Maryland had 18,000 screaming fans today, to play a barely average Michigan team.
Michigan, hosting a top 5 Maryland team a month and a half ago, easily had 1000 empty seats up top, in a 12,500 seat arena, and a couple hundred no shows in the blues.
Same story every game. Even the MSU game was not a full house this year in both the upper and lower level. It;'s one excuse after another. Bad weather. 9pm game on a weeknight, etc. Excuses that do not affect Big Ten schools that actually have good fan support and strong administrative backing, like our football program has.
We do not have a basketball program from the perspective of fan support and the a.dept does nothing to change this, like they have done recently when support for football was dropping.
Can't recruit consistently against the Izzone and the support Izzo has gotten. Nor can you recruit against other schools in the Big Ten for similar reasons, consistently. At some point, it not only affects recruiting, the lifeline of college programs, but affects home court advantage, and players psyche constantly being quoted after every road game of how loud the arena was and how great an atmosphere it was.
How often do you hear opposing coaches before a game or after a game talking about our crowd? Not never, but almost never. OUr coach and players mention it a half dozen times a year or more.
Michigan, hosting a top 5 Maryland team a month and a half ago, easily had 1000 empty seats up top, in a 12,500 seat arena, and a couple hundred no shows in the blues.
Same story every game. Even the MSU game was not a full house this year in both the upper and lower level. It;'s one excuse after another. Bad weather. 9pm game on a weeknight, etc. Excuses that do not affect Big Ten schools that actually have good fan support and strong administrative backing, like our football program has.
We do not have a basketball program from the perspective of fan support and the a.dept does nothing to change this, like they have done recently when support for football was dropping.
Can't recruit consistently against the Izzone and the support Izzo has gotten. Nor can you recruit against other schools in the Big Ten for similar reasons, consistently. At some point, it not only affects recruiting, the lifeline of college programs, but affects home court advantage, and players psyche constantly being quoted after every road game of how loud the arena was and how great an atmosphere it was.
How often do you hear opposing coaches before a game or after a game talking about our crowd? Not never, but almost never. OUr coach and players mention it a half dozen times a year or more.
