justdrastik1

Well, for what it's worth, you're referencing one section. And that's the way that it will appear to the public watching, potential recruits etc. It just didn't look like people were into the game. And I don't think there should be much argument over the lack of attendance last night. 3 straight NCAAs - can't ask for much more. We've put a good product on the court but we haven't seen the translation into athletics popularity on campus.

The Athletic Department really needs to focus on not only getting attendance up, but also on just changing the atmosphere. I was louder in my living room than the fans there last night. I do believe that while it ultimate is up to the players to win the game, a rauckus environment certainly helps. There were times we had it to single digits and I saw the crowd maybe once stand and applause? Really disappointing.

Don't worry, you won't see me around for a while. This was rough. I'll eat that crow. I have no words. I'll go back to the NBA for the next few months...probably won't even follow the rest of the NCAAs. Just busting your chops... it happens... this is why college bball is March Madness.. you just never know.. See you guys next season.

We need to ban from the board whoever jinxed us and said that Albany would see Stony in the finals. jk.. sorta... Very unfortunate that the team came out the way that they did. Even just an eye test shows that we're leaps ahead of Hartford, but we didn't have it tonight - for whatever reason. When they're hitting shots from 30 feet out on heaves, nothing you can do. Sometime it just isn't your night. Unfortunate though that the seniors had to go out like this, especially after last year's heroics. Our free throw shooting was not great at key times we could have stole momentum. And Brown should most definitely accept a tournament - exposure for the school and more practice for the underclassmen that will be here next year. All this withstanding, they had a great season.

Dig deep fellas

We look terrible out there. Hope they get it together and we don't let them balloon their lead.

We certainly have some niche degrees that are very in demand, but overall, a UA degree doesn't carry the weight of a Syracuse degree - generally speaking. Same with grad level studies. We're creeping up slowly but surely, but we aren't on par.

They can get endorsements and also do camps/seminars etc. to generate income. Definitely nowhere remotely near the level of most leagues, but I suppose that's the tradeoff for hopefully playing the game you love.

Call me crazy, but I don't mind the loss. Certainly you never "want to lose", but I'd rather us play with a chip on our shoulder. Hopefully Pete can figure things out because without him, it will be hard for us to replicate our success fromthe last couple of years. He's always had a little of the "Old Man at the Y game", but his shot selection has been circus like at times. Finish second in the AE and we would hypothetically face them in the finals. I'll take that. Gotta take care of business the rest of the way though. On a positive note, we somewhat contained Warney which is promising.

How random is this: We have one of our longest threads in a long time, and a lot of it is dedicated to perceived pack of athletics marketing. Literally just got my forst UA Sports email for hoops promotions (family pack of tix + food etc.) Maybe they're reading the board? Haha

I don't think most of Mid-Majors have a very difficult time making a jump to a higher "tier" so to speak. Look at the list for most of these schools in the Mid-Major top 25. They do have limited Windows. Aside from Gonzaga, most of these have/will be "mid-majors" for a LONG time. How many can you name that have made a successful jump to prominence/notoriety? http://www.collegeinsider.com/mens-mid-major-top-25.php I would also argue that most of those schools on that list do not have as competitive across the board sports as we do - M/W bball, lax, football (we suck right now), track, softball, volleyball, baseball etc. We've been to 5 NCAA tournaments in 9 years. We played every game, with the exception of the UVA game in the NCAA tournament very tough. We've had a NCAA bball win. We had the faces of lacrosse for years. Our women's bball team is going to have a player drafted top 20 in the WNBA. We had Hooley plastered on SC and ESPN for days. We have had a LOT of success and very LITTLE to show for it. Sure, an upset win in the big dance would help, but do you think that's going to ensure we sell out every game the following year? Of course not. Even if our attendance grew by friggin' 40% in 10 years, that is minimal considering the increase when it is compounded. It's like a 3-5% growth rate in attendance. It's like an extra 30-50 fans per game. We're not talking about 40k to 65k etc. When you are a program of our size you need to distinguish yourself. Whether it's clever marketing tactics, or other catchy things that get attention, it's necessary - use Boise State's blue field as an example. I don't think they have done well. I would assume you would probably have the stance that the growth has been slow but steady? Well, when our team wasn't at the top of the AE for a few years, our attendance dropped significantly. My point is, the growth isn't sustainable if it is purely based on product. No team can consistently dominate, especially at our level where there is so much parity. You need to instill a sports culture. Otherwise, you're only as good as the wins you put up at the moment. Go poll 500 students at Albany, and guaranteed no one knows Lyle has his own NIKE SNEAKER. None would know about Richards going to the WNBA, or that we've had a few NFL players to date. DP should split this thread, we've gone way off topic. But this post is nail on head. Our issue isn't the product, it's lack of enthusiasm. Click and I (not sure if you were recently a student Drastik) have stated many times that the campus LC and other classrooms have virtually ZERO marketing material plastered on walls. If a student didn't see the fields or stadiums, you'd probably think this school was sportless. Benson is slowly changing that, but the top needs to give him the tools and funding to go hard. TV ads, CDTA paint schemes or wraps or whatever, etc. Just billboards and emails to students isn't going to cut it. I graduated in 2006. Have been to campus several times since. They have done a lot aesthetically to improve the campus, but the sports marketing is in the dumps. It starts day one with freshmen. Push athletics during orientation. Come up with a way to reward athletic event attendance. This is what I think most of us have complained about for 5+ years now. Push the school colors too. Many more things should be purple and yellow/gold. There's just so much more that could be done. CB and the team have done their part. It's time the higher ups within the athletics department and/or school administration hire the right people/resources to really get the train rolling.

Football attendance numbers aren't easy to find. But looking at the numbers on the wikipedia page for the 2013 team, they maxed out at almost 49,000 for the Clemson game, and had a minimum of 33,000 for Wagner that season at home. I agree basketball is what drives that place, but they still get a lot of people to go to a sporting event in Syracuse, which is a smaller MSA than Albany, even when the team isn't good. I know it wont happen anytime soon - if ever - for either $iena or Albany to make a big conference jump - but lets say hypothetically that there was news conference tomorrow that said that UA had signed an agreement to move it's games to the TUC and in conjunction with that it will start competing next year in the ACC. The home schedule would include Syracuse, Duke, North Carolina, Louisville, Georgia Tech, Florida State, etc. I am pretty positive that season tickets would sell out on day 1, and the arena would be packed for every single game. Even if people thought that UA would go 0-30 on the season. I guess what I am saying is that, in my opinion, a move to another - albeit higher - mid major conference like the CAA probably won't help our numbers that much. Helping those numbers will be based on marketing and continued success. If you want major area buy-in and the students to be excited - you have to go big or don't go at all. Really I looked up this years in a matter of minutes this morning for syracuse Rhode island 30112 Wake Forest 26671 Central Michigan 27943 LSU 43101 Pitt 29832 (the game I went to this season) Clemson 36736 Boston College 30317 Again that doesn't quite fit your narrative in downgrade of Albany. I will also add your your previous point that Albany area goes to "bigger" events.. Who doesn't get more fans for bigger events.Just look at the demand for Duke, North Carolina or Georgetown in the past for Syracuse basketball. Also For your Syracuse baseball games you mentioned before, when Strasburg pitched I found a parking lot I did not know existed before because that was their first sold out game in their history and they used an overflow lot that was not needed for a typical 1/3 to 1/.2 filled game. Maybe a little more on fireworks, 4th of july etc. As far as Albany, we lead the conference in attendance so in spite of a lot of the grass is always greener elsewhere to some , they are doing some things right. I disagree with your statement that because we have better attendance than those in our conference, that translates to our school doing some things right. It's like having the nicest house in the projects, as the expression goes. You're comparing attendance with schools like Vermont, UNH, Maine, UMBC, Hartford, etc. These are not locations where collegiate sports are big, sans hockey, or another random sport. And for the football example above, except for LSU, you're not naming schools that are known for being popular in football, or having a massive following - at least not in the same breath as Ohio St., Bama, Georgia, etc. A lot of other schools have CRAZY attendance. In fact, you can almost increase general attendance around the area by 50% of stadium capacity, as so many people cannot get into the games due to lack of tickets, but still come and tailgate. We've won 3 straight AE chips in a row - all of which were very good games. Within roughly 9 years, we've been in the dance 5 times. We are coming off arguably the biggest shot in school history to get there, and also had insane press coverage on the team. Hooley was on SC for days - how we have not capitalized more is crazy. We had an INCREDIBLE lax trio, and arguably the greatest lax player(s) of all-time as well. Certainly Lyle, and definitely a case can be made for Miles to be in that convo. They have their OWN SNEAKER, and are in Nike ads with some of the greatest athletes of the world. There should just be lifesize cutouts of these guys all around campus, with TVs showing highlight reels (sorta kidding.. sorta serious) Schools like ours have a very finite time to catapult themselves to the next level. Look at VCU, for example. It's not enough to be satisfied with mediocre improvements. The product is there. We may not be Gonzaga, but our athletic teams are very competitive. It's time for the appropriate amount of resources and expertise to be dedicated to marketing the programs. As far as what I named about, I didn't make the Syracuse schedule, I was only disagreeing with his assertion that their attendance is impressive compared to similar schools I also Disagree with your assertion that they have limited time to capitalize and that apparently it is easy to get to level of schools with 100 years of tradition. It will take time, but they have done well considering they weren't even division 1 in the late 90's. I expect they will continue to make progress . Obviously not as fast as some of you want. Mid-Majors have a very difficult time making a jump to a higher "tier" so to speak. Look at the list for most of these schools in the Mid-Major top 25. They do have limited Windows. Aside from Gonzaga, most of these have/will be "mid-majors" for a LONG time. How many can you name that have made a successful jump to prominence/notoriety? http://www.collegeinsider.com/mens-mid-major-top-25.php I would also argue that most of those schools on that list do not have as competitive across the board sports as we do - M/W bball, lax, football (we suck right now), track, softball, volleyball, baseball etc. We've been to 5 NCAA tournaments in 9 years. We played every game, with the exception of the UVA game in the NCAA tournament very tough. We've had a NCAA bball win. We had the faces of lacrosse for years. Our women's bball team is going to have a player drafted top 20 in the WNBA. We had Hooley plastered on SC and ESPN for days. We have had a LOT of success and very LITTLE to show for it. Sure, an upset win in the big dance would help, but do you think that's going to ensure we sell out every game the following year? Of course not. Even if our attendance grew by friggin' 40% in 10 years, that is minimal considering the increase when it is compounded. It's like a 3-5% growth rate in attendance. It's like an extra 30-50 fans per game. We're not talking about 40k to 65k etc. When you are a program of our size you need to distinguish yourself. Whether it's clever marketing tactics, or other catchy things that get attention, it's necessary - use Boise State's blue field as an example. I don't think they have done well. I would assume you would probably have the stance that the growth has been slow but steady? Well, when our team wasn't at the top of the AE for a few years, our attendance dropped significantly. My point is, the growth isn't sustainable if it is purely based on product. No team can consistently dominate, especially at our level where there is so much parity. You need to instill a sports culture. Otherwise, you're only as good as the wins you put up at the moment. Go poll 500 students at Albany, and guaranteed no one knows Lyle has his own NIKE SNEAKER. None would know about Richards going to the WNBA, or that we've had a few NFL players to date.

Football attendance numbers aren't easy to find. But looking at the numbers on the wikipedia page for the 2013 team, they maxed out at almost 49,000 for the Clemson game, and had a minimum of 33,000 for Wagner that season at home. I agree basketball is what drives that place, but they still get a lot of people to go to a sporting event in Syracuse, which is a smaller MSA than Albany, even when the team isn't good. I know it wont happen anytime soon - if ever - for either $iena or Albany to make a big conference jump - but lets say hypothetically that there was news conference tomorrow that said that UA had signed an agreement to move it's games to the TUC and in conjunction with that it will start competing next year in the ACC. The home schedule would include Syracuse, Duke, North Carolina, Louisville, Georgia Tech, Florida State, etc. I am pretty positive that season tickets would sell out on day 1, and the arena would be packed for every single game. Even if people thought that UA would go 0-30 on the season. I guess what I am saying is that, in my opinion, a move to another - albeit higher - mid major conference like the CAA probably won't help our numbers that much. Helping those numbers will be based on marketing and continued success. If you want major area buy-in and the students to be excited - you have to go big or don't go at all. Really I looked up this years in a matter of minutes this morning for syracuse Rhode island 30112 Wake Forest 26671 Central Michigan 27943 LSU 43101 Pitt 29832 (the game I went to this season) Clemson 36736 Boston College 30317 Again that doesn't quite fit your narrative in downgrade of Albany. I will also add your your previous point that Albany area goes to "bigger" events.. Who doesn't get more fans for bigger events.Just look at the demand for Duke, North Carolina or Georgetown in the past for Syracuse basketball. Also For your Syracuse baseball games you mentioned before, when Strasburg pitched I found a parking lot I did not know existed before because that was their first sold out game in their history and they used an overflow lot that was not needed for a typical 1/3 to 1/.2 filled game. Maybe a little more on fireworks, 4th of july etc. As far as Albany, we lead the conference in attendance so in spite of a lot of the grass is always greener elsewhere to some , they are doing some things right. I disagree with your statement that because we have better attendance than those in our conference, that translates to our school doing some things right. It's like having the nicest house in the projects, as the expression goes. You're comparing attendance with schools like Vermont, UNH, Maine, UMBC, Hartford, etc. These are not locations where collegiate sports are big, sans hockey, or another random sport. And for the football example above, except for LSU, you're not naming schools that are known for being popular in football, or having a massive following - at least not in the same breath as Ohio St., Bama, Georgia, etc. A lot of other schools have CRAZY attendance. In fact, you can almost increase general attendance around the area by 50% of stadium capacity, as so many people cannot get into the games due to lack of tickets, but still come and tailgate. We've won 3 straight AE chips in a row - all of which were very good games. Within roughly 9 years, we've been in the dance 5 times. We are coming off arguably the biggest shot in school history to get there, and also had insane press coverage on the team. Hooley was on SC for days - how we have not capitalized more is crazy. We had an INCREDIBLE lax trio, and arguably the greatest lax player(s) of all-time as well. Certainly Lyle, and definitely a case can be made for Miles to be in that convo. They have their OWN SNEAKER, and are in Nike ads with some of the greatest athletes of the world. There should just be lifesize cutouts of these guys all around campus, with TVs showing highlight reels (sorta kidding.. sorta serious) Schools like ours have a very finite time to catapult themselves to the next level. Look at VCU, for example. It's not enough to be satisfied with mediocre improvements. The product is there. We may not be Gonzaga, but our athletic teams are very competitive. It's time for the appropriate amount of resources and expertise to be dedicated to marketing the programs.

It's not just sports snobs - a lot of it is geography. For Buffalo sports teams, they dominate everything in the Western part of the state. Albany is much more centralized and is a melting pot for the rest of the state where people have their own sports interests. It's a lot more complicated than just sports - it's the alumni group, marketing, etc. But there's a lot that can be done to ensure that the continued growth is there. The scary part for me is that what happens if we have a couple of years where we aren't in the mix for the AE title, or have a poor record. Will we see attendance drop like a rock in the ocean? If we're seeing this uptick in winning years, what would you expect on the decline?

The carrier dome is massive. Very difficult for a stadium in the North to sell out, when it can hold almost 50k. Plus, take weather into account. It snows/gets nasty early and often in Cuse, which makes it difficult to have regular attendance. I also think part of it is that Albany is perhaps more of a transplant/temporary place for many people. The vast majority of UA grads (correct me if I'm wrong) aren't from Albany, so they go back to LI, NYC, or other parts of upstate. Yes, our attendance has gone up, but so has campus enrollment quite a bit, and population in the area in general as well. Either way though, you can't just merely say it's the chicken or the egg problem. It's called advertising and marketing, and when done effectively, it works. It just isn't a priority at UA. Take a movie, like Star Wars, for example. There's a reason they advertise the $iena out of it. It's not like it's something new. People are fanatical about it. The "product" is there, and it's readily available at any movie theater nearby, but they spend a TON of money (in some instances just as much as it costs to make a movie) to promote it. And if you want to increase attendance, schedule better - not just in terms of opponents, but dates. Scheduling a game the game students come back from a long weekend/holiday is insanely stupid. If any one of us on this board played a role in the advertising of things, I'm confident you would see a significant uptick in attendance. Give away free stuff from area vendors/companies, throw a party before the game. Get creative.

For as great as our program has been, there's still a lot that makes me scratch my head regarding the team as a whole: OOC scheduling, poor attendance (given performance), athletic marketing etc. Edit: for us to make the next step as a program, much needs to be improved. Better attendance will help recruiting - athletes want to play in a great environment. OOC scheduling helps recruiting, and eventual wins will come. Beating St. Francis or Oneonta just isn't going to get it done, not only in terms of keeping us as a second-tier mid-major program, but in terms of recruiting, or getting us a higher seed than 14-16, if we make the big dance.

Albany is just not a sports school. We may have good athletic programs/teams, but no student applies to Albany (aside from a student athlete....) for the sports. They come to UA because it's an affordable option with a decent degree, and offers a lot of "fun". The school did a terrible job of advertising athletics while I was there, and can't imagine much has changed, as attendance stays the same. Sports needs to be PLASTERED everywhere, and try promotions. Do anything to get people in the seats. It's not just about getting season tickets - you need students to be in the arena to have a certain level of energy. I will say this though, the camp out for tickets to the UA/Vermont AE champ game in 2006 was epic. In my opinion, for sports to be a success, it has to be a party scene. I lived in ATL for a bit, and while people love them some SEC football, it's such an event every Saturday with booze and food, that even those who barely care about sports want to attend. If we can't capitalize on last years hoops success, then frankly, the administration should be really rethinking whatever strategies they have in place.

Most students also take advantage of the long weekend, and travel back later on Sunday. Late afternoon/early evening (at least wht my experience was). Doesn't bode well for attendance. Athletics is still not a "must see" on campus for students to the point where they would rush back for a game.

These are the losses we have had in seasons past, but should rightfully be avoiding with tje quality team we have. Kudos to the guys for hanging tough and gutting it out. Happy to see Pete land on his feet so to speak.

There's always bias nowadays with play-by-play guys, because they have gone away from merely calling the game to now being "commentators", injecting their opinions etc. I just hope it's not blatant. I thought the Q announcers (regardless of their employers) did a decent job. I found them to be objective. Yes, it's their job to get it right with player names etc., but there's hundreds of D1 bball schools, and thousands of players, most of which 99.9% of commentators will not be familiar with, with the exception of your household name schools.

Free him? Kid played 22 minutes. That's the right amount. And Sanders plays more of a three. Joe's a really good 2...and a versatile 1. I wasn't even referencing his minutes, anyways. I was focusing more on running more plays for him or giving him some more freedom offensively. I think he singlehandedly helped us win this game. Clutch baskets to keep it close and made something out of nothing on numerous plays late in the game. I know Sanders technically plays more of a three but there's plenty of times where he was playing 2 tonight. Aside from Cremo's production, what's more important is lack of mistakes. Rarely do you see an errant pass or a ridiculous shot.

Very solid win. #FreeCremo. lol. Would like to give a couple of Ray's minutes to Cremo...

Q is in the game because they keep rattling off 3s.

Commentator said that in the last 93 games, Q has only been outrebounded in 3 games. Wow.

I really think the issue is that Hooley is forcing his game way too much. Last year, I feel like he took more wide open shots, scored on cuts etc. It seems like he's trying too hard to create his own shot. Perhaps he feels it's on him to lead the team and carry the offense? When he drives and looks for the open man, our offense is so much more efficient.