Originally Posted by
Dirtydawg
Before my thoughts on the subject, I first wanted to say Oklahoma played a day game as part of a tournament at home last week against, I think, Alabama. I watched a little of it, and was surprised at how little turnout there was for the game. From the little I saw, I'd say I doubt they had more than 1,000 in attendance if that many. Granted, the game was in the middle of the day in the middle of the week, but seriously, a school that large couldn't muster more fans than that against another top conference school? It's hard to figure out at many of these Southern schools. I think Louisiana is a very different bird when it comes to our sports teams. For the most part, (and I'm speaking in generalities here) it seems that our psyche is so fragile that we are scared to go "all in" on any team for fear of disappointment. That's why LSU has so many bandwagon fans. When the lean years come back, you'll still see the folks that "pull" for them, but don't claim to be the live purple, bleed gold fan. For us, and any team in Louisiana, to be able to build an "all in" fanbase, we have to win. Primarily. Then, as you say, we have to do more marketing than what we try to rely on in the local press. We almost have to do what I think is called militant marketing. (is that a thing, Chuck?) I think with in your face marketing while we're successful, we can get the "all in" base we want and when a lean year or two comes along, we will still have some die hards that will hold us over.
Personally, I'm a football guy, however, I think it would be in our best interest to try to become THE basketball school of Louisiana-not just North Louisiana, but ALL of Louisiana. I think we have a real shot at this for several reasons. 1. Louisiana, as most Southern states, are first and foremost football schools. For the most part, they show a passing interest in basketball, but only really support win winning. I honestly believe that our biggest obstacle, as in any thing athletic related, would be the LSU masses, and I honestly believe that we could be well on our way to establishing our footprint as THE basketball school in the state before they would really notice. Then, the first to take notice would be the LSU basketball fans of which there aren't a significant number, in my opinion, to be taken seriously by the majority of LSU "fans". For the first couple of years, they'd be like, "so, they're still just little ole Tech. We could beat them if we really wanted to." Then the next couple of years would be, "so what. It's just basketball. Everyone knows that football is king in the South." By the time the majority of LSU fans think that it's about to be the point of no return and see just how much we are reaping with our basketball success, we most likely would be at the point of no return IF our administration is committed to making basketball the #1 priority.
2. If, as I just said, the administration is willing to make mbb our priority and reinvest its revenue back into the program to continue to elevate our success and reputation, I think we have more of a chance at retaining a top coach that can keep us as THE program of Louisiana. Sure we might have some turnover early on, but unlike football, there really is a genuinely better opportunity for us to achieve national success than there is in football and basketball coaches know this. They know they can play in the Final 4 and possibly win it all and there is no formula in place to keep us from getting past the sweet 16. If we will reinvest our mbb revenues back into mbb, and not move any of it elsewhere, so that we can pay top coach salaries and provide equipment, facilities and budgets to be competitive, I don't think we have the crap shoot of trying find a good coach that will keep us where we need to be every 3-5 years. Don't give up on football, but let basketball keep its money and let football continue to pay the other bills. It'll be much easier to sell out a 7k seat arena than a 30k seat stadium, and I think it can be done with mbb.
3. Unlike with football, basketball is not at the mercy of conference realignments or rules changes to the degree that football is barring a total revamp of the NCAA or a break away of the big conference schools. With basketball, we pretty much know that unless the conference totally dissolves and we're not able to land in a tenured conference, we have a very legitimate chance to go dancing. Furthermore, in the event of future conference changes, being THE top men's basketball school in the state will help us land in a better conference due to the fact that those conferences will be looking at the future credits we are likely to bring. Combine that with a quality football program which we should be able to build since we won't have to use football money to help finance basketball. We can use the money saved from funneling to mbb to enhance the football budget provided we continue funding our other sports at the same percentages.
But basically, I believe our best chance is because as I said in item 1 that those people who would be our biggest obstacle just don't take basketball seriously enough to see how much it can help Tech compete with them, and by the time they do, it will be too late. This has been a no brainer for the longest time. We all know Dr. Reneau wasn't interested in athletics enough to make this evaluation. As spirited as Dr. Guice seems to be, I would have to believe a well delivered presentation highlighting the benefits of prioritizing basketball over the other programs would probably be better received by him. I'm sure there are more benefits and reasons whey this should be the way to go than I have given, but it's all I've got. I honestly can't see any negative to it.