This this this. First night is a major recruiting tool for our program and the louder/more filled it is the better. If you are a Hockey guy I could see the dilemma but if not it's an easy decision.Because you're a hockey fan. I get it, and we should be encouraging more people to follow UConn hockey, but we are a basketball school and need to be supporting our national championship contending basketball team before our hockey team, in my opinion. A small crowd at First Night on ESPN with big time recruits in the stands would look horrible and way more detrimental than a sparse crowd at a hockey game that I dont think is even televised. This is a no brainer for UConn basketball fans.
It does mean something. It's a spectacle that a lot of recruits will be at. You think someone like Hamidou Diallo is going to be impressed with a half empty Gampel on First Night because everyone went to a hockey game? He could go down to Rupp Arena and see 20,000 inbreds gawking over Drake and pick UK because that's going to be more alluring to an impressionable 17 year old than "Well there was a hockey game tonight, sooo...". I know there's a lot of die hards on this site who want support the whole spectrum of the athletic department, but basketball is first at UConn. Always first. First Night is even more important because we're in the American. If we were in the Big East still it may not be as big of a deal but we need to take advantage of the opportunities to assert ourselves as the elite of the elite programs with all the fan support, glitz and glamour that comes with First Night. Because a half empty XL Center against Tulane in February is not going to cut it. First Night is a big deal, and means a lot, especially when we're coming off a first round NIT exit last year and have the rumblings of a big bounce back year this year. The excitement needs to start on Friday at First Night. It's more important than a hockey game.Hockey.
First night is fine, but it doesn't mean anything.
You're so wrong.Hockey trumps the first night side show.
Because you're a hockey fan. I get it, and we should be encouraging more people to follow UConn hockey, but we are a basketball school and need to be supporting our national championship contending basketball team before our hockey team, in my opinion.
Is there a wrong answer?
Never said that. Don't be so sensitive.If you are trying to claim I'm not a UConn basketball fan, you're even more out of your G-D mind than the rest of that rambling already indicates.
Oh, by the way I've attended First Night.
Eight times.
To add on to that, their program was essentially paid for by a donor's gift of 32 million dollars to the school and are the first major d1 school on the west coast.For those who aren't aware: this is Arizona States first year as a DI program.