(01-30-2023 11:29 AM)Top Dawg Wrote:  In a rare occurrence, we didn't have any kid activities on Saturday, so the five of us took the opportunity to make the trip from Fairfax to our first game at AUBC. Even the upper deck seats in a corner were great. Nice viewing lines and easy to see the video board. I was very impressed with the AUBC. Wish the pep band had played more pre-game. Trying to see if my son and I can make it to the GA ST game on 2/24 and stay overnight, since he will have all-state band auditions at JMU on 2/25.

I'm not sure if the pep band has been lassoed, reprimanded, handcuffed, or what verb is appropriate or factual, but the product has declined this year. Significantly.

Just wanted to chime in on the "old CAA." William & Mary is the only school left from the original CAA, having been in the conference since its inception. I'll give an asterisk to UNCW, which has been a member continuously since 1984, and to Towson, which joined, left, and re-joined.

I'm reminded of those classic rock bands who changed lineups dozens of times over the past forty years, and now the only guy left at the state fair is the drummer.

Truthfully, the Sun Belt is just as bad. Only a few original schools left, and LOTS of one-night stands along the way. But the Sun Belt seems to have a good, stable mix right now. With Delaware and probably others in the CAA itching to go FBS, and with football being a related but separate entity, change is the only constant in the CAA's future.

The CAA is so far removed from its origins as a collection of VA and MD schools...now it's basically CUSA for all sports but football.

(01-28-2023 06:43 PM)JMURocks Wrote:  Box score says 6429 attended, high for the year?

Selfishly, I like the mid-afternoon weekend home games. Wonder how/if it effects attendance compared to a 7-7:30 start?

(01-30-2023 12:35 PM)olddawg Wrote:  

(01-28-2023 06:43 PM)JMURocks Wrote:  Box score says 6429 attended, high for the year?

Selfishly, I like the mid-afternoon weekend home games. Wonder how/if it effects attendance compared to a 7-7:30 start?

3-5pm would likely be a little better for those traveling home a long distance, or those who have young kids they want in bed. Not sure if it makes as big a difference as Fri/Sat/Sun vs midweek, or having a good opponent (ODU vs EMU/Valpo) does.

(01-30-2023 12:35 PM)olddawg Wrote:  

(01-28-2023 06:43 PM)JMURocks Wrote:  Box score says 6429 attended, high for the year?

Selfishly, I like the mid-afternoon weekend home games. Wonder how/if it effects attendance compared to a 7-7:30 start?

The Saturday mid-afternoon start is ideal IMO. It promotes student attendance (so not to interfere with their later weekend party plans), and for the out-of-town and community fans, who have to schedule travel, or attend to child rearing needs.

Not sure how much flexibility or control JMU has over the start times on Saturday games, but the 4pm start, finishing around 6pm, seems about perfect. Hope this can continued.

(01-30-2023 11:56 AM)Deez Nuts Wrote:  

(01-30-2023 11:29 AM)Top Dawg Wrote:  In a rare occurrence, we didn't have any kid activities on Saturday, so the five of us took the opportunity to make the trip from Fairfax to our first game at AUBC. Even the upper deck seats in a corner were great. Nice viewing lines and easy to see the video board. I was very impressed with the AUBC. Wish the pep band had played more pre-game. Trying to see if my son and I can make it to the GA ST game on 2/24 and stay overnight, since he will have all-state band auditions at JMU on 2/25.

I'm not sure if the pep band has been lassoed, reprimanded, handcuffed, or what verb is appropriate or factual, but the product has declined this year. Significantly.

The pep band hasn't been a home court advantage since Chad started to be lassoed. I could never understand why our pep band couldn't be similar to size and enthusiasm as bands such as Mason or VCU? How can having 100 enthusiastic student fans at every home game not be a great thing. We have 500+ with previous experience. I suspect the student desire is there but I'm not sure the desire exist elsewhere.

Chad had a vision to make the pep band exciting and relevant. That vision left with him. The people running that group since don’t view it as an opportunity to create something exciting, they view it as an obligation. And it’s changed hands again, now that Amy is no longer working with the bands. So the result is boring maintenance of status quo.

Since the 90's, the pep band has been forced to be less and less.
I saw this coming a long time ago.
Honestly, the only way it's going to change is if there is a vocal majority asking for a change, and that isn't going to happen.
Its identity is gone and it is 100% on the admin for that. Perhaps it will come back, but I don't think that will be happening any time soon.

Just look to who is running the group now. Who else would be responsible for the group being lackluster?

I think the cheerleaders really need some changes too, at least as long as the pep band is gonna be mirroring the cheers instead of doing their own thing that will get the whole crowd more engaged.

There's big, big difference between "Defense, Madison, defense!" *clap clap* and just "Defense!" *clap clap* if you want the cheer to actually spread beyond the cheerleaders and pep band. Same with "J-M-U! Let's go Dukes!" *clap* vs "Let's go Dukes!" *clap*. Some other cheers like "Shoot for two JMU, shoot for two! Or three!" and "Take it away, defense, take it away!" should just absolutely be completely dropped by the pep band, preferably scrapped altogether.

Then of course I can never mention anything like this without again saying how much I despise the free throw thing and refuse to change to that crap. No one likes it, no one joins in on it. Bring back "Whoosh! DUUUUUUUUUKES" for the love of everything holy. The new that's not so new anymore is pretty much just a copy of GMCC. Why the hell would we copy them when we had something so much better? Is there anything more JMU than "DUUUUUUUUUKES"?!

(01-30-2023 02:41 PM)Longhorn Wrote:  

(01-30-2023 12:35 PM)olddawg Wrote:  

(01-28-2023 06:43 PM)JMURocks Wrote:  Box score says 6429 attended, high for the year?

Selfishly, I like the mid-afternoon weekend home games. Wonder how/if it effects attendance compared to a 7-7:30 start?

The Saturday mid-afternoon start is ideal IMO. It promotes student attendance (so not to interfere with their later weekend party plans), and for the out-of-town and community fans, who have to schedule travel, or attend to child rearing needs.

Not sure how much flexibility or control JMU has over the start times on Saturday games, but the 4pm start, finishing around 6pm, seems about perfect. Hope this can continued.

This came up on a SBC thread about MBB and WBB games starting at the same time. Other SBC posters stated that the home team can set their own tip time. I'd imagine the only exception would be if ESPN requested a specific timeslot for espn/2/u.

(01-30-2023 10:55 AM)Hart Foundation Wrote:  

(01-30-2023 09:42 AM)AssyrianDuke Wrote:  Hart is officially in the "CAA Forever" crew?

Not at all. But also not pretending the new Sun Belt is an upgrade for basketball.

If Byington can fix his OOC scheduling woes, then JMU can schedule all of those old CAA teams in common sense matchups for state D-1 programs. Then throw in the best of the current CAA teams and you have regional mid major games. You can’t cut off your nose to spite your face.

Even if you have to play at VCU with no return game it is a big win for scheduling.
All those other teams have and will schedule home and home series with the Dukes even if their feelings were hurt when JMU left a year ago.

Think about all of the programs that left the CAA before JMU then proceeded to renew OOC series with the Dukes after they left. AD’s will come to their senses soon enough and get more involved when the coaches can’t make it happen on their own.

I do agree that we should schedule all the Virginia peers, including W&M, and hopefully the idiots in charge of GMU and VCU get their heads out of the collective @$$es and agree to what is clearly an attendance boosting matchup that fans and students care about. I think that would also go a long way to making our OOC look better. If we play a tournament near Charleston, then call up CoC, but I'm not going to get upset if they aren't on our schedule. Need to have at least one P5 school on the roster as well, preferably UVA or VT and another one.

It seems what some miss are the Virginia school rivals more so than the CAA per say, have a hard time believing anyone is dying to get Elon back on the schedule.

I'd be fine with home and home arrangements with W&M, GMU, and VCU if those schools agree. Don't get so excited about road games only, they aren't P5 quality games.

I do think everyone wants to see the OOC improve, including JMU coaches and admin. But there are other teams out there if GMU/VCU continue to be jerks about it. And W&M might not be the best choice for our SOS now.

(01-30-2023 05:43 PM)KickItToScotty Wrote:  I think the cheerleaders really need some changes too, at least as long as the pep band is gonna be mirroring the cheers instead of doing their own thing that will get the whole crowd more engaged.

There's big, big difference between "Defense, Madison, defense!" *clap clap* and just "Defense!" *clap clap* if you want the cheer to actually spread beyond the cheerleaders and pep band. Same with "J-M-U! Let's go Dukes!" *clap* vs "Let's go Dukes!" *clap*. Some other cheers like "Shoot for two JMU, shoot for two! Or three!" and "Take it away, defense, take it away!" should just absolutely be completely dropped by the pep band, preferably scrapped altogether.

Then of course I can never mention anything like this without again saying how much I despise the free throw thing and refuse to change to that crap. No one likes it, no one joins in on it. Bring back "Whoosh! DUUUUUUUUUKES" for the love of everything holy. The new that's not so new anymore is pretty much just a copy of GMCC. Why the hell would we copy them when we had something so much better? Is there anything more JMU than "DUUUUUUUUUKES"?!

well, it could be worse. We could do Ice Cream and Cake like ODuh