(01-27-2024 11:08 PM)pvk75 Wrote: Scattered thoughts (hopefully not too scatter-brained), but it's late for an old guy.
STF has no idea how to or what draws fans at NIU's level; IMHO two things: winning teams and local/regional players. We had a thread not too long ago where posters tossed in all the names of great NIU MBB players, and there were a lot of them. Many/most were what we'd consider local. We also had a thread (same one?) that wondered where all the local players went vis-a-vis recruiting.
Not to knock Burno, who played for DePaul and coached Marion HS for three years, but ...
The NIU roster has players from Nigeria, Switzerland, Canada (Ontario), Serbia and Colombia. I'm sure those draw a helluva lotta fans (snicker). As do players from "foreign" places like Massachussetts, New Jersey, New York and California. Of the 16 listed, only two are not from outside Illinois. Some of the others who were fled for some reason (any takers?). I am not being racist or discriminatory. Isolated from family, friends, town/school and even country, how much harder is it for these kids to "get into" being at NIU? The roster is what it is.
It also isn't what it was. In years prior, NIU usually had 7-8-9 from Illinois high schools every year, new and returning, which meant those communities had some interest. (Eugene German was from Gary, Ind. ... close enough). NIU is NOT a national university in many respects.
Lack of winning is of course a huge factor, but the flood tide of marketing NIU doesn't have is also huge. STF can't be totally blamed for the first one, but marketing has sucked since Mike Korcek "retired" at age 58 in 2006 (but we know, don't we? Jim Phillips was AD then). STF showed up in 2013 from asst. AD at Wisconsin, which needs a marketing boost like it does more cheese and brats. We all know what has happened since ... =<0.
IDK what the solution is but change at the top comes to mind. Question is, top of what?
Enough rambling, G'night all.
Ps. Don't dump everything on the MAC or ESPN contract. The alleged leadership knew what it was and knew what there was to see coming. How much effort was made locally? Done now.
I hear your argument, but I'm just one that doesn't see the importance of local players like you and some others do.
Attendance still sucked when German and McCarty (Sterling, IL) were both on the team at the same time. Heck, now that I think about it, that team also had Beane (Carbondale...in state), Cochran (Bolingbrook), Nate Scott (Naperville), Keenon Cole (Streamwood), Rod Henry-Hayes (Zion-Benton) and Chris Johnson (TF North).
Did that squad out-perform this squad? Sure, but German has a lot to do with that success. But attendance was still bad and the upper seats were still pushed back.
You'd think with all that in-state talent, they'd sell out every game.
And that team went 18-13 and was tied for 1st in the MAC, had a very good chance to go to the Big Dance and had the all-time scorer on the floor every night. But that team averaged 1,150 attendance. It's down from that this year but only by about 200, which yeah...is a substantial percentage amount but....it's not like 1.15k is all that.
Is it important? Maybe a little bit. The major conferences don't worry about it. They just worry about putting the best team on the floor. And, imo, today the game is a global game and if you limit yourself to only looking in your backyard, you're going to miss a lot of potential players.
I know I mentioned it in one of these threads but I'll repeat it here. When DePaul fired Stubblefield, I was reading the article about it on The Athletic and someone in the comments was saying they needed to do better recruiting Chicago. It's basically the same argument no matter where you go, but anyway, here it was with DePaul. And someone mentioned that with the portal the way it is today, you miss out on a lot of local players for a number of reasons but one is that they are lured away by the fantasy of going elsewhere. Kids aren't dying to live at home in college. They often want to get away from home and have some freedom and be grown.
But then, with the portal being as wild as it is, you will often see a lot of kids hit the portal and are more open to moving to a school closer to home. Its like reality sets in and being away and not playing much kinda sucks and they'd rather go somewhere where they 1) are more comfortable and 2) will play.
Plus, any freshman you recruit now is a gamble to keep anyway. If they don't play, they often bolt and if they do play and exceed...they bolt. So, go after the guys in the portal who want to come back.
And Burno did this almost immediately with Williams and it was a fantastic get. But he's not really followed it up. He did get Amos out of Young but hasn't gotten that local talent in the portal. And, imo, that is the mark he's missing.
Let the 3 and 4*s walk and then when they want to come back after not playing as freshmen, go after them.
/
"Fighting Huskie" logo coming back ... or at least available?
