(01-23-2020 12:20 PM)JMad03 Wrote:  

(01-23-2020 11:41 AM)Deez Nuts Wrote:  

(01-23-2020 11:32 AM)jmudukes Wrote:  

(01-23-2020 09:30 AM)JMU_Newbill Wrote:  

(01-23-2020 08:34 AM)jmudukes Wrote:  I'll be there because win or lose I am going to support my team. That's the name of the game - SUPPORT. If the fans don't care then why should the team care?

Because the team is getting paid to be there. Also, if we have athletes that need fans to motivate them to play, we don't have athletes.

I'm sorry - look at our football team - they and the coaches love the support they get. They will even tell you that. Go back to the year we won the caa in Richmond when Brady was coaching. One of the players ran back in the locker room and said they are here, they are here. We had 8,000 fans there that night. Ask Northeastern if the JMU crowd made a difference. Better yet, ask the players if the fans cheering give them energy!

Fans showed up in 2013 because they had something to cheer about. Apathetic coaching attitudes and snarky comments coming from players on the team tied for last place in the conference are why people aren't supporting this product.

This.
Lack of fan support did not happen overnight. This is decades in the making. If anything we have been far more supportive of this program than what most fan bases across the country would have tolerated.
In a way, I think we are at fault. We support the team no matter what for so long they have taken advantage of it. These last few years have been more than enough for me and so many others to put their foot down and say enough is enough.
They made this mess and now they are suffering consequences. Fan support is the lowest its ever been and its 100% deserved.
The coach isn't doing enough to appeal to the fan base. He isn't knocking down doors. The players aren't saying much and when they do they don't seem to care about the message they are conveying. That message is 'you are lucky we are on your team'. Are you kidding me??
And through it all we should just blindly support them? NO.

I agree. Powerful alumni and supporters put pressure on the administrations at other schools - such as what I assume happened with Trott being out at ECU. We've been too nice, supportive and, finally, increasingly apathetic about men's basketball when it used to be the heart of the sports program. Change won't happen without pressure on the administration. Maybe the embarrassing prospect of an empty new arena will finally bring change.