(12-13-2013 09:49 AM)Niner National Wrote:  

(12-12-2013 11:45 PM)Ole Blue Wrote:  

(12-12-2013 11:25 PM)olliebaba Wrote:  Honestly, womens games are terribly exciting to watch. You're really sucked into the game atmosphere and start to behave like one usually does during a close mens game. I enjoy the Miner womens games immensely. I just wish I lived closer like I used to (about 5 minutes away) so that I could go to more athletic events of all types. Can't do that anymore. Sigh.

Absolutely agreed. That's what makes MT women's hoops games so appealing. We wouldn't bring in high numbers if it wasn't for the culture established.

How were you able to establish that sort of culture for women's basketball, but not for men's basketball?

So strange that you get more fans to WBB than MBB. Definitely shows there is potential at MT for huge MBB crowds too though. I'm hoping we can get the MT-WKU games on TV every year since you guys can apparently put 10,000+ in the arena for those. That would make the conference look very good on national television.

Girls basketball is HUGE in TN. Just in our city, there are 3 high schools ranked in the USA Today Top 25.

Pat Head Summitt had a lot to do with that.

While our teams have seemingly always been very good (but not as established as LaTech and ODU of year's past), our head coach is a Barnum and Bailey-style promoter. He loves the media.

And he'll buy you a cold one if he sees you out on the town.

He also has a strong following from his former home town of Shelbyville, TN.

Women's hoops is a money maker at MT, believe it or not.

That is pretty awesome.

(12-13-2013 06:12 PM)BamaScorpio69 Wrote:  That is pretty awesome.

Indeed. It is amazing what Insell has built down there.

It makes me lament what Paul Sanderford built here and was squandered.

(12-13-2013 06:46 PM)Hilltopper2K Wrote:  

(12-13-2013 06:12 PM)BamaScorpio69 Wrote:  That is pretty awesome.

Indeed. It is amazing what Insell has built down there.

It makes me lament what Paul Sanderford built here and was squandered.

I hope WKU can get back on track before long. I know the MT fan base typically considers WKU to be one of our biggest women's hoops rivals. I love the possibility of getting huge crowds for our games, but I can definitely see the "squandered" aspect as when I went a few years ago we had nearly as many fans as WKU :/ (That was before Coach Clark-Heard took over)

That is extremely impressive. I recently went to my first women's Miner game. UTEP was undefeated at the time and there is talk that they may have the best team ever. Unfortunately, there was only about 1000 in attendance. This after a promotion where you could catch the women's game and the men's game for free.

I will admit that it isn't anything like men's basketball but we still had a great time. We had no trouble finding a parking, we got to pick where we wanted to sit, and it was totally free.

I hate to rain on the parade but this is misleading. While we draw well for women's hoops, It's nowhere near as well as these numbers imply. Out of 3 games 2 have drawn over 10k. The first was UT which is a huge draw for obvious reasons. Now don't think it was all ut fans because it wasn't. The Murph was Blue for sure that night but still not typical crowd by any stretch of the imagination. The second >10k game was because we had about 8k elementary students and chaperones. We won't repeat anywhere near those numbers the rest of the season. Men will out draw women by the end of the season.

Still impressive. Take those numbers out and I bet we are still in the top 10. Besides, who's to say that we won't do this every year in some fashion? I realize we may not be able to play UT every year, but there are other options.

(12-12-2013 07:02 PM)Dudleytop Wrote:  To borrow a line from the great 'beed, wait till you Muts fans find out that women's basketball isn't even a real sport!

Jealousy rears its ugly head.