UP Fans

So as most of you are Pilot Fans you may share in my frustration. Last night i had to work so i could only be at the game for the first 10 minutes of play or so. Clay, the red haired kid who usually is all painted up, had a presentation last night so he was not there. now i don't really know what happened in terms of the crowd after i left but for the first ten minutes, the 8 people in the student section who were actually standing were being heckled....BY OUR OWN STUDENTS. This isn't the first time this has happened, but it really pisses me off. When people are trash-talking fans of their own team for being enthusiastic. This is basically me just ranting, but seriously, come on.

Also, i would really love to see some of those guys in the villa drum squad out for basketball. During soccer season they act like they are the best fans, and for soccer they are, but why not basketball?

Well, everyone loves a winner... its "easy" to cheer on a winning team (i.e. soccer); unfortunately, the basketball team hasn't won consistently in a loooooong time. So it will take some time to build up interest... a nice home court winning streak would have helped that, but alas... its the chicken and the egg.

I feel your frustration though... the fan support has been so dismal the past couple games, and this is when we have a solid team! Are ticket sales down that much this year? The team is better than we have been in recent history, but we arent generating the fan support (students or otherwise) even compared to last year... Is the economy a factor? where are the people that were in the seats previously?

PP13: Have you tried talking to students who don't show up at the games? Maybe find some people who "should" come, but dont, and ask them nicely why, and what it would take to get them involved... Granted, with wins, it takes care of itself. But in the meantime... is it a communication problem? pure lack of interest (in hoops) or too many other obligations (not high enough on the priority list)? poor relationship with the Athletic Dept and/or the student group leadership?

I recall a couple weeks ago that a bunch of students left at halftime due to another event on campus... WTF! Why were those schedules conflicting?! I mean, come one, who did the planning of that?!?!?!?

I guess not everyone has the excessive emotional attachmentment to the hoops program that I do!! The first step is admitting the problem...

I agree that the team deserves more fans, and students heckling other students is annoying. Unfortunately, at a small school like UP building up a fan base takes some time. It wasn't so long ago when there were articles in the UP student newspaper about the women's soccer team being treated differently than the mens' team when the mens team went to to Final 4... Then, the new field was built, Milbrett and McMillan came to the team and the womens' team started improving in a hurry. Hopefully, Reveno will be a coach who stays for many years and really builds up our program. I think that continuity in coaching is key in college sports whether it's soccer, basketball, football, etc. Hopefully, we've finally got that piece and the fans will come with time.

Hang in there Purple Pilot 13. I believe that Saturdays game will be better. Unfortunately, a Wed. evening game is a difficult game for many fans to attend. Although as noted before, the atmosphere at this particular game seemed rather weird. I think the economy may have something to do with the local supporters not being able to attend. Hopefully Saturday will be a better day even though it's an early game. (Which most student's should love because they can do another activity in the evening, ie movie....etc..)
It's not just the Duke's, Carolina's , and Kansas's that get afternoon attendance.....most schools get your regular rowdy's revving up the student's who sit on their hands (except for the t-shirt throw at break how sicking is that?), even for non-conference games. I know that the team hasn't seen much sucess recently but were almost half-way to our win total last year and that's a turn around. Good things will HAPPEN!!!

Maybe a Pep Rally with the Cheerleaders at the Bookstore area on days of the home game would help. Heck if you only had 40-50 students standing around wondering what was happening that may even bring out more of your bookworms to see a game. I know when I met Clay last year he was up there drawing on the sidewalk with chalk in that area to try to generate some interest. I find it hard to believe that all of the sudden fans just appeared out of nowhere to support women's soccer because of their record, new field or NCAA appearence's , THERE WAS MUCH MORE THAN THAT GOING ON AT THE UNIVERSITY and/or GREATER PORTLAND AREA, however,it is much easier to support a winner. There had to be some AD and Administration support to get the ball rolling. I think the Current AD is really,really behind Mens Pilot BB. He know's the effect of having 5,000 screaming fans and national TV has on a program and a school as a whole. Name recognition is what University's drool over to attract future students. I'll be honest I did'nt know the difference between the Portland and Portland State because I don't live in the northwest. But, I guarantee you that millions of people in the U.S. and around the world know about Gonzaga,where it is etc....and they have never ever won a BB championship or let alone been to the final four. University's get behind winners in the two major sport's....Football,and Basketball so don't lose your spirit and hang in there. I have seen 12-20,000 seat arena's built around the country because of sucess in Basketball. Then the fair weather fans come out in droves. I believe they just built a 12,000 seat arena in Missouri for a small school to play Basketball in. It sure would be nice to sellout Chiles without Gonzaga fans having to be the majority of the fan's in the arena. It's taken them 10 yrs though for the to move from the sorry BB team they used to have.

Sorry to get off on the ramblings , but I think maybe Stonehouse and his crew can give you some excellent suggestion's better than I. I heard they had a reputation .Besides what else is there to do on campus when it's raining,cold,miserable....go to the LIBRARY??? You have got to be kidding. College is about having a social experience, not just for classwork. Just ask us folks who have to put in our 40-50 hrs a week for 30-40 years. I feel sorry for those students who haven't attended a sporting event/Basketball Game in college even if it's only to be there with people from your dorm, a roomate,or a student from one of your classes. It's part of life,enjoying good company in a large crowd buzzzing with electricity. Too bad some people miss the boat until they attend the Opera,a Play or such, after college .


Good luck and I'll try to see you at LMT and Pep.game

MesaPilot1


P.S. If I have to I'll come sit in the student section,providing I can sneak by the usher's . I'll always be 21 yrs old in my mind .

During my junior year we also had a problem in the student section. We usually had one (or two for a big game) row of students standing and cheering. Most of whom are still on this forum, I'm not going to mention any names, other than Matt Weige.

Often there would be students sitting in the third or fourth row before the game started, but once the game started and we stood, instead of also standing, they would move back a few rows so they could continue to sit. By the end of the year it got a little better, with more students standing. The next year was a little better. I think a big help with that was actually Pooh Jeter. I think a lot of students considered him their friend, so they came out to support him.

Then the year after that, I was gone, but that is when Purple Pride started. You will have to ask Stonehouse and DaTruRochin about that. I think what it takes to get more students out is a combination of accessable athletes and dedicated fans and wins. So just keep working at it, and if the players do their thing more and more will show up.

Those were indeed the days... me, MattyWizz, Rochin54, DaTruRochin, OddBallShoe (how come he isn't even signed up on here?), and Matt Wiege... we all held it down. And it was great when Stick was with us too, because he was so tall. It was sad that we never could get more kids into it, but at least we didn't get yelled at by other students. They always just cleared out from the few rows behind us. I guess that was a decent system all things considered.

Anyway, pp13... if you want to meet some of us and talk about what we did to get Purple Pride started back in 2005, shoot me a message on here. I will be at the game tomorrow (oh DTR... I have an extra ticket, want it?)... we could meet at The Cove afterward or something.

a few quick ideas/thoughts/encouragment:

First, keep at it and lead by example. Don't stop standing, even if people are displeased. Contrary to Stoney, I believe we got a few comments from other students.

Second, I think a key part to our success was that we had about 11 guys spanning three classes and different "social groups" that were able to rally all the troops. In this sense, we had several leaders who led with a good example (i.e., standing, cheering, and caring about the Pilots). It also helped that all were very knowledgable about basketball.

I think it's safe to expect that not all UP students are knowledgable basketball fans. But if you can get a core group who are knowledgable fans, it makes it easier for those other students to go to the games, get involved, and have fun.

Finally, I think once the students realize just how much the players appreciate the student support, they will be more likely to come out and support the team. In that sense, perhaps it would be good to work with the players and/or coaching staff to see what support they can be.

Lastly, Trish really was very helpful to us when we made our big push. It sounds like you already have some good stuff from her, but just keep working with and brainstorming with her. PurplePride didn't get really big that year until the first league game, in which we had the entire student section filled to the top...it was awesome, and all the players and coaches and other fans loved it!

Keep up the good work. It can be challenging and frustrating, but is so worth it if you'll be able to look back at a full student section for a game (other than the zag game, which is always full).

If there's anything you think any alums can help with, shoot us a message or ask for support here, I know many are willing.

Great thoughts, 54. I agree on keeping up the effort. As Jimmy V said... "Dont give up. Dont ever give up!"

I think a key point you made was the ability to have leadership/examples from across various classes and "social groups".

I throw my hat into the ring as willing to help however I can...

Rochin54 hit the nail on the head... the key is getting guys from different social groups. We had three houses of guys that really acted as the leaders, and all of them were able to tap into different groups of friends and all that. We rotated the pre-parties between the houses, had each of them help with recruiting, etc. It worked like a charm.

Another thing Rochin54 pointed out... I think one thing that the students can work on is knowing when to get cheers going. If you aren't at the point when you do it on every possession, at least pick the right spots... after we score a bucket and need a stop, after they don't score and we're looking to cut into/add to a lead, etc. I've noticed a few times this season that the moments when we "need" a chant, we aren't doing it, but we are doing it at seemingly random times. If you can pick the spots right, that will definitley help the crowd as a whole feed off your energy, which will translate to the team feeding off it as well.

But yeah man... keep fighting the good fight. We've all been where you're at!

PilotNut wrote:Great thoughts, 54. I agree on keeping up the effort. As Jimmy V said... "Dont give up. Dont ever give up!"

Yes! Or as Emmitt Smith would butcher... "Don't give up. Don't even give up." Ha ha ha... oh man. Emmitt. Gotta love it.

This was already mentioned, but I really wouldn't be TOO worried right now... Dead week and finals week aren't exactly prime fan recruitment time, it's a good time to build a foundations and build around your hardcore fans, but start of the semester... Just make it an exciting, fun environment and get the world of mouth action going and people will start showing up!! (I really wanted to use a Field of Dreams quote there...)

It really is too bad that our own students are making fun of you for cheering at a basketball game of all places. The Rochins and Stonehouse have given you some good advice. I would just add that the students who left in the last minute should be ashamed of themselves, but that's just me.

You know what's even worse? When people who sign up to play and know being in the band is a job say, "Well, I have a paper due/ I have a test/ it's dead week, so I'll just skip this one." It's bad enough we lose people over winter break and I can understand that, but then we also get people who don't show up when school is in session. I don't think a lot of them realize what it does to the band when people don't come. Even back when I was in school I treated playing as a job that I had to go to. I always set aside the time when the schedule came out, and I only missed maybe two or three games a year.

Anyway, keep up the good work. I like the effort you guys are putting into the student section this year.

yeah, we're working on it. we have been planning since august, thats where the free food came from, and i meet with trish at least once a week to go over what we can do. the freshman class has been great. i'd say about 80% of the standing group are freshman, our plan is just to keep showing up and hopefully more will jump on the bandwagon

Hmmm, that's what you get when the University upgrades the admissions standards and brings in serious students instead of partying sports fans like in my day!

up7587 wrote:Hmmm, that's what you get when the University upgrades the admissions standards and brings in serious students instead of partying sports fans like in my day!

Or maybe some of the partying sports fans are going to soccer games...

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Seriously, though, I think that UP is too small of a school to rely on just the student body as a fan base. It would be awesome to have a sideline that is a sea of students in purple T-shirts cheering. But, the reality is that the team needs to establish some history and some success. Unfortunately, one win early season win over UW won't be enough to get people really stoked about this team. The students who have been around for a while have seen it before that the team has cruised through an early season schedule before struggling in the WCC.

If this team gets Ethan healthy again and takes care of business, I think that the fans will start to come. The team has a lot of potential. I like the way that Campbell is capable of matching up better with the quicker guards in our league like Brandon Johnson and Pargo. The off season conditioning of our players is paying dividends so far...

I think that the team should set these goals for itself:
1) Beat University of Oregon-- If we lose to both Portland State and Oregon, less fans will believe in us as one of the better college teams in the state...
2) Split with San Diego and St. Mary's.
3) Shoot for 15-18 wins and a possible NIT invitation.

All of those things would set us up for another NCAA tourney run next year... I'd love for that run to be this year, but, we'll see. The team has some serious potential; it's a matter of meeting it.