At UNI Saturday, January 13, 7pm on ESPN2

talksalot · January 12, 2018, 07:56:01 PM

Kampe calls out his student body for not attending their games... here's a story from last week from Cedar Falls...

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa --- This winter, the turnstiles featured a downturn in the McLeod Center.

The Northern Iowa men's basketball squad ended the regular season with an average home attendance of 4,908 fans per game. That represents a fairly significant drop from last year's average of 5,642 per game.

For the greater good of UNI's entire athletic program, athletic director Troy Dannen hopes for better attendance in the future.

"Basketball is at a level now that we haven't seen historically, but we're not filling the building," noted the UNI athletic director. "We have to find ways to fill the building.

"Really, the basketball revenue is where there are significant growth opportunities."

This season represented the second-worst per-game attendance average for UNI since it moved into the McLeod Center, in 2006.

The UNI men currently rank sixth in the Missouri Valley Conference entering this winter's final weekend of regular-season action - and the Panthers' home average isn't far off from the team that ranks last in attendance, Southern Illinois (4,106).

Dannen said he'd prefer to play more home games when UNI students are on campus, which could help remedy his program's so-so attendance. However, his hands are tied.

"I'm still searching for what it takes to get crowds coming before Christmas. That's a question we've never found an answer to," Dannen said. "We've had pretty good home, non-conference schedules, (yet) we haven't done much (in terms of attendance) before Christmas.

"A full one-third of the (conference) schedule is played without students on campus. I don't know if there's anything we can do about it," Dannen added. "But the students are critical to our attendance; we'll average 1,500 students when school is in session and 100 when it's not."

VULB#62 · January 12, 2018, 08:12:45 PM

Kampe? Dannen, right?

underdawg · January 12, 2018, 08:28:22 PM

My suggestion is to double Koch every time he gets it on the blocks we (SIU) did it and he turned it over a bunch (4 turnovers, eight points, 2-5 shooting)

Just Sayin · January 13, 2018, 10:02:19 AM

Northern Iowa favorite:
Sagarin 5-6
Sportsline 4.5
Realtime RPI 5

crusadermoe · January 13, 2018, 11:32:02 AM

Interesting comments on attendance by Northern Iowa athletics director Tannen. He says student attendance is 100 when classes in session and 1500 when they are on campus. I wonder what percent of enrollment is 1,500? Perhaps it is 10%? Probably higher?

Let's hope we have a higher percent of students coming. Can they measure it at Valpo? Certainly a student I.D. bar code would do that. 300 per game would seem to match their percent. I will look up the UNI enrollment.

VULB#62 · January 13, 2018, 11:37:33 AM

Let me help...

UNI ---- > 11,928 total enrollment (as of 2014) from Wikipedia. 1500 comes to ~12.6% of total

Valpo (2016) ----> 4500 total (3300 undergrads, 1200 grads) from Wikipedia. 300 comes to ~6.6% of total. Just UGs comes to ~9%

A small, close-knit, non-commuter university like Valpo should not be below 10% IMO. Actually it SHOULD be in the 15-20% for any game while students are on campus.

It's very hard for me to understand why students would opt out of what used to be an integral part of the on-campus experience. But these are different times and these are definitely different kinds of students with different likes and priorities.

wh · January 13, 2018, 01:28:29 PM

Quote from: VULB#62 on January 13, 2018, 11:37:33 AM
Let me help...

UNI ---- > 11,928 total enrollment (as of 2014) from Wikipedia. 1500 comes to ~12.6% of total

Valpo (2016) ----> 4500 total (3300 undergrads, 1200 grads) from Wikipedia. 300 comes to ~6.6% of total. Just UGs comes to ~9%

A small, close-knit, non-commuter university like Valpo should not be below 10% IMO. Actually it SHOULD be in the 15-20% for any game while students are on campus.

It's very hard for me to understand why students would opt out of what used to be an integral part of the on-campus experience. But these are different times and these are definitely different kinds of students with different likes and priorities.

Are you referring to the 15% that don't integrate socially.

usc4valpo · January 13, 2018, 02:41:28 PM

I make frequent trips to the Cedar Valley often for my job. There is a great Italian restaurant north of downtown, the Brown Bottle. Also, Whiskey Road on Main Street is good. there is also an outstanding micro brewery on the north end of Main Street.

Cedar Falls is a really nice town, Waterloo on the other hand has some rough parts. do not, I repeat, do not stay at the Ramada inn in downtown Waterloo.

VULB#62 · January 13, 2018, 02:55:06 PM

Quote from: wh on January 13, 2018, 01:28:29 PM
Are you referring to the 15% that don't integrate socially.

There are those on every campus. That leaves the other 85%, and it is this segment of the student population that I was generally referring to in regard to opting out of an integral part of the college experience. Why can't we get 15-20% of them?

Just going back (proabably too far) to my college days at Valpo, those several weeknight home games as I remember them (and even more so on Saturday night if there was a home game) were circled on the calendar by a majority of the student body and many tried to attend even if there was a paper due that week -- "hey it's only 2 hours, let's take a break and go."

The expanded Hilltop (before the ARC was built) would have what was the equivalent of the whole ARC chairback section filled with students on one side of the gym across from the team benches. The seating behind the team benches was for town folk and faculty. More seating was added above and behind the student section above the 1962 pool and gym expansion. That seating consisted of roll out bleachers somewhat as high but maybe not as wide as the AA to EE sections in today's ARC. Hilltop maybe maxed out at like 4+k.

Given that backdrop, in comparison, that's kinda what I mean in not understanding what appears to me to be the lack of involvement in campus life. Different eras, different values I guess. Have to hand it to those students today who do make the effort though there aren't that many anymore who are there consistently.

covufan · January 13, 2018, 07:28:12 PM

What happened on Walkers bucket? (Watching in bar with no sound)

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

VUGrad1314 · January 13, 2018, 07:35:47 PM

Golder ALWAYS fouls jumpshooters.

VUGrad1314 · January 13, 2018, 07:37:44 PM

These refs are terrible

a3uge · January 13, 2018, 07:37:54 PM

Too bad, was looking forward to the second college basketball game in 3 years without a combined 50 fouls.

NativeCheesehead · January 13, 2018, 07:38:33 PM

Here we go again.

JBC1824 · January 13, 2018, 07:39:29 PM

Feels like we have a tendency to embarrass ourselves in tv games.

a3uge · January 13, 2018, 07:41:38 PM

Quote from: JBC1824 on January 13, 2018, 07:39:29 PM
Feels like we have a tendency to embarrass ourselves in tv games.

No casual sports fan is watching this game anymore anyways. The NFL playoffs are on and if someone kept this game on after the first five minutes, they're probably asleep or too drunk to understand what's going on.

nkvu · January 13, 2018, 07:47:15 PM

Bradford shooting free throws:

Back rim.

Front rim.

Repeat

NativeCheesehead · January 13, 2018, 07:56:59 PM

I love Marty. Very high on him long term. But he is not ready to play DI ball on a night in, night out basis. That said, he's only going to get better by getting out there. Just have to bear through the tough times.

wh · January 13, 2018, 08:00:12 PM

Quote from: NativeCheesehead on January 13, 2018, 07:56:59 PM
I love Marty. Very high on him long term. But he is not ready to play DI ball on a night in, night out basis. That said, he's only going to get better by getting out there. Just have to bear through the tough times.

He was the most active of our 3 bigs by far.

FWalum · January 13, 2018, 08:00:43 PM

Putting this out there, we were absolutely getting homered early in this game.

a3uge · January 13, 2018, 08:02:23 PM

Bradford might be the worst shooting PG or SG at Valpo since Eric Buggs. I'm amazed at how Valpo's staff saw him as a shooter for a year and a half, instead of a PG that should only shoot once a game to keep defenders honest.

valpopal · January 13, 2018, 08:05:06 PM

As if they forgot the lesson from the past two games, the big men are back to playing soft instead of aggressive. Smits missed a layup he could have dunked. Ironically, when they play soft they seem to collect more fouls. Therefore, the result in first half: Smits and Sorolla combined for 0 points and 4 fouls, which limited them to a total of 11 minutes on the court.

FWalum · January 13, 2018, 08:06:13 PM

Is Micah Bradford becoming the new Eric Buggs? I can see teams just letting him shoot it all he wants. A real mystery to me how a high school lights out shooter can suddenly completely lose his touch.

wh · January 13, 2018, 08:09:49 PM

Quote from: FWalum on January 13, 2018, 08:00:43 PM
Putting this out there, we were absolutely getting homered early in this game.

Between that and that and combined 1-11 shooting from Max, Tevonn and Micah, it's surprising that we're still in the game. UNI didn't set the world on fire themselves. We can still pull this game out.

valpopal · January 13, 2018, 08:10:57 PM

Quote from: wh on January 13, 2018, 08:00:12 PM
Quote from: NativeCheesehead on January 13, 2018, 07:56:59 PM
I love Marty. Very high on him long term. But he is not ready to play DI ball on a night in, night out basis. That said, he's only going to get better by getting out there. Just have to bear through the tough times.

He was the most active of our 3 bigs by far.

Linssen outscored the other two bigs combined and tied their total of rebounds in the first half despite playing 3 fewer minutes than Smits and Sorolla. I wish they had Marty's aggressiveness and hustle.