If you win, more people will watch than if you lose. As previous coaches ran Rice basketball completely into the ground, attendance dwindled. The same thing is happening in football (though attendance wasn't good to begin with). Once that happens the only thing that brings the crowds back is winning - sustained success.

But Rice is the size that it is, and realistically that means avg 35000 tops for a good football team and 3500 for a good basketball team. That's reality.

(03-21-2017 03:48 PM)Houston Owl Wrote:  I don't need to do the math. Yesterday's attendance was disgraceful.

Third-tier postseason tournaments rarely produce good crowds. Short notice for a midweek game against a mediocre and/or anonymous opponent with only single-ticket sales is a recipe for an arena with way more empty seats than butt-filled ones.

Case in point: So far, this year's CBI has had one game with an attendance of more than 2,000. Rice-UVU is the third-best attended game to this point.

This year's CIT has been even worse. Its "best" attendance so far is 2,031, and more than half the games have been played before triple-digit crowds.

I actually thought last night's attendance was decent. Crowd was super loud for 1500. The 800 we had for drake a few years ago was a disgrace and led to Dylan ennis, kazemi and others leaving.

(03-21-2017 04:02 PM)texowl2 Wrote:  I know it is spring break, but only at Rice would the team play games without cheerleaders or the band. Just more of the kind of stuff that drives me crazy and says D3.

It's sad if no one showed up from cheerleaders or band. Even ODU, on New Years Eve, was able to get enough of their band together, plus their cheerleaders, to have a presence at that basketball game this year. ODU is a more local school, in some ways, but they at least tried.

As for what VCU has, don't let the tuition squeeze for VA public universities fool you - the basketball team is well funded, with strong corporate partnerships. See this local column noting what Wade was leaving behind (obvious homer slant to the column, but Woody usually calls it straight):

Quote:VCU is one of the best jobs in the country and not just at a mid-major school.

The coach is paid well. The program does not have to compete with football. There is a basketball-only practice facility.

Everything that can be done to enhance men’s basketball is done, from taking partial qualifiers and letting them sit out a year to adding money to lure top schools from lower-ranked conferences to the Siegel Center.

There are recruiting advantages inherent for a large, public, urban university with a broad base of academic programs that is committed to offering full cost of attendance. The string of 99 sellouts, complete with some of the most vocal, rabid fans in the country, gives VCU an extraordinary home-court advantage.

All that is impressive. Add a salary that currently sits at $1.4 million per year, plus incentives, and undoubtedly has room to grow, and the case for leaving VCU for just any “power conference” job is not particularly strong.

source: http://www.richmond.com/sports/college/s...ac401.html

And it's official. Mark Berman got Rhoades to officially confirm it.

https://twitter.com/MarkBermanFox26/stat...29/video/1

And just like that, Rhodes becomes just another of the long string of BB coaches to leave Rice with a losing record.

(03-21-2017 04:25 PM)temchugh Wrote:  And just like that, Rhodes becomes just another of the long string of BB coaches to leave Rice with a losing record.

Zing!

There's been a suggestion on the VCU board that you guys hire King Rice because, well, y'know.

Makes me wonder what VCU's offer actually was.

(03-21-2017 04:27 PM)Cyniclone Wrote:  There's been a suggestion on the VCU board that you guys hire King Rice because, well, y'know.

We've already had a coach named Rice.

My thought on Pera albeit I really don't know him at all is that he seems to be a good X's and O's guy, but I just don't know if he has the outgoing personality to be a head coach? Anyway that's a quick thought from me on the possibility of him getting the Rice head coaching gig.

There seem to be a lot of really good candidates out there and the key as others have said would be to act quickly. Carlin Hartman is an intriguing name. If he excited the existing players, I think it might not be a bad choice. I liked the two coaches we just saw at Tudor - USF hired a guy from Columbia and I think Utah Valley made a good choice too so I'm sure we can get a good one.

I don't have any ill will towards Rhoades. He worked his butt off and turned things around pretty quickly. I hope he does a better job coaching defense at VCU than he did here. And I think he'll do much better than Scott Thompson or Fred Goldsmith (or Cristy McKinney) did after they left Rice.

We also lose our best ballboy. Damn.

I went to Wikipedia to see something about VCU's basketball program and it already had Mike as their coach. They have 16 appearances in the NCAA since 1980 and a large student body. They play in the A-10, which is a great basketball conference with schools such as LaSalle, Rhode Island, St Joseph's, and St Bonaventure (and UMass where a certain Dr. Erving played) that have long and deep history in college basketball. I suspect if you lined up the A-10 year by year versus the SWC, the WAC, and CUSA, they would be more than competitive and possibly outclass our conferences. Mike gets to go back to an area where he has coached for many years and knows well and close to where he grew up. And most importantly, which I suspect had much to do with his decision as with Thompson, Goldsmith, and McKinney, he gets great support from students and administration and a team that was in the NCAA's this year. As opposed to the uphill battle on so many fronts he would have continued to deal with here. Hopefully, his replacement will be more like Hatfield, keep the trend going and have some quality years. Willis had mixed results at best.

At the end of the day, not sure I can blame him and I hope he has great success.

At the AD summit/meeting for the Owl Club, I asked JK to do everything he could to keep Mike-I just wonder what that was and maybe all the above factors sealed the deal anyway.

(03-21-2017 03:56 PM)Cyniclone Wrote:  I don't know how true this is, but I read somewhere that Rhoades removed himself from consideration for the VCU job after Shaka left because he didn't want to leave a school after just one season.

"Removed himself from consideration" is loaded with just about any kind of interpretation you could possibly make.

I think that a respectable counter-offer has something to do with it... professional reputation probably does as well. In all honesty, I wish Rice had treated him better in terms of filling the arena and other stuff that would benefit both Rhodes and Rice. I think Rice should do well, but if Rhodes has higher aspirations, it's probably easier for him to leverage the VCU job into a high-profile position than it is to do so at Rice. I respect his decision making, and I think he did a very good job here at Rice, and I am grateful to him for his demeanor and professionalism.

(03-21-2017 05:24 PM)texowl2 Wrote:  I went to Wikipedia to see something about VCU's basketball program and it already had Mike as their coach.

I am tempted to say "not any more, it has Tony the Tiger", but I'd probably have my wiki account suspended...

Van Gundy

(03-21-2017 03:03 PM)Houston Owl Wrote:  Attendance Last Night: 1540

Attendance Last VCU Home Game: 7630

BINGO

Rhoades to VCU just showed up on the crawler at the bottom of the SEC Network broadcast for tonight's Rice-A&M baseball game.

Only tweet I saw from a Rice basketball person today was good news maybe (or maybe not - tough to tell for sure)?

Joey Rodriguez‏ @Coachjrod12 3 hours ago

Want to talk about a connected group?! You should see my boys at @RiceBasketball!! Wow! #thecreed

(03-21-2017 08:04 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  Only tweet I saw from a Rice basketball person today was good news maybe (or maybe not - tough to tell for sure)?

Joey Rodriguez‏ @Coachjrod12 3 hours ago

Want to talk about a connected group?! You should see my boys at @RiceBasketball!! Wow! #thecreed

Evans did retweet a VCU fan (possibily a friend?) that said that Evans has fans at VCU/the he should go with Rhoades.

Edit: Looks like he took away the retweet and just "liked" the tweet. Also deleted his emoji faces he had initially posted.

(03-21-2017 08:04 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  Only tweet I saw from a Rice basketball person today was good news maybe (or maybe not - tough to tell for sure)?

Joey Rodriguez‏ @Coachjrod12 3 hours ago

Want to talk about a connected group?! You should see my boys at @RiceBasketball!! Wow! #thecreed

Hmmm. Connected with Rice? Or with Coach Rhoades and hope to follow him? Or they're all connected to the Internet and social media checking out their options?

I agree, FBO. It is tough to tell what "the catalyst during VCU's 2011 run to the Final Four" intended to convey.

Such a bummer. I don't blame Rhoades one bit: he is moving up. Whom I blame is Rice, its administration, its culture, everything. I think someone (maybe 69?) said we get the athletic program (in terms of student turnout, win/loss, conference affiliation, you name it) we deserve. I agree 100%.