2016-2017 Kentucky Wesleyan basketball thread.

[EagleWhip]

Re: 2016-2017 Kentucky Wesleyan basketball thread.

Excerpt from email sent by President Bart Darrell to KWC Alumni mailing list:


Great news for KWC, and proof of the outstanding job President Darrell has done since taking the helm. Kudos to him and all KWC alumni that have pitched in to help!

Congratulations to the KWC Administration. Sadly, this campus has been under financial stress for way too long. I hope that your alums, the city of Owensboro, Western KY and others realize the value of the educational opportunity that KWC presents to the region!

[BlueBlood]

Re: 2016-2017 Kentucky Wesleyan basketball thread.

Very happy for you all. Congrats KWC.

[alumnifan]

Re: 2016-2017 Kentucky Wesleyan basketball thread.

Kentucky Wesleyan is going to be fine. It's a message the students and the athletic department needed to hear.

May the Lord bless President Darrell, the administration, faculty, students and alumni.

[Lawson]

Re: 2016-2017 Kentucky Wesleyan basketball thread.

KWC is getting 1,000 fans per home game or close to it. That's more than USI or some of the other GLVC teams ever get.

It's just tough when you're older and it feels like not that long ago that they were averaging 3500 a game.

It's sad that those times are probably gone forever.

[BlueBlood]

Re: 2016-2017 Kentucky Wesleyan basketball thread.

BTW - is your team flying to the Mich Tech game? I see that they are in Houghton on 12/31, have no other games in the UP (or any part of MI for that matter) scheduled, then are in WV on 1/5. Seems like a lot of miles for one game.

[alumnifan]

Re: 2016-2017 Kentucky Wesleyan basketball thread.

Happy said earlier in the season that the Wesleyan team would bus 13 hours to play Michigan tech. That is considered a road game, right?

[BlueBlood]

Re: 2016-2017 Kentucky Wesleyan basketball thread.

Happy said earlier in the season that the Wesleyan team would bus 13 hours to play Michigan tech. That is considered a road game, right?

Ouch!

Did he explain why they are only playing one game on this 26-hour roundtrip excursion? Did something fall through? It just seems odd to go all that way and only play one team up there.

BTW - I just looked up Owensboro to Tampa. It was a shorter drive than Owensboro to Houghton!

[kwcpantherfan]

Re: 2016-2017 Kentucky Wesleyan basketball thread.

Ouch!

Did he explain why they are only playing one game on this 26-hour roundtrip excursion? Did something fall through? It just seems odd to go all that way and only play one team up there.

BTW - I just looked up Owensboro to Tampa. It was a shorter drive than Owensboro to Houghton!

Probably contractual due to them playing in our tourney last year. The trip should toughen them up a bit.

[kwcpantherfan]

Re: 2016-2017 Kentucky Wesleyan basketball thread.

It's just tough when you're older and it feels like not that long ago that they were averaging 3500 a game.

It's sad that those times are probably gone forever.

Agreed. I think they really screwed up this year with the way they revamped the season tickets and booster club. Our attendance has been dropping a little each year for a while - as has everyone else's for the most part - but it's really been significant this year. I'm hoping they can draw back some folks for conference season. It usually does pick up a little starting in January. But it is very discouraging. But then you see someone like West Liberty, which has been elite for a decade at least, even if they haven't won a title. They play an extremely entertaining style of play and have been so successful ... yet only average something like 300 a game. So I think that's just the state of D2 basketball now, with all the electronic availability of games at every level, plus 2 or 3 at least D1 games on TV every single night. People just don't get out for the games.

Plus, so many games are now played when the students aren't around. Which academically it makes sense for the players. But attendance is going to suffer because of it. In our case, you're talking maybe 30 or so students that would normally be there, with more for a rivalry game or important conference game...but when you're talking 1000 people or less 30 is not a completely insignificant number.

[DUPanther]

Re: 2016-2017 Kentucky Wesleyan basketball thread.

Agreed. I think they really screwed up this year with the way they revamped the season tickets and booster club. Our attendance has been dropping a little each year for a while - as has everyone else's for the most part - but it's really been significant this year. I'm hoping they can draw back some folks for conference season. It usually does pick up a little starting in January. But it is very discouraging. But then you see someone like West Liberty, which has been elite for a decade at least, even if they haven't won a title. They play an extremely entertaining style of play and have been so successful ... yet only average something like 300 a game. So I think that's just the state of D2 basketball now, with all the electronic availability of games at every level, plus 2 or 3 at least D1 games on TV every single night. People just don't get out for the games.

Plus, so many games are now played when the students aren't around. Which academically it makes sense for the players. But attendance is going to suffer because of it. In our case, you're talking maybe 30 or so students that would normally be there, with more for a rivalry game or important conference game...but when you're talking 1000 people or less 30 is not a completely insignificant number.

In West Liberty's case, being in a town of 1,200 people probably doesn't help. Being the only show in town is a good thing, but they'd have to have half the town show up to get to 600. On the other side, they've got 2,000+ students - amazing that a ton of them don't go to the games.

The most baffling thing across the board is student attendance. We probably get 150-250 students to most games (more for a few important games and homecoming) when school is in session, which is decent for a school our size, but the school puts in a significant amount of effort to encourage them to come too. It's a shame more students today don't come out on their own to show some school pride.

[MrAugustana]

Re: 2016-2017 Kentucky Wesleyan basketball thread.

In West Liberty's case, being in a town of 1,200 people probably doesn't help. Being the only show in town is a good thing, but they'd have to have half the town show up to get to 600. On the other side, they've got 2,000+ students - amazing that a ton of them don't go to the games.

The most baffling thing across the board is student attendance. We probably get 150-250 students to most games (more for a few important games and homecoming) when school is in session, which is decent for a school our size, but the school puts in a significant amount of effort to encourage them to come too. It's a shame more students today don't come out on their own to show some school pride.

Augie is in the same boat. We're currently averaging 2,317 overall fans per home game and I would guess mayyyyybe 100 of those are students each game. Granted, our enrollment is only 1,800, but we used to have the best student attendance in the conference and probably some of the best D2 student attendance in the country. Now our student section features a group of about 10-15 really passionate fans in the front two rows of the student section and 60-70 more sitting around on their cell phones in the rows farther back. If it weren't for our video board instant replays, I'm not sure those cell phone starers would actually see any plays from the game while they're in attendance.

That last part might be a little bit of hyperbole, but sadly, not much. Interestingly, that seems to be the case all around the conference. Other than, as you mentioned, when certain schools have their big, special event types of nights.

[Knightmoves]

Re: 2016-2017 Kentucky Wesleyan basketball thread.

Bellarmine probably does better with student attendance than anybody else in the GLVC, but it still seems insufficient. The students come to the evening games, especially on the weekend, but just flat out do not come to afternoon games. Not really sure what they are doing at 3 on a Saturday afternoon, but it's not going to the game. With the geographical spreading out of the GLVC and the rule that says teams more than 200(?) miles away must play during the day, BU plays almost no evening weekend games when school is in session. I do expect BU's student attendance to rise dramatically come January. When the students are there, they really help give Bellarmine a decisive home court advantage.

[BlueBlood]

Re: 2016-2017 Kentucky Wesleyan basketball thread.

Cedarville only cracked the 1000 barrier once so far this year. I didn't check, but I bet our volleyball average attendance was better than MBB so far. Hopefully attendance improves dramatically after the break. The schedule so far (like everybody's) has had lots of conflicts with breaks and finals. CU is in a "village". There just aren't a lot of locals. If school is out, getting more than 300-600 is rough.

[schnautza]

Re: 2016-2017 Kentucky Wesleyan basketball thread.

So far, USI's only had 3 home games this year. All three were during finals week/weekend. It's tough to get students there as it is, but only having 3 home games the first semester and only during finals week isn't really giving the students an opportunity to get in the habit of attending games.

I'm hoping that the students see we are now nationally ranked and undefeated and they will start attending when conference play starts up.
We had 1095, 1102, and 767 reported as the total attendance for those three games.

[Looking For 9]

Re: 2016-2017 Kentucky Wesleyan basketball thread.

Happy had to give a home and home to M Tech. Also he thought they would be much better.