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O'BRIEN ON HOOPS
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Slam Dunks No. 1
Friday, December 30, 2005
By Denny O'Brien |
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Attracting fans tough for
East Carolina
©2005 Bonesville.net
| Editor's Note:
Bonesville.net's Denny O’Brien will check in during basketball
season with a new hoops-centered column. If you find some of his
opinions offensive, rest assured that he doesn’t care. He’s never
been one to pull punches — and he doesn’t intend to start
now. |
Winning isn’t the biggest challenge Ricky
Stokes is facing. Filling seats in Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum is.
Ten games into Stokes’ tenure at East
Carolina, the Pirates have topped the 6,000 mark in attendance only once,
and have failed to top 5,000 in four of their six home contests.
Attribute part of that to ECU’s 4-6 start
that includes a pair of blowout losses to relative unknowns. A home schedule
in which Gardner-Webb would be considered the headliner to date also hasn’t
helped.
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Though an old adage states that winning
cures attendance woes, history suggests otherwise for East Carolina hoops. The Pirates routinely played in front of
sparse crowds during one of their most successful stretches at the Division
I level (’93-’97).
Ironically, the program's most profitable period at the
turnstiles was during the Bill Herrion era — a six-season span ('99-'05)
during which the Pirates failed to produce a single winning season. Credit
that seeming anomaly to a home schedule that was loaded with
traditional Conference USA powers.
That Herrion’s
intensity on the sidelines appealed to fans didn’t hurt, but its importance
paled in comparison to annual visits by the likes of Cincinnati, DePaul,
Louisville, Marquette, and Memphis. The basketball gate during the latter
stages of that period also
likely benefited indirectly from declining success and waning interest in football prior to
this past season.
With most of those former C-USA bullies now
absent from the schedule, East Carolina welcomes few opponents with which
its fans can identify. Aside from Memphis, none of the Pirates’ league foes
rank highly on the must-see scale.
(No offense to Houston, UAB, or UTEP, but
their hardwood histories, though solid, barely register with the average
hoops fan in this state.)
The rejuvenated interest in football,
coupled with ECU’s success in baseball, also has placed basketball in danger
of again becoming merely a diversion. It’s not that farfetched to think that
football Signing Day this year will generate more interest than a basketball
showdown with Rice or SMU.
Is there a sure-fire antidote for Williams
Arena’s epidemic of empty seats? Absolutely, but the cure isn’t exactly
packaged in ready-to-take doses.
Stokes will have to build East Carolina
into a program that consistently flirts with the 20-win plateau. And as long
as the Pirates are members of C-USA, AD Terry Holland will have to finagle a
few annual home games with nationally reputable non-league opponents.
Though unproven, that combination would
appear to be ECU’s best attendance remedy.
Beast of a league
What’s the best conference in college
basketball this season? So far, my vote goes to the Big East.
The Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) Top 50
is peppered with six Big East clubs, and that doesn’t include Louisville,
which is ranked tenth in both major polls. Still undefeated, Connecticut and
Villanova headline the bunch and are sniffing on the doorstep of No.1 should
Duke falter.
Because of the Big East’s balance and
depth, look for RPI's to improve dramatically once league play begins. At
the very least, the Big East should score eight NCAA berths and top all
conferences on Selection Sunday.
And depending on who wins the conference
tournament in the Big Apple, it could flirt with double-digit bids.
Mike Tranghese may have configured a dud of
a football conference, but he definitely created a hoops monster in the
process.
Conference Pew-SA
Where the Big East clearly was the winner
during the realignment process, C-USA stands as the obvious loser.
Though Memphis is a legit Final Four
contender, there’s a decent chance that the Tigers will be C-USA’s lone
representative at the Big Dance. With most computer models ranking the
league just inside the Top 20 – behind ten traditional mid-major conferences
– it would be difficult to justify more than one club getting the nod.
Houston (RPI 38) and UAB (RPI 84) stand to
have the best shots at a bid, though the two have combined for less than a
handful of quality wins — the Cougars beat LSU on Nov. 29 and Arizona on
Dec. 3, while UAB pasted Oklahoma State Wednesday night. Both will need to
add more of that to their NCAA résumés and finish with an RPI of 50 or
better to deserve serious consideration.
That will be difficult given what the C-USA
docket is likely to do to their strength of schedule.
The best way for C-USA to secure more NCAA
consideration is for someone other than Memphis to take the conference
tournament. Considering that it again will be held at the FedEx Forum, the
odds of that aren’t favorable.
Sneak peak
March Madness may be over two months away,
but this weekend does provide a few match-ups worth noting.
George Washington and N.C. State headline
the weekend with a Top 20 showdown tonight in the RBC Center. The No. 12
Colonials are undefeated and already have knocked off Maryland.
While that one may be tube-worthy,
Saturday’s showcase game between No. 22 Wisconsin and No. 23 Pittsburgh
isn’t. The over/under on the half-court minded Badgers and Panthers couldn’t
possibly top 80.
Your best bet on Saturday is a battle of
former Cinderellas, Saint Joseph’s and Gonzaga. The Zags, fresh off a loss
at Memphis, boast arguably the nation’s best player in versatile forward
Adam Morrison.
He also gets style points for that trendy
Abercrombie mop.
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02/23/2007 02:00:41 AM |
