Mid Tenessee St Game Attendance??

[taxpayer]

What an entertaining, nail biting, joyus game for the Zips yesterday. The players played well against a strong, disciplined, talented and competitive MTSU team; a win that has reinforced what the hardcore fans of the Zips believe about this year's Zips; Talented, Deep, Competitive and maybe developing the mental toughness to win against very good teams.

If you attended yesterday, thanks for making the JAR as loud as I've heard it. Once or twice the officials had to blow their whistles numerous times to stop play as the players could not hear the initial whistles....great job fans, band, dancers and cheerleaders. The players made it a point to gather with students on the floor for an "I believe" celebration; nice to see.

HOWEVER, why was the band relocated to the Zips end of the court? One of the advantages of playing at home is the ability of the home team to actually have no difficulty hearing during timeouts/breaks in play. Is it necessary to state that one of the homecourt factors is to make it difficult for the visting team to hear their coach during timeouts? Is this a politically correct decision? Relocating the band to the Zips bench end now makes it more difficult for the AKRON TEAM to hear. ?????

[Dave in Green]

@taxpayer, absolutely agree with everything you say. The new band location appears to be a tactical mistake. I can think of no positive reason that overcomes the negative of making it harder for the Zips to hear what their coaches are saying than it is for their opponents. You'd think that KD would be able to get the band location reversed if he thinks it's a competitive disadvantage. The noise and enthusiasm from the crowd was great. I can barely talk today, but at least I know I wasn't just one of the usual small vocal minority. A lot of Zips fans are hoarse today. Hopefully we can keep building this enthusiasm for a team that really deserves it.

Think BIG and yell BIGGER!

[FromdaBurgh]

OK...so I'm going to add my two cents in here and agree with both of you. I ABSOLUTELY HATE the fact that the band is down on our end...I was trying to have a conversation with the person behind me and I couldnt hear them and they couldn't hear me and so we are there yelling at each other just trying to have a 2 mins conversation! Whoever decided to move the band to our end made a HUGE mistake and I hope they are reading this...because that choice was HORRIBLE..HORRIBLE...HORRIBLE!!!

[ZachTheZip]

OK...so I'm going to add my two cents in here and agree with both of you. I ABSOLUTELY HATE the fact that the band is down on our end...I was trying to have a conversation with the person behind me and I couldnt hear them and they couldn't hear me and so we are there yelling at each other just trying to have a 2 mins conversation! Whoever decided to move the band to our end made a HUGE mistake and I hope they are reading this...because that choice was HORRIBLE..HORRIBLE...HORRIBLE!!!

The band moved so the student section could be all on one side. The problem is that I wish they were both reversed. I still believe that the band should be located up top, in the bleacher area marked off for them.

I also think they need to cut back on the number of times they play songs by about half. Go to any other D-I basketball arena, and pay attention to how often the band plays. It's nowhere near as often as ours likes to.

[Dave in Green]

The Zips band did something yesterday that I've always really liked from some college bands at basketball games. They had a couple of segments where they featured the percussion section solo -- tribal drumming, syncopation, etc. The proper use of drums at the appropriate time can really add to the atmosphere. It's not so intrusive as to make it impossible to talk with the person sitting next to you. But it has a subtle, infectious rhythm that really seems to get the crowd fired up and ready to go to war. I'd vote for more war drums more often and fewer full blown instrumentals.

[Captain Kangaroo]

Is it necessary to state that one of the homecourt factors is to make it difficult for the visting team to hear their coach during timeouts? Is this a politically correct decision? Relocating the band to the Zips bench end now makes it more difficult for the AKRON TEAM to hear. ?????

Where is the band located at other MAC arenas? I know @ K.e.n.t. it is directly next to the away bench.

[akronzips71]

Wasn't something mentioned that the band was moved because the visiting bench was complaining?

[K92]

Everyone who wants to hear the band a little less needs to yell "GO ZIPS!" a little louder when the band director is jamming on the cowbell. Maybe they would do that a little more if there was more participation. Personally, I could use that 3 times more and the fight song 3 fewer. The fight song works better at football games and I like the crowd participation stuff much better at basketball games. Just an idea.

[zippy5]

Wasn't something mentioned that the band was moved because the visiting bench was complaining?

The visiting bench has been a problem for 25 years, it's still complaining?

[ewbrooman1]

I love the new location of the band. I sit in section B and can finally hear the person next to me when we talk. That being said, I do wonder why it was moved.

[Sean]

I think that no matter where the band is sitting somebody is always going to have a problem with something they are doing. If the band were to move in the section marked band I would worry about them sitting by themselves during some of the not so crowded games. It would make those bleachers up there look so empty from the floor. Not to mention what the floor would look like at those games. I'm in favor of keeping the band on the floor until we can fill most of the JAR.