Losing to Western Michigan and Miami ruined my weekend. Losing to the Citatel, UMBC and Monmouth pissed me off. Losing to BC was like.. meh no big deal anymore. The way I feel now reminds me of the end of the Willard and Stallings eras.
How Many Are Losing Interest In College Basketball ?
- Thread starter poconopanther
- Start date
Big and RECENT losses to Syracuse, Clemson and BC tell you all you need to know.
Duke, UNC, Miami, FSU, ND and Wake will seal the deal.
It's so weird to me ... even these teams don't even feel like Big East teams to me anymore.
Recently, I watched about 5 minutes of a game with Auburn against somebody....I don't even recall the opponent. But I was fascinated by the huge crowd in the Auburn arena and the noise generated by the students and crowd. It reminded me of the days when Pitt had the same atmosphere. Then I was brought back to reality and remembered the "huge" crowd we had at The Pete against SU, and I felt old.
Analytics too. Way too many players line up at the 3 point line where one guy may go low post, and the ball is just passed around the perimeter, waiting to see who is going to shoot the 3. And I understand. 4 for 12 (33%) from 3 and 6 for 12 from 2, you are still tied.
I actually find myself applauding when I see a guy drive a couple of steps and take a 15 footer. I double applaud and think he should get extra credit when it is a shot around the paint and someone actually uses the board. I mean yeah, starting to sound like old man, but analytics have really affected baseball in not a good way and it is college basketball. Why work for all of these back screens and cut to get a well diagrammed and executed layup where you can just fire up a 22 footer, and get the long rebound on a miss and then fire up another 22 footer for a 3. The former is beautiful basketball, the latter more efficient basketball.
I am all for the 3 pointer, but again analytics breaks everything down into a spreadsheet. So because of this from High School and AAU, kids don't execute nor are taught basketball anymore.
I watched that same thing. I think it was against LSU or someone. But it was raucous and fun and Auburn is good and Bruce Pearl is great.
My interest was always Pitt bb first then college bb in general second and my interest in both has gradually declined from the second yr Pitt joined the ACC . I really looked forward to the Duke and UNC games , but I realized after the first yr it just wasn’t the same as the Big East rivalries . After JDs first yr in the ACC Pitts program started declining and what has followed is just unacceptable . Not sure how Pitt can dig themselves out of this hole and one more failed coaching cycle I’m done until they’d win me back .
Of course, if your team is on top of the mountain, then things are great the way they are, like for Bama football fans, CFB has never been better, LOL
College basketball on Fox is the worst. Its unwatchable to me. Their scoreline takes half the screen and I cannot stand that they use Rounball Rock. That is sacrilegious and it really bothers me. Roundball Rock isn't Big East.
Agreed - I wouldn’t mind either coach taking over our program. 2 good coaches.
The Big East and ESPN "used to" belong together -- all the way back to Ewing and Pearl.
Yep. But when I’m flipping channels and I see St. John’s v GTown or some other old school BigEast matchup feels a little melancholy. I know Pitt had to make the move as I guess we all do. But dam I miss those days.
Couldn’t agree more. I felt the same way during the Syracuse games. Those used to be marquee events and now you saw both games played out by two bad teams in largely empty arenas. It’s just sad to look at what realignment has done to our program and theirs.
I watch other conferences and it’s just night and day to the ACC currently, outside of Duke/UNC. Providence-Marquette on Sunday was a great game, Texas-Texas Tech tonight is going to be a fun watch, Auburn-Alabama should be fun too. When was the last time you circled an ACC game the way these other leagues have a marquee game almost every night?
Back in 2011 when Pitt earned their second #1 seed, I attended 31 of the 34 games that season. Now in 2022, I will be coming up on two years without even attending a game at the Pete.
With the NIL, coming and going of players, conference expansion, and high price of tickets, I have lost interest and emotional attachment. After 55 years of being a season ticket holder, I just don’t get excited anymore. If we lost a game, I lost sleep, and if we won I lost sleep because I celebrated all night. Now, I have no emotional feeling at all.
There is no real intriguing story this year. The Number One ranking has been passed around like a hot potato. Last year Gonzaga was an intriguing story going into the tournament. I would also say that the NFLplayoffs Have been super entertaining so that has probably distracted some viewership.
A compelling story this year would have been Duke going undefeated with K retiring. That would have attracted the casual fan along with the Duke haters and band wagon riders. But alas that hasn’t happened.
And having a SEC team as number one right now is disinteresting because of football fatigue of the SEC as well.
A compelling story this year would have been Duke going undefeated with K retiring. That would have attracted the casual fan along with the Duke haters and band wagon riders. But alas that hasn’t happened.
And having a SEC team as number one right now is disinteresting because of football fatigue of the SEC as well.
SEC basketball dominance is very bad for the sport. College basketball needs brands from New England to North Carolina to be good.
That's it. And it is not just a "Pitt is down" thing. When we were in the Big East I always looked forward to compelling ACC games. There aren't any. Like I said, I cannot even name a Duke player now. Ordinarily, they would have a star, and also one of college BB's top villains. Now, they are just another collection of NBA placeholders for a year. Most achieving only a few more credits from Duke than I will have.
And the ACC just isn't winning these recruiting wars at all anymore. 28 of Rivals 150 is committed to ACC schools for the 2022 class, 5 to Duke. UVa has a nice class coming in. BC even has 2. Duke has commitments from 4 of the top 11. That is 4 kids who will come in and be like the Grandpa Simpson meme, leaving as fast as they come.
Last year 22 of the top 150 committed to ACC Schools. On the surface, that doesn't look much worse than other conferences, but either these guys are not panning out or they are leaving earlier than in most conferences to not have much of an impact.
All you have to do is look at the activity levels on the hoops board. When we were a good program, people would post on here constantly. Now, it's much less frequent and sometimes a thread has a post from the previous day as the most recent post. People just aren't all that interested in Pitt basketball like they used to be. When we lose, which is quite a bit, posters come on here and vent, but that's about it. Then it's forgotten.
Then if you are one of the few that go to The Pete to see a game, look around in the stands. There aren't that many people there. A good night now in the stands means there are 2,000 - 2,500 people there. It used to be a sellout with over 12,000 people in attendance.
Then if you are one of the few that go to The Pete to see a game, look around in the stands. There aren't that many people there. A good night now in the stands means there are 2,000 - 2,500 people there. It used to be a sellout with over 12,000 people in attendance.
Is the northeast really that powerful anymore? I don't think college football needs Notre Dame to be good despite all of the New Yorkers that would get excited if they were. And I am not sure college basketball needs the relatively small northeastern schools to be good. Sure, it would help generate interest in Western PA if the northeast rises up, but I am not sure that's true for the nation as a whole.
The Big East was a mans game. It was a grind, with tough players who just made every game exciting. I never missed a game, and now, I don’t recognize a team that could even hold a Big East of old jock. I don’t see a team with a player that could even make any of the Pitt teams from the late 90s and into the end of our time in the big East.
Well......at the end of the day, college basketball is better with healthier Northeastern teams. But. It is still a pro region. Boston, has the NBA, the iconic Celtics. NYC? You got the Nets and the Knicks. And my god if the Knicks would ever be good again. Philly the Sixers. DC the Wizards. Pittsburgh is a hockey town.
College basketball is a Northeast, Midwest, and Mid-Atlantic down to NC sport. It needs its brands in those markets to be good. A highly ranked Pitt/Syracuse game is way better for TV than LSU/Alabama.
I've really enjoyed UVA basketball the last few years.
Tonight is a great night for college hoops. Texas/Texas Tech & Alabama/Auburn
Tonight is a great night for college hoops. Texas/Texas Tech & Alabama/Auburn
Times change. To each his own in what they think makes for great viewership, but Northeast basketball just doesn't have the same appeal since the old Big East split up. It's just not the same.
I think the conferences where the members have the same geographic footprint seem produce more spirited rivalries.
I still think the ACC is one of the top basketball conferences. I don't expect years like this to become the norm.
But not so much when it matters to you that you can't stand the teams. There are definitely 2 kinds of fans, those that enjoy a "great game" no matter who's playing, and those that need to care about at least one of the teams for it to hold your attention.
Just a reminder of how bad your understanding of college basketball remains.
I'm interested in college basketball now as far as the NCAAT and how much money I can win in the pool. Until Pitt gets a real head coach and competent staff, I won't be interested in what they do. That means I'll seldom watch a regular season game and will attend a couple of Pitt games during the season, just because it's something to do. I realize we're stuck now until we rid this program of the incompetency.
That's why it was a big loss to end the Old Big East Basketball thing as we knew it. The North East had it's own Power conference of teams mostly north of the southern states and east of Chicago, with the center of it's universe being MSG. And the BE was often the best conference in the country, at times like the SEC is to football now. But yeah, football comes first, so we had to end the best hoops conference that ever lived.
