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Greetings Sycamore Pride!
I have returned back to Terredice. What a road trip. I knew Wichita was 600+ miles away from here but it felt like we were in the car FOR. EVER. Solid 10+ hours to get there. Thanks to Coach Lansing for helping us with hotel rooms this weekend. He was able to put us in the Marriott with the team and other ISU'ers who were there. Had fantastic conversation with Matt Renn and Todd Golden Friday night. Getting to hear Matt talk about the culture around here during their success years.
I could write a book but it's nothing we don't already know. Wichita State University has one of the best fan bases in all of college sports. I can't believe how "trained" for a lack of better term, they are when it comes to the games. Their "black or gold" scheme was executed to perfection. The fans knew what to, when to cheer, and everyone was together the whole night. My first take away (I took thousands of mental notes) they don't "cheer and chant" a lot. They clap. ALOT. Every single time the ball went through the hoops for WSU they crowd simply went bonkers. Standing. Clapping. Yelling.
At the start of both halves, every one was on their feet. No one in the Roundhouse thought about sitting down until both team score. In the first half we scored first then WSU. Second half, well they all stood the first 8 minutes of the game until we finally got a FG. Their fan base is dedicated and committed to the program. I'm not getting on here to point fingers or call names. I'm just trying to create that here. The best term I can use is to "train" the crowd. Stand at the start. Clap together. Clap loud. Yell a little. We need to get everyone inside Hulman Center on the same page.
I was so envious of their promotional videos and graphics. Again, I'm not pointing fingers or wanting to blame anyone that works on our side but all their videos and graphics were clean and attention grabbing. Some of their promotional time out events were neat. Others were as bad as our tic tac toe game. One of their little games was shooting free throws with tied up news papers. Simply weird.
Another things they did I thought was really cool. A majority of their staff in the roundhouse was student athletics from other sports. The baseball team, in their baseball unis were ushers at the entrances directing us to our seats. For all promo events the softball team, in softball unis were out there helping set up and tear down if need be.
I've heard that the crowd noise didn't come through the TV very well. Granted WSU has a hell of a game against a great opponent who didn't play well (us), that place was extremely loud the entire time. So many people non-students were the ones standing up and getting the clapping going together. The students and the non-students fed of one another.
One a great side note, my buddies and I were their jumbo tron pre game. They do a "what not to wear" at a WSU game on the screens. Showed people who didn't wear black or gold (I would love to do that at HC) they showed us in our Forest shirts and I thought the place was going to come after us. In honesty though that leads me into one of my biggest points of the entire experience. There wasn't a single person that was rude to us in any way. We were decked out in ISU sweatshirts and our Forest t shirts. Many people approached us and asked if we flew in. When we told them we drove they were interested in how far the trip was and had mature conversation. We even wondered in their tiny bookstore (it's in their union which is being completely redone) and a guy kept complementing Odum and our squad as a whole. He was confident it would come down to the end of the game. If any Wichita fans are on here and read my novel of a post, kudos to the hospitality you treated my friends and I to while we were on campus and at the game.
Like said, we took a ton of notes. The Forest and the new-era Sycamore Pride that is slowing being installed around here is going to be a long work in progress. Wichita has it figured out. It's amazing when the masterpiece comes together. Be sure to get your tickets for Feb. 5th and make sure we do our best to return the favor to them when they make the trip up here for the rematch.
p.s. I never did find the state of Wichita. This game was placed in a town called Wichita.
SycLynch
I have returned back to Terredice. What a road trip. I knew Wichita was 600+ miles away from here but it felt like we were in the car FOR. EVER. Solid 10+ hours to get there. Thanks to Coach Lansing for helping us with hotel rooms this weekend. He was able to put us in the Marriott with the team and other ISU'ers who were there. Had fantastic conversation with Matt Renn and Todd Golden Friday night. Getting to hear Matt talk about the culture around here during their success years.
I could write a book but it's nothing we don't already know. Wichita State University has one of the best fan bases in all of college sports. I can't believe how "trained" for a lack of better term, they are when it comes to the games. Their "black or gold" scheme was executed to perfection. The fans knew what to, when to cheer, and everyone was together the whole night. My first take away (I took thousands of mental notes) they don't "cheer and chant" a lot. They clap. ALOT. Every single time the ball went through the hoops for WSU they crowd simply went bonkers. Standing. Clapping. Yelling.
At the start of both halves, every one was on their feet. No one in the Roundhouse thought about sitting down until both team score. In the first half we scored first then WSU. Second half, well they all stood the first 8 minutes of the game until we finally got a FG. Their fan base is dedicated and committed to the program. I'm not getting on here to point fingers or call names. I'm just trying to create that here. The best term I can use is to "train" the crowd. Stand at the start. Clap together. Clap loud. Yell a little. We need to get everyone inside Hulman Center on the same page.
I was so envious of their promotional videos and graphics. Again, I'm not pointing fingers or wanting to blame anyone that works on our side but all their videos and graphics were clean and attention grabbing. Some of their promotional time out events were neat. Others were as bad as our tic tac toe game. One of their little games was shooting free throws with tied up news papers. Simply weird.
Another things they did I thought was really cool. A majority of their staff in the roundhouse was student athletics from other sports. The baseball team, in their baseball unis were ushers at the entrances directing us to our seats. For all promo events the softball team, in softball unis were out there helping set up and tear down if need be.
I've heard that the crowd noise didn't come through the TV very well. Granted WSU has a hell of a game against a great opponent who didn't play well (us), that place was extremely loud the entire time. So many people non-students were the ones standing up and getting the clapping going together. The students and the non-students fed of one another.
One a great side note, my buddies and I were their jumbo tron pre game. They do a "what not to wear" at a WSU game on the screens. Showed people who didn't wear black or gold (I would love to do that at HC) they showed us in our Forest shirts and I thought the place was going to come after us. In honesty though that leads me into one of my biggest points of the entire experience. There wasn't a single person that was rude to us in any way. We were decked out in ISU sweatshirts and our Forest t shirts. Many people approached us and asked if we flew in. When we told them we drove they were interested in how far the trip was and had mature conversation. We even wondered in their tiny bookstore (it's in their union which is being completely redone) and a guy kept complementing Odum and our squad as a whole. He was confident it would come down to the end of the game. If any Wichita fans are on here and read my novel of a post, kudos to the hospitality you treated my friends and I to while we were on campus and at the game.
Like said, we took a ton of notes. The Forest and the new-era Sycamore Pride that is slowing being installed around here is going to be a long work in progress. Wichita has it figured out. It's amazing when the masterpiece comes together. Be sure to get your tickets for Feb. 5th and make sure we do our best to return the favor to them when they make the trip up here for the rematch.
p.s. I never did find the state of Wichita. This game was placed in a town called Wichita.
SycLynch
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