UCONN Game Thread

[goldenhurricane2]

It has more to do with Tulsa taking far fewer kids from the Tulsa area.

So if we would have got shake Milton somehow, we’d be selling out games? I find that hard to believe... TU would have to be undefeated, too 25, wins over 2-3 other top 25 teams, nba draft prospects, and give away free tickets to get a sellout with our own “fans”.

We’ll have a sellout (or close to it) when Wichita State comes in, but it’ll be half full with their fans who actually give a shat about their program.

 

[URedskin54]

So if we would have got shake Milton somehow, we’d be selling out games? I find that hard to believe... TU would have to be undefeated, too 25, wins over 2-3 other top 25 teams, nba draft prospects, and give away free tickets to get a sellout with our own “fans”.

We’ll have a sellout (or close to it) when Wichita State comes in, but it’ll be half full with their fans who actually give a shat about their program.

Think he meant students

 

[astonmartin708]

Think he meant students

Yup

 

[TU_BLA]

So if we would have got shake Milton somehow, we’d be selling out games? I find that hard to believe... TU would have to be undefeated, too 25, wins over 2-3 other top 25 teams, nba draft prospects, and give away free tickets to get a sellout with our own “fans”.

We’ll have a sellout (or close to it) when Wichita State comes in, but it’ll be half full with their fans who actually give a shat about their program.

They're accepting the same number of Tulsa kids...it's the number of Tulsa kids who can't wait to get out of Tulsa that is increasing. Heck, in my church alone there have been 4-5 National Merit Semifinalists/scholars the last 2 years...not one even considered TU (and one's dad is the color analyst on TU football...she went to A&M).

 

[goldenhurricane2]

They're accepting the same number of Tulsa kids...it's the number of Tulsa kids who can't wait to get out of Tulsa that is increasing. Heck, in my church alone there have been 4-5 National Merit Semifinalists/scholars the last 2 years...not one even considered TU (and one's dad is the color analyst on TU football...she went to A&M).

It’s the culture in the city. Absolutely zero city pride. Other cities aren’t like this.

 

[astonmartin708]

They're accepting the same number of Tulsa kids...it's the number of Tulsa kids who can't wait to get out of Tulsa that is increasing. Heck, in my church alone there have been 4-5 National Merit Semifinalists/scholars the last 2 years...not one even considered TU (and one's dad is the color analyst on TU football...she went to A&M).

They're accepting the same number of kids, but they've increased the tuition cost so much that a lot of the acceptees either can't afford it period (even with financial aid) or they're living at home at some point during their TU career meaning they're not going to come all the way back to campus just for a basketball game. Trust me. I had a lot of friends who did that from the Tulsa area just a few years ago. Add that to the fact that they've always been pretty abysmal at marketing to the fraternities and sororities which make up a significant population of the school, and that a lot of the international students just don't give a crap and you're usually only left with a smattering of students left over to go to games.

 

[goldenhurricane2]

They're accepting the same number of kids, but they've increased the tuition cost so much that a lot of the acceptees either can't afford it period (even with financial aid) or they're living at home at some point during their TU career meaning they're not going to come all the way back to campus just for a basketball game. Trust me. I had a lot of friends who did that from the Tulsa area just a few years ago. Add that to the fact that they've always been pretty abysmal at marketing to the fraternities and sororities which make up a significant population of the school, and that a lot of the international students just don't give a crap and you're usually only left with a smattering of students left over to go to games.

The fraternities and sororities always came out in full force when I was there and that wasn’t that long ago. Even the football players came out and supported... until the collegian ran a bs article calling out the students for being too rowdy and ol Yolanda Taylor getting her depends in a twist. The university shat the bed on that whole incident. They acted way too high and mighty and now not many students come to games bc they don’t want to be called out for getting too “rowdy”

 

[Gmoney4WW]

The fraternities and sororities always came out in full force when I was there and that wasn’t that long ago. Even the football players came out and supported... until the collegian ran a bs article calling out the students for being too rowdy and ol Yolanda Taylor getting her depends in a twist. The university shat the bed on that whole incident. They acted way too high and mighty and now not many students come to games bc they don’t want to be called out for getting too “rowdy”

That would've been a challenge to me. I don't usually back down from challenges.

 

[astonmartin708]

The fraternities and sororities always came out in full force when I was there and that wasn’t that long ago. Even the football players came out and supported... until the collegian ran a bs article calling out the students for being too rowdy and ol Yolanda Taylor getting her depends in a twist. The university shat the bed on that whole incident. They acted way too high and mighty and now not many students come to games bc they don’t want to be called out for getting too “rowdy”

The fraternities were hit or miss when I was at TU or still doing some work on campus 09-14. You would see a smattering of their members but not a ton. (At least not on weeknight games. "Drinking night" games were usually better attended) Same for sororities. Football players tended to go to most of the games. That's true. The athletes supported their own.

I don't remember a collegian article at all. But Yolanda Taylor can go jump off a cliff in my opinion. That woman is the devil.

 

[cmullinsTU]

I don't remember a collegian article at all.

The article came out right before your time, I think 2007 or 2008. At that point, the football team had even attempted to re-introduce Reynold's Rowdies. About 20-30 of them would stand in the front row behind the cheerleaders and relentlessly heckle the opposing team. Someone from the collegian, who is not a sports fan, was on photography duty. A football player said something that offended her and she wrote about it in the collegian. Almost overnight the football players were no longer allowed to be members of Reynold's Rowdies.

I typically stood near them and never heard them say anything you don't hear at a typical basketball game.

 

[goldenhurricane2]

The article came out right before your time, I think 2007 or 2008. At that point, the football team had even attempted to re-introduce Reynold's Rowdies. About 20-30 of them would stand in the front row behind the cheerleaders and relentlessly heckle the opposing team. Someone from the collegian, who is not a sports fan, was on photography duty. A football player said something that offended her and she wrote about it in the collegian. Almost overnight the football players were no longer allowed to be members of Reynold's Rowdies.

I typically stood near them and never heard them say anything you don't hear at a typical basketball game.

Yep this is exactly what happened. My whole house used to come to games together and get into the games as much as we could. But time after time we were told to tone it down or some other bs... no one did anything out of line, just your normal heckling and rowdiness, but for Yolanda and others it was over the top and she went to each house and lectured us and others about how we were a poor representation of the university on more than one occasion. So of course guys stopped going to the games... no one wants to feel like a criminal for getting rowdy and loud at a sporting event.

 

[astonmartin708]

They were still trying the Reynolds Rowdies thing up to maybe 2013ish(?). No idea if they've continued it or not.

My fraternity still hurled tons of abuse. I remember the atmosphere of that UCF game with Jordan Jr. and AJ Rompza. My god. I didn't think the Knights would get back to Disney World that night!

 

[TU_BLA]

The fraternities were hit or miss when I was at TU or still doing some work on campus 09-14. You would see a smattering of their members but not a ton. (At least not on weeknight games. "Drinking night" games were usually better attended) Same for sororities. Football players tended to go to most of the games. That's true. The athletes supported their own.

I don't remember a collegian article at all. But Yolanda Taylor can go jump off a cliff in my opinion. That woman is the devil.

Yolanda is no longer at TU. Mike Mills is the Dean of Students now.

 

[TU_BLA]

The other day there was a small group of students sporting "Caniac" t-shirts.

BTW, I remember the rowdies. I remember some of the football players being in that group and never being so out of line. It's not like a Texas Tech thing where they threw batteries at opposing players. I remember the Pike who would throw the giant Penguin up behind FTs in the 2nd half. We need some of you old school ROwdies to come back and lead it for a few games and show these young whipper snappers how to do it right!

And anyone who wants to tell me to sit down during key moments of the game can suck it. I stood the entire 2 OTs the other night and no one behind us said a thing. There were a good number of us standing as well.

 

[Gold*]

We can all agree Yolanda is terrible. I think we’re finally getting somewhere.

As for the issues with students, my understanding is it’s just not a priority to them.

I’ve heard some BIZARRE arguments, like the better students now don’t like sports. I went to TU with some very bright, well recognized, and now highly successful people. They went to all the games.

I just think we lost the magic with them at some point. They show up a couple of times a year. But they should do better. I promise there isn’t anything better to do on campus when the basketball team is playing.

 

[Gmoney4WW]

Too many granola eaters?

 

[TU_BLA]

We can all agree Yolanda is terrible. I think we’re finally getting somewhere.

As for the issues with students, my understanding is it’s just not a priority to them.

I’ve heard some BIZARRE arguments, like the better students now don’t like sports. I went to TU with some very bright, well recognized, and now highly successful people. They went to all the games.

I just think we lost the magic with them at some point. They show up a couple of times a year. But they should do better. I promise there isn’t anything better to do on campus when the basketball team is playing.

I am seriously going to blame Doug Wojcik for this lack of passion in students, at least with basketball. Students were still going to games in high numbers when Phillips was coaching the awful years. Tubby, Steve Robinson, Self, and Phillips all engaged students to be a part of the program through their fandom and attendance. Wojcik couldn't really be bothered with any of that. I remember Self serving late night breakfast during winter finals once...and students loved it. He went and talked to a lot of them in the cafeteria. His players laughed at him for wearing the gloves and hairnet. That connection endears the program to regular students. I felt like Rashad Ray playing the drums with the band after wins during his time here started to win some of that student support back. We need more of that type of thing. Heck, we need Shea to be that program pumper for students. He, more than anyone, knows what it's like to be a student here and have that support of classmates. I just remember that everyone on campus knew exactly when there was a home game and who it was against. I'm not sure they even really know or if it is marketed aggressively or if it's a pretty passive info thing now. I'm guessing the latter.

 

[Gold*]

Wojcik was really good at reaching out to students early on. And they were receptive. I think a lot issues arose in the later JP years. It was better under Wojcik — CBI — but then he became so negative and sort of gave up on reaching out. But attendance was decent the second year of Manning and the rest of the Shaq and Juice years.

 

[astonmartin708]

My first year was when it seemed to start to turn on Wojcik (The Year We've Been Waiting For). There was a definite disconnect between the students that year and some of the guys who were role players on that team. It really got a lot better with guys like Shaq, Juice, Ray, Swanny, etc... Not sure the atmosphere these days.

I'll never forget Wojcik having to come over during a house dinner and apologizing for a player (who will remain nameless) having broken stuff at our fraternity during a party at Sigma Chi. I thought what he said was genuine. He even mentioned having the team over to the house to do a little exhibition type thing in the backyard there since we had the hoop and the large(ish) concrete court. He never followed through, and the things that were broken were never fixed by the program or the school at large. There was an opportunity to build good will out of a bad situation and he totally blew it. It took a couple years for many people to actually care about the program again.

Eventually, some of us (like myself) were working in and around the program via workstudy and we started really trying to pump it up but for a while there, Doug had tarnished at least one on campus relationship.

 

[TU Sepp]

A far cry from the early 70's when Ken Hays was coaching and the student section on many occasions was warned and sometimes T'd up by the refs for crossing the rowdy line. The team played off that energy and many times those game ended in the "W" column for TU.

 

[TU_BLA]

My first year was when it seemed to start to turn on Wojcik (The Year We've Been Waiting For). There was a definite disconnect between the students that year and some of the guys who were role players on that team. It really got a lot better with guys like Shaq, Juice, Ray, Swanny, etc... Not sure the atmosphere these days.

I'll never forget Wojcik having to come over during a house dinner and apologizing for a player (who will remain nameless) having broken stuff at our fraternity during a party at Sigma Chi. I thought what he said was genuine. He even mentioned having the team over to the house to do a little exhibition type thing in the backyard there since we had the hoop and the large(ish) concrete court. He never followed through, and the things that were broken were never fixed by the program or the school at large. There was an opportunity to build good will out of a bad situation and he totally blew it. It took a couple years for many people to actually care about the program again.

Eventually, some of us (like myself) were working in and around the program via workstudy and we started really trying to pump it up but for a while there, Doug had tarnished at least one on campus relationship.

Tubby was the best at it, IMO. He had such a genuinely nice disposition towards everyone. I used to talk to him working at the Mabee Gym. Pooh was the same way and probably one of the reasons he meshes with Tubby so well. Pooh was literally the first person I met when I came to TU. He was shooting in Mabee and came over and talked to me while I sat at the little desk "monitoring" the usage.

I know a lot of people said Robinson was aloof..he was an introvert for sure, but he could at least carry on a conversation if one was happening. And Self would talk to anyone who was within ear shot. I don't know much about Buzz. I used to talk to JP quite a bit about his camp stuff too. I ran into him at the BA Post Office about a month ago. He couldn't coach, but he was a nice guy. I'll leave Wojcik alone...we've beat him up a bunch on here.

I don't have any info on Manning or Haith since I stopped my daily affiliation with TU as a student or an employee. I can tell you that MOST of the coaches in all the sports are genuinely nice people. During the TU employee appreciation week stuff, it was always fun to see a different, non-sideline side of them. Kathy McConnell-Miller was my absolute favorite coach. She was freaking hilarious. While you would see a lot of coaches participating in whatever silly events they had for employees...not all of the coaches did participate