Madness at Midnight 07

[lionspride]

I can see some of your points dead3man for general explanation or mindset for our team outlook this year, but your overall rationale of your recent board entry on this issue seems to be:

1) due to our team being young and the coaching staff developing/implementing a master plan (that is out of our line of sight and behind close doors), the coaches and Athletic Department somehow do not find it prudent to notify (via e-mail, snail mail) or timely notify (putting the release on the website prior to the day) the half of its proven fan base (alumni, boosters, community) know about Midnight Madness. Alumni and boosters are not on campus everyday like us students.

2) due to a lack of a proven player and senior leader on the team to market, the coaches and Athletic Department do not find it prudent to notify or include half of its proven fan base (alumni, boosters, community) about Midnight Madness.

3) due to young mix of talent on the team, the coaches and Athletic Department find that it is prudent NOT to issue the PR to the news outlets and let other schools get the media play.

4) some alumni, boosters, (and students) on this board are too harsh and extra critical (I like to call this "tough love") of the coaches, players, and Athletic Department every move. As such, let's don't include half of its proven fan base (alumni, boosters, community) by not notifying them of Midnight Madness and protect our young players from this non-supportive attitude. If the idea is that we need to protect our young team from the unknown out there, I am very scared as a Lion fan what I am going to see when we head up to Gonzaga or Pepperdine this year. Our young team might as well not even show up if we use this philosophy.

Somehow, I cannot (no matter how hard I try) think the above provides a plausible excuse for what happened and the reason for not bringing MM to the attention of alumni, booster, and the community. If I used the above rationale, we fans might as well not show up for this year or next year's games and not donate. Let's just show up and donate when the coaching staff's master plan is completely developed and proven, we have a superstar standout that has a twinkle in his eye for the camera, and the wins are piling up in 2010.

I have yet to hear student, alumni, booster be non-supportive of the players and coaches during a game or a basketball function. No matter how critical some individuals on this board get, I have faith that when in Gersten....everyone supports our LIONS. More noise, claps, and laughs at MM from alumni, boosters, and the community would have only facilitated more excitement and enthusiasm for the season and provide another insight into our family (the teams).

lmu: I hear your comments, but with that approach you will never build a SUSTAINABLE fan base and raise the program to a top tier Mid-Major. It is extremely difficult to win year-in, year-out. We need to have our fans grow with the team...especially a young team. It is vital for fans to connect with the team and build that relationship to foster loyalty and greater support in good and bad times. MM and other events like this allow fans to see another side of the coaches and players. These events build up that loyalty and makes the fan want to show up to experience greater insights into the program. If we take this approach, we will be starting over every couple of years.

I will have to get over this one because I don't want to dwell on this for more than a couple of days after the event. Like I said before, I don't want to bring down the positive energy of MM, but instead point out future opportunities to better the program with very minor additional work for the AD. I will move off this specific issue and focus on the season.

[lionboy]

In my opinion, being around various college basketball programs for most of my life, I feel like LMU's madness at midnight is designed so it is only for students to get together and try to create more passion for the team. I think they don't invite the public because honestly our student body is pretty crappy when it comes to supporting sports for the most part. I have been to many Men's bball games where there are only 20-30 students, and only twice a year we come close to reaching "capacity" for students. If this were a well established program with a huge following on campus I think it would be right to invite others, but I think the whole goal of our MM is to get the word out to students and create excitement on campus. I personally feel like this event would not have high attendance by the community, and I assume there are all of 20 alumni that would actually be interested in going. It's not really that great of an event unless you are a student and enjoy being with all of your friends watching students dance. Most kids leave after 1 minute of the basketball team practicing, which is the highlight of the night, IMO.

[lmu]

lionspride said:

lmu: I hear your comments, but with that approach you will never build a SUSTAINABLE fan base and raise the program to a top tier Mid-Major. It is extremely difficult to win year-in, year-out. We need to have our fans grow with the team...especially a young team. It is vital for fans to connect with the team and build that relationship to foster loyalty and greater support in good and bad times. MM and other events like this allow fans to see another side of the coaches and players. These events build up that loyalty and makes the fan want to show up to experience greater insights into the program. If we take this approach, we will be starting over every couple of years.

I will have to get over this one because I don't want to dwell on this for more than a couple of days after the event. Like I said before, I don't want to bring down the positive energy of MM, but instead point out future opportunities to better the program with very minor additional work for the AD. I will move off this specific issue and focus on the season.

No doubt I want us to have a sustainable fan base, but the only way to do it is by having a consistent winner. Take USC for instance, despite having a much bigger supporting community and a brand new $100+ million arena, their attendance was miserable last year. Even UCLA had trouble filling up the seats a few years back when they struggled mightily under the previous coach.

The fact is fans won't show up for a losing team no matter how hard we try to sell. St. Mary's flirt with march madness from year to year, and look, hardly any buzz around that program. We don't need a team like the gaels, we need a team like the zags. (or substitute any top-tier mid-major team.)

[fanblade]

Basketball Team intoductions


#1 Performance MBB Dance. Let's hope their performance on the court with the ball is better looking than these dance moves.