OT: Duke/Texas Tech Sellout the Garden

[HskiesJames]

I realize these are highly ranked teams with star power, but UConn should be able to do this on most trips to MSG. Even when we had Shabazz in his senior year, barely anyone showed up against Indiana.

 

[weyuo]

so buy a ticket and go to the game.

 

[HskiesJames]

Saturday will be my 4th game in the area this season.

 

[UConnTrumbull]

I realize these are highly ranked teams with star power, but UConn should be able to do this on most trips to MSG. Even when we had Shabazz in his senior year, barely anyone showed up against Indiana.

95% there to see Zion

 

[huskyrob1]

95% there to see Zion

Does RatFace get a hunk of cheese for showing up?

 

[Travelman6]

Ucoon/cuse this year was electric. NYC is full of UConn fans but NYC also has tons of banwagon fans too, hence the showing tonight. Most were there to see one player. I doubt many even cared about ttech.

 

[Yardigan]

Does RatFace get a hunk of cheese for showing up?

View attachment 37577

Beautiful...just beautiful.

 

[DarthGrumpy]

Duke has always. drawn well in the NYC area. A lot of kids go to Duke, a lot of Duke alumni settle in the area and their basketball team recruits a lot in Jersey, especially. If I have not entirely lost my mind, I believe I caught a UConn v. Duke game at the old Izod arena or whatever it was called before it closed and it was 60/40 Duke fans, though there was talk that Coach K wanted nothing to do with playing UConn at MSG an insisted on the game being in Jersey. So with it being Duke and all of the ESPN driven press on Zion (I caught the Duke v. Princeton game for about 2 minutes and it was tough to tell if anyone else was on the floor besides him), no surprise.

 

[Hoophound]

They draw well there but tons are there for Zion. Thousands.

 

[BLUEDOGHOUSE]

Ucoon/cuse this year was electric. NYC is full of UConn fans but NYC also has tons of banwagon fans too, hence the showing tonight. Most were there to see one player. I doubt many even cared about ttech.

You didn't see the large contingency of Texas Tech fans. ALL the red? They traveled very strong for the game and the NYC experience (holiday season).

 

[HskiesJames]

I believe the reason the game was at the IZOD Center is that both schools realized they could receive a bigger payout by playing there instead of MSG. UConn was coming off a national championship, Duke had Jahlil Okafor and crew coming in as freshmen. Definitely a proud moment for a UConn fan if you care about near sellouts like I do.

 

[Wordbomar]

I expect MSG to be pretty loaded on saturday

 

[dannyHAM]

The garden should be packed Saturday. Real excited to see what it looks like.

 

[HskiesJames]

I really hope so. But looking on Stubhub, 300 and 400 level seats along with the Chase Bridge haven’t even been opened for purchase yet. I hope this changes.

 

[superjohn]

Duke has always. drawn well in the NYC area. A lot of kids go to Duke, a lot of Duke alumni settle in the area and their basketball team recruits a lot in Jersey espeically. If I have not entirely lost my mind, I believe I caught a UConn v. Duke game at the old Izod arena or whatever it was called before it closed and it was 60/40 Duke fans, though there was talk that Coach K wanted nothing to do with playing UConn at MSG an iinsisted on the game being in Jersey. So with it being Duke and all of the ESPN driven press on Zion (I caught the Duke v. Princeton game for about 2 minutes and it was tough to tell if anyone else was on the floor besides him), no surprise.

Half of Duke alumni are Jersey people.

 

[gampelcrazies]

I really hope so. But looking on Stubhub, 300 and 400 level seats along with the Chase Bridge haven’t even been opened for purchase yet. I hope this changes.

They won’t. They haven’t even sold out regular seats yet. At least 1,000 still left on ticketmaster.
Maybe more

 

[zls44]

The 300/400/Chase Bridge seats will not be open on Saturday.

Hey, Nova's won 2 NC's recently, its almost as if the teeny Big East schools don't have the fanbases some think they have.

 

[zls44]

Even when we had Shabazz in his senior year, barely anyone showed up against Indiana.

Are you really comparing senior year Shabazz to one of the most exciting freshmen of the last 25 years

 

[HskiesJames]

Are you really comparing senior year Shabazz to one of the most exciting freshmen of the last 25 years

No, I am not comparing Shabazz and Zion. I thought using an example where we had a decent team at the time, we still could not draw many people on a Friday night against Indiana.

 

[ASweet3781]

I realize these are highly ranked teams with star power, but UConn should be able to do this on most trips to MSG. Even when we had Shabazz in his senior year, barely anyone showed up against Indiana.

You brought up the early early games (when we were unranked) at MSG Shabazz's senior year and not you know...the regionals vs Iowa State and MSU which were sold out and rocking?

There has not been one basketball game I watched on ESPN this year, men's or women's, games which have nothing to do with Duke, where Duke has not been discussed at length (usually out of the blue) and their upcoming game highlighted. I watched SportsCenter for the first time in ages a couple weeks back and ESPN cut into SportsCenter to show Duke's pregame warmups vs Hartford. They broadcasted live from their warmup line. I'm not kidding. What other program has that? That's why they sellout everywhere. They are the program and ESPN clearly made a conscious decision this year to make them THE story. I mean they usually do but they have gone to the extremes this year. Probably because of their freshman and they thought they'd have an undefeated season. Even with that storyline gone they are keeping up the non stop coverage.

 

[billybud]

The kenpom #1 will get press....

The moving finger moves on...it was UConn getting all of the mentions some years....then for a while during late season/tournament it was Sister Jean and Loyola.

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

Don’t let Rutgers fool you. Duke is the actual University of New Jersey

 

[HskiesJames]

You brought up the early early games (when we were unranked) at MSG Shabazz's senior year and not you know...the regionals vs Iowa State and MSU which were sold out and rocking?

There has not been one basketball game I watched on ESPN this year, men's or women's, games which have nothing to do with Duke, where Duke has not been discussed at length (usually out of the blue) and their upcoming game highlighted. I watched SportsCenter for the first time in ages a couple weeks back and ESPN cut into SportsCenter to show Duke's pregame warmups vs Hartford. They broadcasted live from their warmup line. I'm not kidding. What other program has that? That's why they sellout everywhere. They are the program and ESPN clearly made a conscious decision this year to make them THE story. I mean they usually do but they have gone to the extremes this year. Probably because of their freshman and they thought they'd have an undefeated season. Even with that storyline gone they are keeping up the non stop coverage.

I brought it up because we were ranked. Not top 10, but #18 is still decent.

The fans have been rocking even at all the games in NY/NJ this year. Just wish there were more of them.

 

[beakumhawks]

Congrats to Tech. They kept it much closer than I thought they would.

 

[Rico444]

We'll fill up MSG just like Duke did as soon as we're a consistent top 10 team again. Those teams are in the conversation all year long, and Duke is top 10 every year, so that's why they get so much press.

ESPN definitely gives Duke and Kentucky special attention, but I can guarantee you if we get to that level they'll hype us up a ton too.