The debate is over- it's not the seating, it's the students

[TrashMaster G 17563]

1 hour ago, MidTexHorn said:

OP with the seriously overly dramatic take. I've bitched for years about our fans, but all things considered last night was a pretty good showing and a good baby step in the right direction

Yep, this.

[Ignatius 4017]

Our students have been weak as fuck for 15 years…..

[Guest Lobo]

The students are weak?  You’re weak!

hit the bricks pal!

these are the Glen Gregory seats.  To give them to you would be a waste.  Classy fan?  Who gives a shit!  Good Longhorn?  Go home and play with your Bevo.  

[jimmyjazz 45976]

LMAO at this thread.  Compare the general tenor of last night's game to that of a Shaka game in the Erwin Center and tell me things weren't better?

Baby steps, Derka.  At least we have a real fucking coach.

[Macklemore 2872]

21 hours ago, Helobious said:

For the most part, people in Texas don’t give too many shits about basketball. Especially not college basketball, and especially not the hyper-nerds that make up the UT student body nowadays. It just is what it is. We’ll never have a “Cameron crazy” atmosphere no matter what.

Once in a blue moon Helobious makes a good point. The problem is with the makeup of the student body at UT. Too many don’t give a shit about sports and are only there for school. That’s what you get with the bullshit top 6% rule that force the type of kids who used to be form the bulk of the class - suburban kids from places like Memorial and the Woodlands, to go to SEC schools like piggy, Bama, etc. Kids who actually give  a shit about sports and the right student mix who built our athletics department into the wealthiest in the nation. Now we have a student makeup of a poor man’s Berkeley. That is a recipe for long term irrelevance if we don’t fix it.

[Macklemore 2872]

13 hours ago, ztejas said:

Lol the Rockets have embarassing crowds. Not gonna let that slide. 

Rockets are averaging 15,500 people a home game for 85% capacity. This is the worst Rockets team in history who are a pain to watch. What do you expect the attendance to be with that product at the prices they charge. Have you seen how much a good seat at a NBA costs?

Edited December 1, 2021 by Macklemore

[Underdog 28711]

Watched a bit of a recent Rockets game and was impressed with the attendance given the team's struggles this season.

 

[Tylerocks 2553]

I thought it was a cool thing and didn't notice any of the apathy the OP noticed.  Then again I wasn't looking for anything to bitch about.

Shrug....who gives a shit.  win games, everybody will be happy.

 

 

 

[SDG 3319]

Relax Derka, 

Beard is gonna get this turned around.  I know because I was at Wazzu when we hired Dick Bennit (Tony’s dad) and was a founding member of the Zzu Cru.  Before you knew it students were camping out for big games.   

 

[Deej 76830]

Can nobody read? The thread title says the debate is over. Stop the debate. Shut the thread down. We all know Derka is never wrong. 

Edited December 2, 2021 by Deej

[shadow_operative 15932]

12 hours ago, Tylerocks said:

I thought it was a cool thing and didn't notice any of the apathy the OP noticed.  Then again I wasn't looking for anything to bitch about.

Shrug....who gives a shit.  win games, everybody will be happy.

 

 

 

 

 

i give a shit. you should too. Chris Beard has been unbelievable in his efforts to get the students excited, going way beyond what any coach here has ever done to get them into it, and yet they still stood there silently with their arms folded, hands in their pockets, looking at their phones, etc. that's bullshit. Beard and his players deserve better. 

frankly, i'm surprised that more of you can't see where i'm coming from. it's not "oh no, our student section didn't become great over night!", it's, "wow, Chris Beard has been going above and beyond for months to set the students up with an amazing experience, and the few who were able to get in the door/have the best seats in the house all just stood there like they had somewhere else to be." to me it's akin to a single mom scraping up her last dollar, working overtime for weeks, and coordinating a very special birthday party for her kid, just to make him happy, only to have the kid be totally nonplussed by the entire event, silently looking at his phone the whole time. that's absolutely disappointing. again, Beard and his team deserved better.

Edited December 2, 2021 by shadow_operative

[shadow_operative 15932]

10 hours ago, Deej said:

Can nobody read? The thread title says the debate is over. Stop the debate. Shut the thread down. We all know Derka is never wrong. 

the fact that the hawaiian shirt guy stood out like a sore thumb simply because he was enthusiastic only proves my point. 

[Pam Cummings 9645]

Go to the game and set an example then.

[Kennythetiger 9390]

It seems like no one is interested in arguing with you. 

[idigTexas 2289]

4 hours ago, shadow_operative said:

frankly, i'm surprised that more of you can't see where i'm coming from. it's not "oh no, our student section didn't become great over night!", it's, "wow, Chris Beard has been going above and beyond for months to set the students up with an amazing experience, and the few who were able to get in the door/have the best seats in the house all just stood there like they had somewhere else to be." to me it's akin to a single mom scraping up her last dollar, working overtime for weeks, and coordinating a very special birthday party for her kid, just to make him happy, only to have the kid be totally nonplussed by the entire event, silently looking at his phone the whole time. that's absolutely disappointing. again, Beard and his team deserved better.

It's not that we can't see your point, it's that you feel the need to make it a handful of games into Beard's first season after a game against a scrub team on a Monday after the Thanksgiving holiday.  This event was the first of its kind.  Getting a super enthusiastic student fanbase isn't going to happen immediately just because Beard is doing way more than any of us expected.  I know you are worried that Beard is going to develop a "why should I bother" attitude, but that's not who he is.  If he can produce the team he deserves, he will get the fans he deserves.  Enjoy the process and let him do what he does.

Also, your non-debate needs to be directed at the students.  I'm not going to pretend to know the demographics of Surly posters, but I don't think many students post here.    

[Js1 85412]

Did you see that crowd? Army Brat might have qualified as a student 

[shadow_operative 15932]

2 hours ago, Pam Cummings said:

Go to the game and set an example then.

 

 

 

 

[Pam Cummings 9645]

17 minutes ago, shadow_operative said:

 

 

 

 

Keep it up im serious lol

[realgreggym 835]

7 hours ago, shadow_operative said:

 

 

i give a shit. you should too. Chris Beard has been unbelievable in his efforts to get the students excited, going way beyond what any coach here has ever done to get them into it, and yet they still stood there silently with their arms folded, hands in their pockets, looking at their phones, etc. that's bullshit. Beard and his players deserve better. 

frankly, i'm surprised that more of you can't see where i'm coming from. it's not "oh no, our student section didn't become great over night!", it's, "wow, Chris Beard has been going above and beyond for months to set the students up with an amazing experience, and the few who were able to get in the door/have the best seats in the house all just stood there like they had somewhere else to be." to me it's akin to a single mom scraping up her last dollar, working overtime for weeks, and coordinating a very special birthday party for her kid, just to make him happy, only to have the kid be totally nonplussed by the entire event, silently looking at his phone the whole time. that's absolutely disappointing. again, Beard and his team deserved better.

Maybe part of the problem that "we" have is that most of us on this thread were students at UT and not a T shirt fan like you. WE had some great T shirt fans in our day but you have never nor will ever be one.

[shadow_operative 15932]

The Netherlands is on covid lockdown from 5pm to 5am. here are the scenes from 5am this morning, when amateur soccer team Quick Boys started their training for the day:

 

again, that's an amateur soccer team, at 5am, having practice. and that's the fan support they get. 

Chris Beard has a top 10 team, he hosts a party for the students at the Tower, he personally leads them through the quad and into the gymnasium (never mind all of the logistics he took care of to make this happen), and he only lets a handful of the students even get in the building to watch the game. and yet when our UT student fans quietly stand around with their hands in their pockets and their faces in their phones, everyone here is like, "well i think the students did a pretty good job." 

 

 

im now equally disappointed in all of you.

Edited December 2, 2021 by shadow_operative

[HookEm 2467]

Bah. Relax.

The students are there to learn and Beard is in the process of teaching them.  If you are disappointed in the students then your expectations were too high. 

It is like expecting my 8th grader to be  able to do calculus before she has been taught.

[ChickenSandwich 9843]

Playing 8 division 5 schools at home at the end of the fall semester doesn't really rev up the student fan base.  Only decent out of conf games are on the road.  If there are any student die hard basketball fans, they are satanists to be that way after watching the product Shaka put out there the last 5 years (with his watered down schedule as a desperate attempt to make the tournament).

 

Beard is literally starting from nothing.  We are over a decade removed from relevance sans the one year NBA fly overs.

 

Your whining is nonsense.  

[Pancho 44858]

It’s year 1 of Beard doing this. It’s a culture shift. That doesn’t happen overnight. If anything, Beard is laying the foundation for students this year, something neither Shaka nor Rick did. 
 

There’s no need to overreact. If this was year 4 and Beard was doing this type of shit and it didn’t garner a shit ton of student support, then yes, we can possibly blame the students. But it’s year 1, and there’s just not enough evidence and examples to develop a concrete theme of “it’s the students.” 

[shadow_operative 15932]

2 hours ago, HookEm said:

Bah. Relax.

The students are there to learn and Beard is in the process of teaching them.  If you are disappointed in the students then your expectations were too high. 

It is like expecting my 8th grader to be  able to do calculus before she has been taught.

 

2 hours ago, ChickenSandwich said:

Playing 8 division 5 schools at home at the end of the fall semester doesn't really rev up the student fan base.  Only decent out of conf games are on the road.  If there are any student die hard basketball fans, they are satanists to be that way after watching the product Shaka put out there the last 5 years (with his watered down schedule as a desperate attempt to make the tournament).

 

Beard is literally starting from nothing.  We are over a decade removed from relevance sans the one year NBA fly overs.

 

Your whining is nonsense.  

 

2 hours ago, Pancho said:

It’s year 1 of Beard doing this. It’s a culture shift. That doesn’t happen overnight. If anything, Beard is laying the foundation for students this year, something neither Shaka nor Rick did. 
 

There’s no need to overreact. If this was year 4 and Beard was doing this type of shit and it didn’t garner a shit ton of student support, then yes, we can possibly blame the students. But it’s year 1, and there’s just not enough evidence and examples to develop a concrete theme of “it’s the students.” 

all of you guys suck at reading. i know the three of you well enough to know that you aren't too dense to understand what i'm saying, and yet somehow you all clearly do not understand what i am saying. none of what y'all are posting actually responds to what i'm saying. i'll respond to each of you individually to see if we can get on the same page. 

Edited December 2, 2021 by shadow_operative

[shadow_operative 15932]

3 hours ago, HookEm said:

It is like expecting my 8th grader to be  able to do calculus before she has been taught.

no, expecting a bunch of seniors and dedicated student fan groups to act excited during such a special event is not like expecting a middle schooler to know calculus without ever having been taught calculus. 

Edited December 2, 2021 by shadow_operative

[shadow_operative 15932]

2 hours ago, ChickenSandwich said:

Playing 8 division 5 schools at home at the end of the fall semester doesn't really rev up the student fan base.  Only decent out of conf games are on the road.  If there are any student die hard basketball fans, they are satanists to be that way after watching the product Shaka put out there the last 5 years (with his watered down schedule as a desperate attempt to make the tournament).

 

Beard is literally starting from nothing.  We are over a decade removed from relevance sans the one year NBA fly overs.

 

Your whining is nonsense.  

an entire post that's about the big picture, when i'm talking about one specific event. 

[shadow_operative 15932]

2 hours ago, Pancho said:

It’s year 1 of Beard doing this. It’s a culture shift.

getting the handful of senior students who were able to get floor seats to this highly exclusive event to act interested in the said event is not a culture shift. it's a lowest possible expectation.

again, all of you- the entire thread- all of you talking about the student section at large, and you keep talking about the student section moving forward, and talking about how we won't have a great student section overnight, and on and on. 

HELLO. how many times can i repeat myself that that is. not. what. i'm. talking about. 

no shit the student section isn't going to be great from day one. did you hear me complaining about them during any of our other games this year? no. because those games were not a one-time special event where you had to really really want to get in to actually get in. don't tell me that my expectations were too high because i didn't expect the people who actually got into that game to act excited about it. it's a totally asinine stance. the argument that everyone in here keeps making is akin to saying that it's ridiculous to expect the crowd at a major concert to be into the concert. 

Edited December 2, 2021 by shadow_operative

[shadow_operative 15932]

basically, i chose a poor title for the thread. is the thread title accurate? yes, i believe so. but was my point that the student section is totally hopeless going forward based on that one game? no. as i have repeated, my point is that i was disappointed in that specific crowd for a litany of reasons, and that it was a glaring example of how poor our student support is. i have zero doubt that it will get better moving forward, but with that said, expecting those students to be enthusiastic about that particular game was not too much to ask. 

also i'm in a manic episode and am going to try to stop responding to everyone for a while, because i believe i have finally made myself clear. 

Edited December 2, 2021 by shadow_operative

[TrashMaster G 17563]

"It's my thread and I will cry if I want to.... cry if I want to.... cry if I want to...

You would cry too if you gave a shit about UT basketball (like me)!"

[Deej 76830]

39 minutes ago, shadow_operative said:

getting the handful of senior students who were able to get floor seats to this highly exclusive event to act interested in the said event is not a culture shift. it's a lowest possible expectation.

Don't understand what is meant by culture shift, I see. It's not like flipping a light switch. This is the first step in an attempt  to create that shift. 

You are one seriously impatient person. 

40 minutes ago, shadow_operative said:

HELLO. how many times can i repeat myself

Too many.

[Guest Lobo]

3 hours ago, shadow_operative said:

 

HELLO. how many times can i repeat myself that that is. not. what. i'm. talking about. 

 

there was one? 

[pyrohornIII 4815]

On 11/30/2021 at 9:27 AM, Chopper said:

OP are you an aspiring drama author?

In spite of your post numbers, I have to believe this is your first foray into the basketball forum?  Like ever?

[Queen Bitch 1692]

Sorry if this has been discussed but I'm old/out of touch... what is Darty? Drum party?

[HookEm 2467]

Derka, clearly I don’t get your point. That is fine. Sometimes I’m stupid. So I will clarify my point…

Our student section has sucked for years. Like you, I hoped for a better atmosphere. This is a dream setup and I wanted to see something more like Duke. But we didn’t and after reflecting on it, it isn’t that surprising. Maybe my calculus example was bad. A better example would be ME going to a soccer game. I have no idea what I’m doing. But I would figure it out pretty quick if I lived in Barcelona and went to all the games.

The students will improve. I say that with 100% confidence.  Beard is an expert in drumming up support. It is possible to be disappointed and hopeful at the same time. 

[Chopper 17238]

56 minutes ago, pyrohornIII said:

In spite of your post numbers, I have to believe this is your first foray into the basketball forum?  Like ever?

Negative. I was just not of mind at the time to rage or call him a fucking moron. Y'all were doing enough of that.

[Pato del Muerto 52524]

So if I am understanding correctly, we will never be Duke because our massive and diverse student body is nothing but sports agnostic nerds while the tiny student body at Duke university is nothing but basketball crazy party animals. 

[pyrohornIII 4815]

2 hours ago, Chopper said:

Negative. I was just not of mind at the time to rage or call him a fucking moron. Y'all were doing enough of that.

Got it.  You were sarcasming us.  Nicely done.

[tx 3 putt 77061]

staring at the fucking 'court' probably sent half them into seizures !!!

[Js1 85412]

5 hours ago, Pato del Muerto said:

So if I am understanding correctly, we will never be Duke because our massive and diverse student body is nothing but sports agnostic nerds while the tiny student body at Duke university is nothing but basketball crazy party animals. 

Yes, def has nothing at all to do with K creating a long time winning culture and Texas not going to a Sweet 16 in over decade.

This argument and thread are so stupid. Students show up for winning teams. Baseball and volleyball get great crowds because they win consistently. 

Edited December 3, 2021 by Js1

[Chihorn 85]

It’s pretty simple, Beard has to get hot girls to come to the games and the rest will follow. Focus on the right demographic.

[52-80 19163]

1. Why assume it's a "hardcore basketball fan" crowd.  If you live on or around campus, it's free entertainment for the night.

2. You don't get excited about playing Ben McCulloch university because there was a rally preceding it.  You get excited when everyone else is excited, and everyone else gets excited when you're a winning program generating buzz.  Being <.500 in conference for the last 6 years does not generate buzz.  Fans were pretty good in the TJ era when TXBB was nationally relevant.  Go deep in the tournament this year and I bet they get wild next year.

[YChang 3453]

I was at the Duke Army game a few weeks back. And there really wasn’t anything thaaaat special about their students for that game. Other than practicing established traditions wasn’t that loud or particularly energized. Hell, their band looked like it was doing most of the heavy lifting to get the students into it.

Also surprisingly decent number of hot girls on campus for the game. Well done Duke!

Cameron is pretty damn cool though.

[MissingInAction 25106]

Shaggy had a pretty wild crew on the baseline for a couple of years. Lunatics wore costumes and had some creative chirps. Also birthed the famous "Baaa means no" meme.

[jimmyjazz 45976]

Most UT students are Texans.  In general, Texas is a football state.  Bitching that a bunch of seniors who at least had the gumption to GET to the game but not cheer zany enough for Derka is predictably stupid.  They've spent 3 years on campus watching Shaka Smart teams shit their pants.  They don't know, nor do they love, basketball.

It.  Will.  Take.  Time.  

Is that infuriating to some?  Apparently so.  I couldn't care less.  Chris Beard was far and away the leader in the clubhouse for "best guy we could land", and we landed him.  I am just going to enjoy the ride.  Some of you can bitch, it's what you do, and it is monumentally tiring, but expecting change is lunacy.

[HeHateMe 886]

Derka going Derka