NIT: Wisconsin @ Oregon (Mar. 21, Tues 6 PM ESPN)

[droop10]

Wow. Dana was on a roll. So much emotion. Over the years I wished he would have directed some of that emotion towards the refs like other coaches do. But kind of strange he called out the fans. So unlike Dana to do that. What a year! I’m still a big Dana fan…even if the zone at the end of the game was an interesting call to say the least.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I’m glad he did. The fan base has been pretty pathetic and hides behind excuses of the team not being fun enough and no connection with the team. Yes, the team underperformed expectations, but attendance used to be much better with worse teams than what have been out there the last few years. I don’t think the fan base understands how good they have it that a bad year is still 20+ wins. Also, there’s are plenty of teams with less exciting play styles like Wisconsin, Virginia, etc. that still consistently get better attendance. I’m sure people will come in with more excuses, but quite frankly good fan cases don’t need to come up with excuses to not attend an above .500 team’s games.

[shoparound]

Kelly Graves of the women's team has said similar stuff about attendance, but the fanbase at OREGON know good basketball when they see it. And there hasn't been good basketball in the past couple of years.
Now the Arizona game this year was a little under 8K for that blockbuster win. Remember Payton Pritchard and Sabrina Ionescu were brining in over 10K people for their games. Hard fall for the team.


If Altman and Graves cannot develop players, they need to effectively use the portal to get players who are ready to go. But they have to find a way for the teams to have better chemistry.

[Boom]

How was the attendance this year?

[droop10]

How was the attendance this year?

Average under 6K a game, good for 7th in the conference. Sad. The fans rank number 1 in excuses not to go though.

[dthomas=ddixon]

It’s easy to blame fans, and I think the criticism is valid, but it’s totally unproductive from the program’s point of view. It’s like a salesperson blaming potential customers for not buying the product. The blame may be valid but it’s your job to solve the issue; you can’t change the fan base, it is what it is.

[OregonFan4Life]

It’s easy to blame fans, and I think the criticism is valid, but it’s totally unproductive from the program’s point of view. It’s like a salesperson blaming potential customers for not buying the product. The blame may be valid but it’s your job to solve the issue; you can’t change the fan base, it is what it is.

Exactly, it is what it is, for someone like me who is very busy this time of year at work with two little kids, I don’t have much spare time, and when I do have spare time, I don’t want to spend it watching a basketball team that plays poorly and can be very frustrating to watch. I’ve said this before, but Mullens isn’t gonna sit there and just call out fans, the athletic department needs the men’s basketball team to bring in more revenue. Altman may be on a short leash not cause he’s a bad coach, but because the men’s basketball program isn’t bringing fans through the doors.

[droop10]

It’s easy to blame fans, and I think the criticism is valid, but it’s totally unproductive from the program’s point of view. It’s like a salesperson blaming potential customers for not buying the product. The blame may be valid but it’s your job to solve the issue; you can’t change the fan base, it is what it is.

Exactly, it is what it is, for someone like me who is very busy this time of year at work with two little kids, I don’t have much spare time, and when I do have spare time, I don’t want to spend it watching a basketball team that plays poorly and can be very frustrating to watch. I’ve said this before, but Mullens isn’t gonna sit there and just call out fans, the athletic department needs the men’s basketball team to bring in more revenue. Altman may be on a short leash not cause he’s a bad coach, but because the men’s basketball program isn’t bringing fans through the doors.

Well, if the most successful coach in school history can't bring fans, I can't imagine bringing a worse coach with likely more inconsistent results is going to help matters. Despite what a number of our fans think, there are not many better options than the HOF coach that's currently at the school, and those few options are not guys that are going to be coming to Oregon. You'd be taking a gamble on a lower P5 coach or mid-major coach and hoping he pans out. Also, the "bad" product is still a bubble team that had something to play for. It's a spoiled fan base, and really doesn't have a reason to be. The team has 1 final four appearance, and had very little success before Altman, outside a couple of random years with Kent. It can be a whole lot worse, and has been many years at Oregon. They were 7th in the conference in attendance. Do you think Utah, Colorado, and Washington were putting out a better product? It's just a fickle fan base that only supports their sports teams when it's fashionable.

[StevensTechU]

Fans in seats is always a result of excitement versus frustration. It's not purely wins and losses, because expectations is a huge factor. [Most] people pay money to be excited and not frustrated.

[droop10]

Fans in seats is always a result of excitement versus frustration. It's not purely wins and losses, because expectations is a huge factor. [Most] people pay money to be excited and not frustrated.

That's the problem. The fan base is too easily frustrated. The same thing happened with football. If the product wasn't "exciting" enough, they lost interested, regardless of whether the team was winning games. I graduated back in 2007, so it was a different feel then. Attendance was routinely better, despite worse products. Fans at that time supported the team through thick and thin. The fans now wilt at the first sight of adversity. A tiny bit of success has somehow gotten to the heads of the fan base, and now they think anything less than a championship contender isn't worth rooting for. You would think the Ducks were racking up championships in anything other than track, given the mindset of our fans.

[OregonFan4Life]

Fans in seats is always a result of excitement versus frustration. It's not purely wins and losses, because expectations is a huge factor. [Most] people pay money to be excited and not frustrated.

That's the problem. The fan base is too easily frustrated. The same thing happened with football. If the product wasn't "exciting" enough, they lost interested, regardless of whether the team was winning games. I graduated back in 2007, so it was a different feel then. Attendance was routinely better, despite worse products. Fans at that time supported the team through thick and thin. The fans now wilt at the first sight of adversity. A tiny bit of success has somehow gotten to the heads of the fan base, and now they think anything less than a championship contender isn't worth rooting for. You would think the Ducks were racking up championships in anything other than track, given the mindset of our fans.

Doesn’t matter if it’s “right or wrong”, that’s not what Mullens is focusing on. Sure it makes it more difficult and I’m sure he understands that and doesn’t entirely hold it against coaches, but at a certain point, simply from a financial perspective, he has to be concerned about the state of mens basketball.

[StevensTechU]

Fans in seats is always a result of excitement versus frustration. It's not purely wins and losses, because expectations is a huge factor. [Most] people pay money to be excited and not frustrated.

That's the problem. The fan base is too easily frustrated.

Yea, changing widespread culture isn't something I'd say is a specialty of mine. I think coming close but to no avail has greatly soured people, whereas a fanbase like Nebraska can always remember how great they used to be. I think Oregonians generally are sort of a sour bunch - nobody likes bagging on Portland more than Portlanders, except for maybe Fox News. And our sports media reflects that.

I don't know how you change that. More human-interest pieces so people are invested in student-athletes win, lose or draw? Or just win the whole damn thing? idk.

[droop10]

Fans in seats is always a result of excitement versus frustration. It's not purely wins and losses, because expectations is a huge factor. [Most] people pay money to be excited and not frustrated.

That's the problem. The fan base is too easily frustrated. The same thing happened with football. If the product wasn't "exciting" enough, they lost interested, regardless of whether the team was winning games. I graduated back in 2007, so it was a different feel then. Attendance was routinely better, despite worse products. Fans at that time supported the team through thick and thin. The fans now wilt at the first sight of adversity. A tiny bit of success has somehow gotten to the heads of the fan base, and now they think anything less than a championship contender isn't worth rooting for. You would think the Ducks were racking up championships in anything other than track, given the mindset of our fans.

Doesn’t matter if it’s “right or wrong”, that’s not what Mullens is focusing on. Sure it makes it more difficult and I’m sure he understands that and doesn’t entirely hold it against coaches, but at a certain point, simply from a financial perspective, he has to be concerned about the state of mens basketball.

Honestly, I don't think a coaching change would change anything. It's the mindset of the fan base. I hear fans complain about the lack of connection with the team, but that's not going to change with a new coach. With the transfer portal, there will constantly be turnover. The majority of kids aren't patient enough these days to stick around if they aren't seeing immediate playing time, but the alternative is you're playing kids that are less skilled, so you're losing more games, which the fans complain about too. You can't completely ignore top recruits for fear of 1-and-done, as they also give you a better chance to win. There's really no solution that's miraculously going to change the situation.

I don't believe the expectations thing either, because it's not like attendance is good to begin the year and peters out. Fans aren't showing up from the outset. Sure, maybe attendance would creep up a bit during conference play if they started 15-0 or something, but it shouldn't require that to show some support for the team. I also hear tickets are too expensive, but I don't buy that either. I've been able to buy tickets for $20 and under, which is less than I spent on a number of tickets at Mac Court. Anyway, I'll try to hop off my soapbox. It's just been a thing that's bothered me for years. Maybe I've just become the crotchety old man yelling at the clouds about how much better things used to be back in the day.

[OregonFan4Life]

One thing Altman can do to help the viewership/attendance problems for next year is land the commitment of Bronny James. May be a 1 year solution but no doubt attendance and viewership would skyrocket next year if Bronny is wearing an Oregon jersey.

[OregonFan4Life]

Fans in seats is always a result of excitement versus frustration. It's not purely wins and losses, because expectations is a huge factor. [Most] people pay money to be excited and not frustrated.

That's the problem. The fan base is too easily frustrated. The same thing happened with football. If the product wasn't "exciting" enough, they lost interested, regardless of whether the team was winning games. I graduated back in 2007, so it was a different feel then. Attendance was routinely better, despite worse products. Fans at that time supported the team through thick and thin. The fans now wilt at the first sight of adversity. A tiny bit of success has somehow gotten to the heads of the fan base, and now they think anything less than a championship contender isn't worth rooting for. You would think the Ducks were racking up championships in anything other than track, given the mindset of our fans.

Doesn’t matter if it’s “right or wrong”, that’s not what Mullens is focusing on. Sure it makes it more difficult and I’m sure he understands that and doesn’t entirely hold it against coaches, but at a certain point, simply from a financial perspective, he has to be concerned about the state of mens basketball.

Honestly, I don't think a coaching change would change anything. It's the mindset of the fan base. I hear fans complain about the lack of connection with the team, but that's not going to change with a new coach. With the transfer portal, there will constantly be turnover. The majority of kids aren't patient enough these days to stick around if they aren't seeing immediate playing time, but the alternative is you're playing kids that are less skilled, so you're losing more games, which the fans complain about too. You can't completely ignore top recruits for fear of 1-and-done, as they also give you a better chance to win. There's really no solution that's miraculously going to change the situation.

I don't believe the expectations thing either, because it's not like attendance is good to begin the year and peters out. Fans aren't showing up from the outset. Sure, maybe attendance would creep up a bit during conference play if they started 15-0 or something, but it shouldn't require that to show some support for the team. I also hear tickets are too expensive, but I don't buy that either. I've been able to buy tickets for $20 and under, which is less than I spent on a number of tickets at Mac Court. Anyway, I'll try to hop off my soapbox. It's just been a thing that's bothered me for years. Maybe I've just become the crotchety old man yelling at the clouds about how much better things used to be back in the day.

I’m not saying that firing Altman is a solution, but rather the Oregon men’s basketball program is a 2-part problem for Mullens and Altman acknowledged them both with his post-game conference. 1, the product on the court is not good, the team has not performed close to expectations. 2, the viewership/attendance is way down and they need to bring in more revenue. Most athletic departments operate in the red, and heavily rely on football and men’s basketball to bring in revenue to make up for the programs that bring in no to little revenue but have normal expenses, like tennis. If men’s basketball isn’t contributing financially, it can be tough for an athletic department.

[dthomas=ddixon]

It’s easy to blame fans, and I think the criticism is valid, but it’s totally unproductive from the program’s point of view. It’s like a salesperson blaming potential customers for not buying the product. The blame may be valid but it’s your job to solve the issue; you can’t change the fan base, it is what it is.

Exactly, it is what it is, for someone like me who is very busy this time of year at work with two little kids, I don’t have much spare time, and when I do have spare time, I don’t want to spend it watching a basketball team that plays poorly and can be very frustrating to watch. I’ve said this before, but Mullens isn’t gonna sit there and just call out fans, the athletic department needs the men’s basketball team to bring in more revenue. Altman may be on a short leash not cause he’s a bad coach, but because the men’s basketball program isn’t bringing fans through the doors.

Well, if the most successful coach in school history can't bring fans, I can't imagine bringing a worse coach with likely more inconsistent results is going to help matters. Despite what a number of our fans think, there are not many better options than the HOF coach that's currently at the school, and those few options are not guys that are going to be coming to Oregon. You'd be taking a gamble on a lower P5 coach or mid-major coach and hoping he pans out. Also, the "bad" product is still a bubble team that had something to play for. It's a spoiled fan base, and really doesn't have a reason to be. The team has 1 final four appearance, and had very little success before Altman, outside a couple of random years with Kent. It can be a whole lot worse, and has been many years at Oregon. They were 7th in the conference in attendance. Do you think Utah, Colorado, and Washington were putting out a better product? It's just a fickle fan base that only supports their sports teams when it's fashionable.

I agree with all of this, as well as your response to STU, but ranting about fans at a press conference has never inspired better fan attendance.

I don’t know what the solution is either. Spectator sports just aren’t as popular with gen z and current teens. Even my friends’ kids who are super active in sports couldn’t care less about watching sports; they play video games in their free time, not watch sports. At their age I obsessively followed my favorite teams and so did a lot of my friends.