Kings of New York

[Palatine]

Forget the Muppets, the Huskies take Manhattan.

 

[RuffRuff]

At the game last night and ridiculously impressed with the IU fan base. Sat in the first row of the 200's, so was looking down on the 100's, which became packed as the game got going. The 100's looked absolutely dominated by IU. Now some of that may just be the fact that their red stands out on the blue MSG backdrop, but I took a walk down in the 100's at halftime and 90% of the halls were filled with red pinstripes and solid red. The decibel level during the game was a little more even than I would have thought, so there were clearly Uconn fans camouflouged amongst all the red, but IU was definitely louder. Really impressive. I'll tell yeah, between the Michigan football game(Uconn home game) earlier this year and this game, you have a chance to see and feel what some of the major personalities in that conference offer from a fan base. Sports and tradition are sewn in at such a deep level of culture - it's impressive. Those schools clearly have the numbers given their massive alumni bases, but it goes beyond that. Uconn has a strong fan base, but it doesn't really have much of a fan culture. Most of the Uconn fans were in standard street clothes or in a potpourri of the drab random Uconn sweatshirts, where IU fans bleed their university in all sorts of creative and really evident ways. Pinstriped pants, overalls, blazers. Every damn fan wears it, young and old, and if not that, it's some something solid bright IU red - pretty cool. They bring a unity/social aspect that makes it more than just the game. Great chants. You get the sense it would be there even if they were 0-20 - totally non fair weather. And this in an arena that really should be a Uconn home game. These environments really make you question the validity of Uconn in a conference like that and how it fits, although it would be amazing to be part of and grow into. Now UM and IU are at the top of their respective sports with regards to tradition, so not sure what the Purdue's and Iowa's are all about. From just an overall fan base comparison last night, it was night and day. That wholesome rabid unified tradition just doesn't seem like it ties in with the Uconn brand right now, especially with that awful new age dog wolf leading the way. I'd take it in a heart beat.

I saw a pack of 10 drunk Uconn fans being escorted out acting like morons. Amongst what was a really fun, classy fan base, embarrassing.

Calhoun took the floor last night, man I miss that cranky F. Here in the aftermath, as much as I like Ollie, you realize how much he was the personality of the university. His crusty anxiety patrolling the floor brought an extra level of entertainment and buzz to the floor. He had a really bad limp BTW.

I really like Kromah - he's a strong, athletic kid. They threw him on Yogi in crunch time, which was the right call. Good defender, is going to help this year against dominant guards given Boatright and Napier can't defend.

I'll say this, for an early season game, that was fun. I'm not sure you're going to find more energy. A little sloppy(and it's early season), but a great game.

 

[mauconnfan]

With all due respect, UConn hasn't drawn well in NYC in a decade. Cuse and St. John's by far outdraw UConn in NYC. That wasn't the case in the 90's when UConn was in their heyday, but I've been at tons of games since those days and UConn brings paltry crowds in comparison. As a SJU fan I used to hate the UConn presence. For quite a few years now, SJU far outdraws UConn for those games. It's no longer your city though. Not even close any more. SJU fans are still fighting Cuse fans off though. They have drawn better than any other team has. It is maddening to tell the truth. I'm hoping it changes with them in the ACC, but I think you'll see a packed MSG with a lot of Cuse fans when they play SJU next month.

http://espn.go.com/new-york/mens-co...34/rysheed-jordan-suspended-st-john-red-storm

May want to worry about the kids he's bringing in before you worry about how many Husky fans are going to MSG......

 

[Bill Sussman]

At the game last night and ridiculously impressed with the IU fan base. Sat in the first row of the 200's, so was looking down on the 100's, which became packed as the game got going. The 100's looked absolutely dominated by IU. Now some of that may just be the fact that their red stands out on the blue MSG backdrop, but I took a walk down in the 100's at halftime and 90% of the halls were filled with red pinstripes and solid red. The decibel level during the game was a little more even than I would have thought, so there were clearly Uconn fans camouflouged amongst all the red, but IU was definitely louder. Really impressive. I'll tell yeah, between the Michigan football game(Uconn home game) earlier this year and this game, you have a chance to see and feel what some of the major personalities in that conference offer from a fan base. Sports and tradition are sewn in at such a deep level of culture - it's impressive. Those schools clearly have the numbers given their massive alumni bases, but it goes beyond that. Uconn has a strong fan base, but it doesn't really have much of a fan culture. Most of the Uconn fans were in standard street clothes or in a potpourri of the drab random Uconn sweatshirts, where IU fans bleed their university in all sorts of creative and really evident ways. Pinstriped pants, overalls, blazers. Every damn fan wears it, young and old, and if not that, it's some something solid bright IU red - pretty cool. They bring a unity/social aspect that makes it more than just the game. Great chants. You get the sense it would be there even if they were 0-20 - totally non fair weather. And this in an arena that really should be a Uconn home game. These environments really make you question the validity of Uconn in a conference like that and how it fits, although it would be amazing to be part of and grow into. Now UM and IU are at the top of their respective sports with regards to tradition, so not sure what the Purdue's and Iowa's are all about. From just an overall fan base comparison last night, it was night and day. That wholesome rabid unified tradition just doesn't seem like it ties in with the Uconn brand right now, especially with that awful new age dog wolf leading the way. I'd take it in a heart beat.

I saw a pack of 10 drunk Uconn fans being escorted out acting like morons. Amongst what was a really fun, classy fan base, embarrassing.

Calhoun took the floor last night, man I miss that cranky F. Here in the aftermath, as much as I like Ollie, you realize how much he was the personality of the university. His crusty anxiety patrolling the floor brought an extra level of entertainment and buzz to the floor. He had a really bad limp BTW.

I really like Kromah - he's a strong, athletic kid. They threw him on Yogi in crunch time, which was the right call. Good defender, is going to help this year against dominant guards given Boatright and Napier can't defend.

I'll say this, for an early season game, that was fun. I'm not sure you're going to find more energy. A little sloppy(and it's early season), but a great game.

I think we all tend to romanticize these major university fan bases. Granted it's a small sampling size but I will tell you that I worked with four of the IU fans in the crowd last night and 99% of the year, they do not even care about IU sports. They were excited to go into NYC and party.

My experience is that most of these fan bases are pretty similar to ours and the difference is volume. These universities have pumped out more alums over the years. So the percentage of die hards is probably about the same but the actual number is larger.

 

[willie99]

With all due respect, UConn hasn't drawn well in NYC in a decade. Cuse and St. John's by far outdraw UConn in NYC. That wasn't the case in the 90's when UConn was in their heyday, but I've been at tons of games since those days and UConn brings paltry crowds in comparison. As a SJU fan I used to hate the UConn presence. For quite a few years now, SJU far outdraws UConn for those games. It's no longer your city though. Not even close any more. SJU fans are still fighting Cuse fans off though. They have drawn better than any other team has. It is maddening to tell the truth. I'm hoping it changes with them in the ACC, but I think you'll see a packed MSG with a lot of Cuse fans when they play SJU next month.

"axe" Rick Pitino and Louisville about that when we beat them for yet another conference title in 2011. There were more UConn fans in the house than St John's ever had at any game ever

although I'll concede our MSG attendance generally is not what it used to be, TV ratings prove we are NYC's team. Even more so than the team that calls NYC it's home, and more so than RU and Cuse who like to promote themselves as NYC's team.

All we do is win championships. Evidently our methodology is more effective.

I think playing an exiting brand of winning basketball helps (as opposed to a freakn zone) and putting players (including NYC products) into the NBA can't hurt.

 

[RuffRuff]

I agree somewhat, but tend to disagree. The UM football game being another clear indicator. The lots were flowing with UM tailgaters. Partying(with one another) is a part of it all, isn't it? Numbers most definitely are part of the formula, but I do think when you have a strong culture at the game, it then also draws more fans to come and be part of it. So why didn't the Uconn fans want to come party in NYC for what is essentially a home game against a hoops blue blood?

In general, I think the Uconn branding/marketing department should start figuring out some creative ways to build some of these things. Now a big baseline for the IUs of the world is history/tradition, but there are creative ways to start building that now. Come out with some sort of game time wear line that jumps out, little brighter, a little more interesting so the fans can see each other and be proud of it. While Oregon has Nike behind it, they're doing some of these things now to differentiate. Bottom line is that if we ever want to be part of a conference like the Big Ten, the university needs to start building a culture within its fan base. The whole U----Conn thing almost sounded kind of rookie/obnoxious in comparison last night given really the only ammo.

While a great win last night, the win I'm really looking for is getting out of the AAC so it's hard for me not to think about these things when up against the schools that truly represent one of the places we want to be. It's hard for me not to thing about the long term because of the concerns that we won't even be able to win games like this in 5 years if stuck in this cest pool.

 

[RuffRuff]

This argument about NYCs team is pointless. As of now, no school can make that claim. Too divied up, too pro sports. The team that probably gets a good chunk of that is the one that can get a good product going and play a FB game or two in NYC a year. Play a Michigan type of caliber annually at Giants or Yankee stadium and become a steady feature/draw, even if it means feeling like a road game. If you want to be NYCs team you probably need to show some kind of exceptional commitment to being that. Not playing a couple hoops games down there annually and arguing with St Johns fans, who are totally irrelevant.

 

[UConn_Top_Dog]

Get some wins, and come back and see us.