Crowd

[ABC]

Those are technical sell-outs at KU. When they are playing a nobody, there are plenty of empty seats.

[rjl]

There's a much larger captive audience in Lawrence, vance. Ask yourself how many "civilians" -- that is, non-students and faculty -- attend here vs. in Chickenhawk City, and you may find that you've answered your own comparison to Lawrence.

Captive audience? There's a lot more to do in Lawrence and Kansas City than you must think.

[vancedave56]

Regardless...we did used to sell out here too...how many in a row? Now, not very often.

[Aargh]

In the past 12 years I've had one job move to England and one move to India. My wife's job moved to KC.

I hope I'm not turning this into a political post, but jobs in Wichita are getting exported faster than caviar gets exported out of the Black Sea. My BA degree from WSU with a major in accounting gives me the ability to understand the need to protect stockholders' investments and to maximize their return on investment, but that contributes to people in Wichita not attending WSU basketball.

[ShockTalk]

The running of the video board was worse than the crowd. It should be used to help pump the crowd up. Just how many times in the second half, or for the game, did they put up the noise meter.....0, that's how many.

Yup, the crowd didn't impress a lot tonight. However, the 21 point lead at half no doubt took some edge off the excitement. Add to that the half time program which certainly had a justifiably somber effect on me from my whoopin' it up in the first half. Then, as the crowd was ready to get re-energized, they were greeted the first 5+ minutes with the Shox 4 fouls, 3 TOs, 0-3 FTs, and being outscored 15-9. Of course, still having 15 point lead, the fans were less concerned about rallying the troops as they were quited and dismayed by the Shocker play. That play continued. Missed FT, TOs, and fouls by the home team can keep a crowd quite. And most offensive up moments were greeted by very quick replies by USU and WSU soft D.

Not giving the crowd a pass, but this game had all the elements to take a crowd out of it.

Edit: Corporate seats immediately around us were poorly occupied as I counted 15 empty in the row behind, in front, and our row.

[owenc]

Those are technical sell-outs at KU. When they are playing a nobody, there are plenty of empty seats.

I suppose it depends on your definition of "plenty" but it has been several years since there were more than a few hundred open seats. The university does a pretty good job of managing the actual attendance. Even though the games are sold out well before the game they re-open the ticket office before the games and resell a lot of the unused tickets. Season ticket holders who aren't going to attend can let them know that and they will resell those seats. Student ticket holders are required to be in the building 1/2 hour before the game starts and if they aren't they will resell those seats too.

It didn't used to be that way but they've gotten really good at reselling these tickets the last 3-4 years.

[150946shox]

I have to agree that the crowd was not everything we might hope for tonight. I felt that I was not at my best. I've been at every game so far, all the home games, the Puerto Rico games, the Tulsa game. I spent a lot of my time on my feet tonight, but not as much as usual. I clapped and yelled a lot tonight, but not as usual. What can I say? I'm an old timer who has been cheering my Shox either on radio, television or live since the 50's. Mostly live since 1980. I probably spend more time standing than most of you who are 40 years younger than I. I'll admit that I had a harder time than normal tonight. I don't really know why. Maybe because of too many other things going on in my lfe.

I don't think you can always be at your best at every game. I wish I could, but after hundreds of live games and thousands of games overall, I have to admit that I was not as fired up tonight as I have been at some other games. I'm sorry. For those of you who can keep your intensity up for every game for 50 years, I applaud you. As for me, like I said, I probably spent more time standing and cheering than most of you, but I was not as good as normal. Hopefully I'll have some of my other problems resolved and will be better next time.

[WuDrWu]

Student ticket holders are required to be in the building 1/2 hour before the game starts and if they aren't they will resell those seats too.

It didn't used to be that way but they've gotten really good at reselling these tickets the last 3-4 years.

Chris, can you expound upon this? What exactly have they done to improve or change that policy? Also, thanks for Shockerradio.

[AGinNEIowa]

Based on comments here, I expected louder. I commented on our board that it was about as loud as games over christmas break, for the most part. I think at couple points in the game, it was loud enough to make a difference - going into half, that sequence was something else, and the crowd seemed to get rolling. Maybe the THANK YOU stifled the 2nd half crowd a bit? That's a sobering incident - more on it in another post....
As we were making a run from about 8 min 52-63 to 5 min 62-68 there were a couple times where it started but fizzled at another basket, most noteably was Reed's jumper at just under 7 min, and was fouled, got the +1, then he got a defensive RB, and Medlin made a layup to get 66-59 - I thought that would be a crowd killer. Then Stutz scored and Pane charged and the crowd came back to life.

I loved the Clapping at start of the halves. Usually you see that until the home team scored. It was great that it went until we did. And the Pace of the Claps was great, that impressed me.

[shock]

I agree with shocktalk. The video board was embarrassing. No noise meter? No Tourè saying get on your feet shocker fans? I was certain if the crowd didn't get back into the second half usu would win. Nobody did anything. That coach knew how to handle a loud crowd as well. Those timeouts after usu made shots at the end killed the atmosphere. Props to the team for trying with that ally op to dwill. That would have brought the crowd into it. I will tell you though, when the crowd was in it, it was loud. My throat is very sore and my voice is gone.

[proshox]

The crowd had moments where it was very loud. If I was in charge there would be a few specific changes to game management:

1) stop whoring out the student athletes. David Kyles should be able to hear the crowd go nuts when he hits a three for the sixth time in the half without having to hear it interrupted by "this three is sponsored by...". Or a sick Carl Hall should be able to drink the crowd's enthusiasm without it getting drowned out by dancing Don Hall. Note I refuse to mention the sponsors - they should know better. I can't think of a more tacky way to be.

2) the videos should be short and to the point. I would rather have it off then to have the energy sucking pomp and circumstance that happens now. It is so boring and long. Not a single person I know likes it. My wife actually laughs at it.

3) under no circumstance should there be promos at the final officials time out. It is too important to keep the home court atmosphere going.

4) use the video to pump up the crowd. Shocker meter, TM, MTXE... We have the tools please use them.

[fansince80s]

I would vote due to too many gimmicks between timeouts. At one point crowd was getting into it, than had to stop for some kids driving those small cars around cones???

Not to mention too many contests....how many times must we watch guys trying to shoot hoops sitting in chairs???

[fansince80s]

I forgot to add the dance cam....only one side of arena can do this anyway due to no cameras on the other side.

[AGinNEIowa]

I would vote due to too many gimmicks between timeouts. At one point crowd was getting into it, than had to stop for some kids driving those small cars around cones???

Not to mention too many contests....how many times must we watch guys trying to shoot hoops sitting in chairs???

That was my favorite timeout diversion

[shockerfan]

The team didn't bring their A game the whole 40 minutes and the crowd definately didn't either. I will admit I wasn't my usual "annoying" self LOL. I don't really know why. I was a little drained after being in KC all day at my daughter's cheer competition and then driving back just in time to get into my seat before the game. I guess that could have affected me. The 2nd half presentation was definately moving and sobering. I did find myself reflecting alot right after halftime. I guess that could have affected some also.

Anyway, overall I was disappointed in the crowd also. We definately didn't put our best foot forward or live up to the hype. But it happens, just glad the team pulled out the win. All any of us (players or fans) can do now is come back and try to be better the next game. I wonder if crowd excitement is starting to slide a little bit because we are starting to get a little spoiled? Our fans have pretty high expecations game in and game out and I wonder if we just don't show excitement when we feel the team is not exceeding those high expectations. I don't know, but it is a thought. Maybe some have forgotten how horrible the 90's were and we are starting to take these wins for granted a little bit.

I don't think anyone needs to worry about the atmosphere for the Creighton game. I don't care what happens. It will be loud.