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soonerguild
10/25/2005, 08:23 PM
One of the things that boggles my mind the most is why we don't have a better following for our basketball team. Unless it is KU, OSU, UT or UCONN, we just can't seem to pack the place. I have never understood how we can have 10,000 plus fans show up to a football game in LA, and can't pack the LNC. Anyway, if there is a positive about us not being as stellar as usual in football its got to be that hopefully we will have the type of turnout our BBall team deserves. Kelvin has more wins than anyone in the big12, and OU has the second most behind KU.

Anyway, home field advantage is huge in BBall and hopefully we will pack the place this year like I know we can

Your thoughts?

soonervegas
10/25/2005, 09:30 PM
I think it is a few things:

#1 Multiple games. Most people have family lives and pick and choose which 5-6 games to go to.

#2 Home games are ALL on TV.

#3 It's not Basketball season till Football is over. Unless a marquee early game.....fans stay away until conference play.

I think the really disappointing element is the lack of student support. Really can't explain that.

SoonerInKCMO
10/25/2005, 09:41 PM
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y52/ToddG/peeps.jpg

IronHorseSooner
10/26/2005, 12:21 AM
We are one of the unique programs around the country where there has been success in both sports. Most fans have to pick games to go. But, you are right, until football is over, to most fans, BBALL hasn't started. As have been show, unfortunately, even when we have a team that could win it all this year, most people seem to be more interested in the failures of the football team. Just the nature of being one of the best football programs in history.

AllAboutThe'O'
10/26/2005, 12:46 AM
Maybe winning a national championship will alter those perceptions.
Come to think of it, some of the other elite college football programs in the nation — Notre Dame, USC, Miami, Florida, Penn State, Florida State, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia Tech, Alabama, LSU — have never won a national championship in basketball. Michigan and Ohio State (you could also make a claim on UCLA), off the top of my head, are the only big-time college football powers that have won national titles in basketball. Maybe if we win a national title, that will get more fans involved even during the heart of football season.

AustinTXHorn
10/26/2005, 12:52 AM
I'm pretty sure Michigan is the only school in 1-A history to own a football, men's basketball, and a baseball title. Not same year...in history.

But with any big time football power, it's a struggle to get fans to show up for the smaller games.

Look at the college football top 25 right now (USA Today). The following schools in it are known for having consistently some of the best and most rabid crowds in college basketball:
...
...
...

There are none. But Texas, Notre Dame, Wisconsin, Texas Tech, Florida, and Minnesota are known for being able to do it in big games.

AllAboutThe'O'
10/26/2005, 01:12 AM
And then on the flip side, you have the "traditional" college basketball powers like Duke, UNC, Indiana and Kansas that haven't won a national title in college football.

IronHorseSooner
10/26/2005, 09:57 AM
"O"- Great comment. I was thinking of mentioning that. I remember after KU beat us in the Title Game (aka the "Ed Hightower Hijacking Game), we moved across the border from Miami, OK to Baxter Springs, KS. I wore my Sooner gear, AND I WAS RAILED. I asked them how many football titles that they had won (insert birds chirping, crickets, frogs croaking). That pretty much shut them up. I told them that a basketball title would've been nice, and if the game would've been played anywhere but Lawrence East, we would've won. They couldn't answer that, as well....I also believe that OU has the longest current post-season streak (NCAA and NIT) IN THE COUNTRY (not Duke, UNC, KU- they had a probation year after the title year, UCONN, UCLA, etc.). We also have the more ominous streak of having been to the NCAAs the most times without winning it all (I think). Someone please correct me if I'm wrong. We also hold the dubious distinction of being the only team to lose the title game in football and men's BBALL in the same school year (1987-1988).

soonerguild
10/26/2005, 11:43 AM
Ive always felt like the only team in the country that can even match us over the past 6-10 years in football and basketball together only is Texas. Florida had a couple of years good at both, but have since dropped off. But pretty much the general consensus is that no school in the country is "die-hard" at both. Ive been prone to think this over the years, I just wish we had more Oklahoma fans, not Oklahoma football fans, not refering to anyone on this board of coarse.

As far as the student support, I am a student and the lack of it ****es me off the most. I have had friends that i asked if they bought bball tickets and got the dear in the headlights "why" look, and when i told them we were preseason top 5, "really".
It is terribe how bad the student body is towards bball. We really are a football school, which is why KS is the best coach we will ever have.

soonerspiff
10/26/2005, 01:08 PM
We really are a football school, which is why KS is the best coach we will ever have.


Is that a bad thing to have Kelvin as our coach? Right now, I think I'd rather have Sampson than pretty much any other coach in the nation.

soonerguild
10/26/2005, 01:54 PM
Is that a bad thing to have Kelvin as our coach? Right now, I think I'd rather have Sampson than pretty much any other coach in the nation.

Oh i completely agree, what i meant was that KS is the best coach in the country that would put up with and maybe even enjoy being at a "Football School".
I wouldn't trade KS for any coach in the country, I just hope he never leaves because we are never gonna find a coach as good as him to stay more than 3 years, when a BBall school comes a callin

IronHorseSooner
10/26/2005, 02:23 PM
Part of this is also regional. Oklahoma and Texas have two of the biggest high school traditions in the country. However, when I lived in Kansas, everybody talked about basketball. My sister lives in Kentucky, and everybody talks BBALL, even in football season. On the East Coast, football is an afterthought. I would bet even in years where 'Bama has been good in BBALL, NOBODY NOTICED (one of 'Bama brethren needs to input on this)....We've had two darn fine coaches at OU (Billy and KS). We have to feel blessed.

AllAboutThe'O'
10/27/2005, 03:43 PM
We also have the more ominous streak of having been to the NCAAs the most times without winning it all (I think).
I believe Illinois has it, and had they won it all this past season, then OU would have had that burden.

Sooner24
10/27/2005, 05:37 PM
I think it is a few things:

#1 Multiple games. Most people have family lives and pick and choose which 5-6 games to go to.

#2 Home games are ALL on TV.

#3 It's not Basketball season till Football is over. Unless a marquee early game.....fans stay away until conference play.

I think the really disappointing element is the lack of student support. Really can't explain that.


#1 When we start playing 12 games a year in football there will be 7 home games. That means there will be almost two months of Saturdays that will be spent ALL DAY getting to Norman, 3 1/2 to 4 hours at the game and getting home. I can work all day, get off at 5:00, drive from Ardmore to the game, two hours watching basketball, drive home and usually be home by 11:00. Basketball is not an all day investment like football is.

#2 When was the last time an OU football game wasn't on TV? (Hint Baylor last year). If being on TV was a reason for people to stay away there wouldn't be anyone at the football games.

#3 Tell that to Kentucky, Kansas, NC, oh and all those new NBA Hornet fans. ;)

#4 OU students suck at not only basketball but football also.

Sooner04
10/28/2005, 09:02 AM
#2 When was the last time an OU football game wasn't on TV? (Hint Baylor last year). If being on TV was a reason for people to stay away there wouldn't be anyone at the football games. The Baylor game was on TV last year.

Look, we have fickle fans. Anyone who was at the game Saturday knows this because they saw all the empty seats in the south endzone. They also saw ALL the people leave early in the fourth quarter and at the start of overtime.

jkm, the stolen pifwafwi
10/28/2005, 06:06 PM
i can't remember a time when basketball was well followed outside of big or rivalry games. it'll be interesting if one year the women outdraw the men...

soonerguild
10/30/2005, 06:27 PM
A buddy of mine and me were talking the other night, and he made a very good point. "There are two types of OU fans, OU sports fans who eat sleep and breathe OU, and OU football fans, who really don't care about anything else. The thing is, there will always be a team good, it just might not be football every year." My thing is that I think OU has some of the best fans in the country. I know alot of people who love OU sports more than life itself. The problem is with all those good fans, we also have some of the most fickle and bandwagon fans in the country as well.

I just don't want to see us not live up to potential because we can't pack the LNC for a top 5 team. I was at a Arkansas game a couple of years back on a wednesday night. Neither team was ranked, in fact UA sucked that year, and their arena is a lot bigger than ours and it was full. 30,000 fans in fayetteville, wednesday night, non ranked teams. Its things like these that frustrate me to death.

Anyway NC #1 is on the way
Go Sooners