Pat Skerry & Tim Leonard

[AtlantaTiger 205]

4 hours ago, TTiger2024 said:

agree ....which is why i find it kinda crazy the negative-nancies are jumping off the bridge in NOV, lol.  Rather play the A10, SEC, and MACs of the world than awful teams

 

There's NOTHING in Skerry's past that suggests he's going to lead this team to a conference championship this coming March.  In fact, there's 8 years of statistics, data and history that virtually guarantees he won't lead this team to a conference championship this coming March.  How many seasons does he need?  I see a lot of "wait til next year" type posts from Skerry supporters on this forum......problem is, next year never seems to come with a Pat Skerry team.

[Tgr4life 168]

20 hours ago, towson2006 said:

Like the AD before and the AD before...and, as I’ve said previously this is as good as Towson sport has been across the board in 50 years. A few crappy losses don’t change that.

You could be correct in your "across the board" statement. The fact, though, does remain that the only sports folks care about are Basketball and Football. How many people really care about the success of track or tennis or volleyball or softball etc. 

So while the olympic sports might be doing well, very few care. This department is measured by football and basketball. I am not sure "across the board" really matters to anyone other than those participating in those sports. 

[griggey20 178]

1 hour ago, Tgr4life said:

You could be correct in your "across the board" statement. The fact, though, does remain that the only sports folks care about are Basketball and Football. How many people really care about the success of track or tennis or volleyball or softball etc. 

So while the olympic sports might be doing well, very few care. This department is measured by football and basketball. I am not sure "across the board" really matters to anyone other than those participating in those sports. 

While i generally agree, Lax does matter at Towson as well.  Winning in other programs can breed winning within other programs, IMO.  Do i think football and men's basketball should drive that, 1000%. I can't figure out the attendance stuff for the life of me.  The apathetic fans and lack of passion has a lot to do with history IMO.  I would all be for changing that mindset, it's just not that easy but I agree with everyone that this is the jobs of the Asst. ADs and the Athletic Department Sr. Leadership. 

[towson2006 9]

But if history shows, relative to energy and expense spent, no one really cares about football or basketball at Towson as evidenced by the myriad posts on here with the same explanations for why: beds on campus, bad coaching, no outreach, no connection with Greek life, administration shutting down any fun to be had at tailgating, students historically behaving in ways that lead to tailgate shutdowns (burning a band float in the 80s leading to a decade of no tailgating, throwing beer cans at cop cars in the mid 2000s, backflips off trucks and landing on your face, etc), then why don’t we, at Towson, enjoy and celebrate success in all our sports.
 

Then again actually knowing this history and understanding that we’ve literally struggled with an apathetic fan base since the inception of sport on this campus with numerous failed attempts at fundraising, threats to cut teams (sometimes successfully), and the absurd amount of money students are charged to pay for the teams they don’t care about in buildings they don’t fill for an athletic department they pay money to work for in return for college credit makes me a know it all. We aren’t a private institution that can do super shady stuff like Grand Canyon, we aren’t the number one show in town with college park to the south, and a better band to watch across town, there’s a ton of fun stuff to do around here besides watch fcs football or mid-major basketball. There’s no magic elixir that is ever going to change that. 
 

Given the aforementioned, I’d rather enjoy the cool stuff we have going on here. If it’s a 7-win football team that occasionally makes the playoffs in a tournament that almost always ends with NDSU as the winner great, if it’s a MBB team that wins 16-23 games a year in a middling conference that literally has no teams in it now that have reached the Final Four fantastic, win a CAA tourney in WBB and get smoked by UConn that’s actually our ceiling. When you change the metric for success to something that is reasonable and achievable it’s easier to enjoy what’s going on around here that’s all.

[AtlantaTiger 205]

I don't think it's complicated as to why Towson fan attendance/interest is low across football & basketball.  Very, very, very few people grow up as Towson fans.  How many kids are raised to be Towson football fans?  I'm guessing a large majority of Towson students grew up in homes that pulled for Penn St., Maryland, Notre Dame, Va. Tech, etc. 

Outside of North Dakota St. and a handful of other, similarly remote FCS schools, I don't know that FCS football is a major draw for students and fans.  They have more interest and loyalty to the schools they grew up cheering for and would rather go to bar to watch those teams play than sit and watch Towson play Rhode Island.  Short of an undefeated season I don't think anything changes that.

Basketball could/should probably draw better than it does but, even then, if you don't put a compelling product on the floor, few people are going to make the effort to come out.

[Tigerfan 10]

4 hours ago, AtlantaTiger said:

I don't think it's complicated as to why Towson fan attendance/interest is low across football & basketball.  Very, very, very few people grow up as Towson fans.  How many kids are raised to be Towson football fans?  I'm guessing a large majority of Towson students grew up in homes that pulled for Penn St., Maryland, Notre Dame, Va. Tech, etc. 

Outside of North Dakota St. and a handful of other, similarly remote FCS schools, I don't know that FCS football is a major draw for students and fans.  They have more interest and loyalty to the schools they grew up cheering for and would rather go to bar to watch those teams play than sit and watch Towson play Rhode Island.  Short of an undefeated season I don't think anything changes that.

Basketball could/should probably draw better than it does but, even then, if you don't put a compelling product on the floor, few people are going to make the effort to come out.

 

Have we tried everything possible to get the students to the games?  How can Nova, Richmond and William & Mary draw the same in football as us with only 9,000 students? Both schools are in area's with plenty to do(Virginia Beach, Richmond and Philly).

[mat1992 2,235]

24 minutes ago, Tigerfan said:

 

Have we tried everything possible to get the students to the games?  How can Nova, Richmond and William & Mary draw the same in football as us with only 9,000 students? Both schools are in area's with plenty to do(Virginia Beach, Richmond and Philly).

Nova and Richmond have won titles. They have traditions. I would say William & Mary is the only school in town. Sports-wise, what else is there to do? Virginia doesn’t have pro sports to deal with. Those aren’t really commuter schools. It’s not like they pack the place either.

Let’s remember, we’ve been in the CAA for 15 years in football and 18 on basketball. We’ve had very little success in basketball and some in football. Three playoffs in 15 years and a title games. That pales in comparison with most of those schools who were in the CAA for 30+ years and the Yankee Conference/Atlantic 10/CAA football for 30+. We have to knock on people’s doors and give student sweatshirts just to beg them to come out. And then we lose three times in front of them. Doesn’t help. Ok twice since no students were there on Saturday. 

 

[Tigerfan 10]

31 minutes ago, mat1992 said:

Nova and Richmond have won titles. They have traditions. I would say William & Mary is the only school in town. Sports-wise, what else is there to do? Virginia doesn’t have pro sports to deal with. Those aren’t really commuter schools. It’s not like they pack the place either.

Let’s remember, we’ve been in the CAA for 15 years in football and 18 on basketball. We’ve had very little success in basketball and some in football. Three playoffs in 15 years and a title games. That pales in comparison with most of those schools who were in the CAA for 30+ years and the Yankee Conference/Atlantic 10/CAA football for 30+. We have to knock on people’s doors and give student sweatshirts just to beg them to come out. And then we lose three times in front of them. Doesn’t help. Ok twice since no students were there on Saturday. 

 

You make good points but:

 I graduated in 1982  and we still draw the same in basketball or 2,000 a game. That is almost 40 years.

Football draws about 2,000 more than 40 years ago. We have made very little progress in 40 years.

[mat1992 2,235]

There was no tailgating when I went to school so nobody came to the games and the team was horrendous from 1989-1992 so what I’m seeing is progress as they are drawing about double the fans. But basketball is puzzling. The kids just don’t come. You need to get them even more involved because there is no tailgating. But I’m almost to the point of giving up. I’ve tried for 30 years to get people to go to games and we’ve probably had about 10 winning seasons in there. And basically no tradition. Just win and try and put an exciting product on the floor. At some point, people will come.

[Blounge 520]

Basketball is tricky because Towson’s winter break/minimester is basically the whole month of January so Towson is a ghost town for that whole month with only a handful of students in session and most students are at home in New Jersey. The product on the court has improved but the style of play has been slow and boring to watch. We need more up tempo offense, dunks, and a tournament birth to garner interest.