(12-12-2012 02:51 PM)eh9198 Wrote: ...but Chris is doing a great job, most of you say...
He has in a lot of areas. I give Chris credit for having done a good job of keeping this program in good financial shape. I give him credit for getting Mr. Stephens to give the money for the new arena. I thought we'd never get one. He's hired the best women's basketball coach in the state, and one of the best in the country, who has turned this program around and is without a doubt the second best in the Sun Belt.
The men's program hasn't improved one notch as far as I can see. We're still about the third or fourth best team in the league, and that varies from year to year. Our attendance is bad, and while we are evidently staying afloat financially, it is pretty evident that the number of butts in the seats is sliding yearly.
We have no TV at all. We play second and third fiddle to the hogs, and even the sows for the Cincinnati game last week on our primary radio station. As far as I know, we have no coaches radio shows, and if we do, it hasn't been advertised, and what we've had for a coaches TV show probably doesn't get 10 viewers on Comcast. I even gave up trying to watch it when it didn't even come on several times for the entire thirty minutes.
We don't do much at all in the way of promotions. Promotions draw new fans. Fans buy hot dogs, pop, and beer. They keep the cobwebs off the empty seats and put real live people in those seats. And maybe, those fans will come back to a game and buy a ticket next time.
Perhaps the school administration is telling him that all they want is to keep the program financially solvent. I've suspected since Newell left, that perhaps the higher-ups want to keep this program exactly where it is. I like Chris personally. He has always been very nice to me. But something isn't clicking out there, and I don't know what it is, but we sure aren't progressing in anything other than women's basketball. This post is about our basketball programs, and has nothing to do with the minor sports, and I don't know much if anything about them, although I do enjoy watching the baseball team play.
As I said, he's done well in many areas, but there are some things that we fans think that could be done to improve things.