Reply to thread

Message: [QUOTE="Dogdeacon, post: 4618287, member: 1026"] Understood, I'm guessing you were there in Corny Thompson era? I fully get there is a virtual eclipse of great players, teams and moments at UConn from 60's to late 70's via the Calhoun era recency bias. The seeds were in-place. Yet with all due respect, I went to UConn as well and attendance was not good 1983-1986. If attendance figures are available I'm sure they'd back me up (will look for 1990 or 99 media guides I kept). During my time as a student we used to alternate sitting behind the basket to be super close and trying to mimic North Goal gang energy (no dice) or 5-6 rows up at half-court and there was almost always plenty of room to move around except for the BE games which were rarely in Storrs (I recall Pitt, Seton Hall, BC consistently getting Storrs - we yearned for good teams to play there to get energy and a full house). I don't recall the Civic Center selling out either, maybe for Syracuse or Georgetown (the Ewing games were a bid deal) but I don't think so. I vividly remember the 1985-86 game vs Central at the Field House when Cliff got a tech for tangling with a Central player - Perno relegated him to the bench and Cliff remained standing blocking the view of the 3-4 front rows of alumni/fans behind the bench - they could have moved back but instead they booed Cliff Robinson! Personally, that is when I was done with the coach. Later, I remember seeing a sell-out in 1988 while looking at a box score v Georgetown while traveling in Europe and being beyond excited that UConn was coming! Later that season, the lack of sell outs at the field house was illustrated by the NIT game when the dust came off the rafters (admittedly they did expand capacity to standing room or makeshift seats for that game, but they never had to before) = the dust had collected there for 4+ years. Only thing good about those field house games was that you could hide bottles outside in the snow, and the building was unsafe to smoke in so they'd let you out at halftime and we'd drink in the cold to get fired up for 2nd half. I graduated in 1987, Calhoun's first year. They weren't good yet - but we KNEW it was coming. [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach