I went to the Sold Out Oakland vs UofD game on Friday. UofD gave them a pretty good game until the last 5 minutes or so. A couple of interesting observations:
1) If I were Dr Lyke, I would ask Oakland for a video taping of the whole game including the time out entertainment. It was simply an outstanding entertainment value. It was like being at a smaller version of a P5 game.
2) Oakland was rocking.....the music during timeouts and interaction with the crowd was awesome.
3) Oakland broke their attendance record where 4400+ attended (standing room only). They did this against UofD not a top 10 opponent. Even more interesting, this was during spring break.Could you imagine 4400 in our lower bowl, it would be awesome.
4) Oakland set attendance record by averaging 3100 plus per game. They have to compete with Pistons, UofD, WSU, etc......they make no excuses.
5) The energy from the crowd was electric and obviously the players fed off that energy. The energy made the game exciting for the players and fans.
6) The Oakland crowd erupted when at halftime, they announced a couple of P5 teams will play at Oakland next season, one notable team is the UofGeorgia.

Dr Lyke has got to figure out a way to get an average of 2000 students to attend the men's basketball games. Certainly if we are not moving back to Bowen, then there has to be something different than busing students to the convo. Busing is not convenient for the students and they are telling EMU by not coming to the games. When there's no one in attendance, it's not fun for the players or the fans. Obviously there are not many of the better players that want to play in an empty arena.

Finally, the good news is we have a great basketball facility. If we can not figure out how to get the students to attend the games at the Convo, we may not be able to afford playing there and be forced back to campus. There's no way I can be convinced Oakland should have passed us up in basketball. They do not play football, maybe EMU should cut some sports (not football) so we concentrate on what's important to our national image (football, basketball, and baseball, and maybe hockey). Winning is the biggest contributor to attendance, hopefully our athletic department can implement some strategies to boost attendance when we start winning next year.

Cut some sports? No. Our history is to cut men's sports. Gymnastics, tennis, soccer. All gone. It hasn't helped football one bit.

Good story Luckey. I reluctantly made it over to the Knapp Center Saturday to catch a meaningless Drake basketball game vs Loyola, who is also bad. Drake is 7-23, 2-16 in the MO Valley. Let me tell you, it felt like vintage Bowen! 3,362 showed up and it was loud and exciting and Drake got a win in OT.

The key is Drake's basketball arena is right in the middle of campus and kids show up win or lose.

For the record, Northern Iowa, a good but not great team this year in the MO Valley drew 6,552 for their win over Evansville.

No more excuses, folks.