Fans

[cernjSHU]

Home floor is an advantage in college basketball. This advantage can be huge depending on the fanaticism of the crowd. I have always considered Maryland college basketball fans as the best and most unique fans in the country.

I came across this story on ESPN in which the all the Taylor students get dressed up In all sorts of wacky costumes. They stay silent untill the team scores the 10th point of the game and then erupt and then at the end of the game sing Silent Night. http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebask...s-silent-night-tradition-keeps-getting-better

I think this a wonderful expression for fans. This is driven of course by the students. I would encourage our students to be as inventive as those in Maryland and Taylor. After all, it is the student's enthusiasm that makes college basketball as enjoyable as it is. It is always the students that lead to a great atmosphere.

 

[SOBO1]

Very cool. Thanks for sharing

 

[Bobbie Solo]

The Taylor thing was a Snapchat Story on Friday night. Doubt many of you know or use Snapchat, but it was really cool seeing all the quick fan videos from the night, part. when they got that 10th point and the place went nuts. Very fun tradition.

 

[hallgrad80]

I agree with cernj that home court does give a team an advantage and that the enthusiasm of the fans and how vocal they are is a big part of that home court advantage but so too is the physical layout of your home court that maximizes the noise level of the crowd , for example, Cameron Indoor Stadium where the " Crazies" are so close to the floor.

Yet I think the biggest asset that contributes to giving a team a home court advantage is not only how loud and how vocal the crowd is but what percentage of the crowd is made up of students. We saw the difference having large and vocal crowds of students at games last year gave the Rock an atmosphere of a true home court and getting the student body to provide that again has not been easy. I still believe if we can win, win consistently, get to the tourney and avoid epic collapses the crowds will get better, the students will get involved and the program will move forward.

 

[Shuathelete]

my sophmore or junior year i had season tix to front of the student section. me and my buddy were relentless trying to give us a home court advantage. what happened? georgetown complained and they moved the student section 8 rows back and put a gatorade tarp over the empty seats.

a big problem is the rock. youre not even allowed to get a homecourt advantage. nova game last year will probably be as good as we can do.

maybe we should have funneled njit 2 million to add a couple thousand more seats and share that space

 

[IHM Pirate]

The last few years the student section has been great. The enthusiasm has been excellent. Moving it back to behind the basket from behind the visitors bench was a great idea. We also had a very
Nice student turnout at the rac.

 

[NYC Pirate]

I really can't fault our fanbase at this point. Our fans have been trying so hard in this new building. For the most part it's been disappointment starting with that NC State game many years ago at Prudential. How about the West Virginia game on CBS? That place was electric. The Senior Day debacle against Rutgers was a true bigtime college atmosphere with an NCAA bid on the line. SHU has played the #1 team in the nation(UConn) and that didn't go well either.

It hasn't been all bad though. The back to back wins over WV and UConn were unbelievable beatdowns, The Hazell shooting exhibition against Louisville may have been the most exciting. Last year's SJU and of course the Nova game were terrific,

My point is that the fans are there. Some have gone away forever. There are plenty waiting on the sidelines until The Hall proves it's the real deal. There seems to be a new group who are fed up and will only go to certain games. Of course we have that decreasing group of diehards who go to every or most games. That's where we are. We have exciting players and they may just be able to turn this around.

The attendance for this year will be a work in progress. The Wichita St game should have a legit 7000 in the building, something like that. Thankfully, no bad OOC losses yet or there would be 5000 there. If Seton Hall can play at a high level and stay in contention I believe the lower bowl will be filled to near capacity in conference play. The atmosphere will also be a wait and see situation. This Saturday will have a good one I suspect.