypocritical to criticize Miami this year. They played an easier schedule, not that ours was brutal, but they actually took care of business. It's more challenging to win all the games you're expected to then people care to admit.

The MAC pissed down its leg today going 3-10. They lost the SunBelt challenge 12-14.

I agree with Halligan, but its challenging to give both him and Evan extended playing time together. Young is a good defender. I'm not sure he's a lock down defender, at least not now.

Honestly, that's better than I would have guessed.

Also, I thought Bowen was a problem defensively in the 2nd half. He was out of position and then would try to run out to the 3 point shooter. The shooter just instead dribbled past him, which made Lyles rotate. This left Amani's man to get an easy offensive rebound put back. Outside of Evan I'm not sure we have any great defenders. Not having a lock down perimeter defender might be what we miss most this season by not having Nate.

I'm not sure adjusting the starting lineup will do much. The opening 7 minutes we played great. It was the 33 minutes that followed that was the problem.

The problem is any time we've played any team half decent this year we've lost. Good teams are able to exploit our weaknesses. If you beat the bad teams, but consistently lose to the good teams that means you're somewhere in between the two.

That's probably game unless chaos happens.

This sums it up. We aren't built to play in the half court. A big reason why we're able to run the score up on bad teams is their miscues allows us to play an open court game.

I didn't even think we played that bad in the first half. We only had 3 turnovers, we played good defense, we're holding our own on the glass, and we seem to be running our offense. We need some shots to fall.

They're still 5th in Kenpom luck. In long run things even themselves out. Edit: It's also on Pinky for mismanaging his timeouts. If he had one in his pocket he could have initiated a review.

Kent State chokes

I've stopped into watch a few of these games and man these SunBelt gyms look empty. Maybe a few hundred in attendance for a Saturday game. Granted the games I've watched so far have been mostly the lower ranked teams, but even Southern Miss, who is middle of the conference, looks like a ghost town.

I do agree that is the most feasible option. I just don't think that alone will turn a 3,000 person crowd to 3,500.

If it' something simple like just replacing seats without reconfiguration then that cost YSU ~$2 million. That might be achievable by raising single game and season tickets up ~$5/game. If you want to get into extending the concourse to add more concessions, a real team shop, new bathrooms, etc. then you will probably have to double or perhaps triple ticket prices.

500 more per games X $15/ticket X 15 games/year. That's $112,500 per year. That means after 10 years it would have generated $1.1 million. It really only starts to make sense if its accompanied by ticket price increases as @ZipsFan31 mentioned. How steep kind of depends on how extensive the renovations are. That however brings new problems as then you start to price out Joe Akron.

I kind of feel its a shame that the NIT gets such a bad name. Every year for football 6-7 MAC schools get a postseason in a meaningless bowl game. They're given out like candy on Halloween. In basketball only 1, maybe 2 get a postseason. Obviously, I prefer the tournament. I just don't understand the negative stigma surrounding the NIT

Any meaningful renovation is probably going to cost 10s of millions of dollars. All to sell maybe a few hundred more tickets to games. Mathematically it just doesn't make sense. Especially when you consider the new car smell will quickly wear off. It lasted at Infocision for all of 1 game. ~15 home games for $100 is still an incredible value for entry level price. That's a comparable price of attending a high school game, maybe even cheaper, and you get to watch a team that is consistently in or around the top 100 teams nationally at the collegiate level. Heck you can even turn those 15 tickets into 3 games of 5 tickets to have 3 cheap family fun nights. It's challenging to take a family of 5 out and not spend close to $100 for 1 night. It's really hard to ask for anything extensive, especially given the financial constraints the University is under. I think since Wentz has gotten more involved we have seen some good improvements. Good student promotions/improved seating, jersey giveaways, $2 Buds before tipoff to get more people to the game early. There is plenty that still could be done. As someone else mentioned the concessions. I think I've only ever gotten stuff there 2-3x as frankly its underwhelming.

Yep, I also think the program is a bit a victim of its own success. If the Zips had been terrible for a long time and then they were now 18-4 there would probably be more buzz surrounding the team. Locals seem to instead take the team for granted as 20+ win seasons for the Zips is the norm. Edit: Even nationally this team this season would probably get some Cinderella dark horse chatter if Miami wasn't hogging all the national attention.

Received an email from Angela and this offer caught my eye so figured I'd share. With tickets, 2-3 beers, and a meal you'd be spending close to $99/person anyway. I've also had club seats for Cavs game in the past and thought they were fantastic. I've already reached out to get tickets.