Hoops Coach Joe Scott Calls For Student Support

(above) In today's Denver Post DU basketball coach Joe Scott challenged the student body to help the team
From: Denver Post
by Irv Moss

The Pioneers head into their final four games of the regular season 17-8 overall and in sole possession of second place in the WAC at 13-2.

Scott's question: How many teams are 13-1 over their past 14 games? The coach knows one of them is his own.

Scott is hopeful that the DU student body will increase its attendance at the three vital games.

"I'd like to think that will happen," Scott said. "If our students come out, it will be a great boost for our team" [read entire article].


5 comments:

Brendan Loy said...

I blogged about this article too, and then noticed something:

"The final series of the hockey team's regular season is the same weekend as the UTA and LaTech games. The Magness Arena schedule looks like this:

Thursday, March 7: Basketball vs. Texas-Arlington, 7:00 pm
Friday, March 8: Hockey vs. Alaska-Anchorage, 7:37 pm
Saturday, March 9: Basketball vs. Louisiana Tech, 5:00 pm
Sunday, March 10: Hockey vs. Alaska-Anchorage, 12:07 pm

... This creates a golden opportunity for the student spirit folks at DU to promote a massive weekend of athletics and school pride. Final exams begin March 14, followed by Spring Break, so this will be the last full, "free" weekend of the winter quarter for DU students. They should make it a big, weekend-long party, much like they did with [last year's ESPN-televised Middle Tennessee] game and the Colorado College hockey series that it was sandwiched between.

Support the Top 10-ranked hockey team as it concludes its regular season and heads into the playoffs, and support the basketball team as it fights for a conference title. This can work. And if a win over LaTech clinches a WAC championship or co-championship (which requires the Bulldogs to lose at least one other time first), there will be a perfectly justifiable reason to storm the court again.

Get to it, Pios!"

dggoddard said...

Agreed.

Great opportunity to support DU athletics.

5BWest said...

Sad that one of the best coaches in the country has to 'hope' that students will show up. This team deserves better support.

dggoddard said...

Coaches need to get off their asses and help build fan support. Use their celebrity to build the student section.

Shawn Walsh at Maine carried a bullhorn into student cafeterias when he first arrived on campus to drum up student interest.

Enrico Blaise at Miami-Ohio personally delivers pizzas to the students who wait hours in line to get into games.

You can sit on your butt and hope that "winning cures all" or you can be proactive and do things to deliver students into the arena.

5BWest said...

Also, our AD has done a great job hiring great coaches but she needs to be out more promoting on radio and TV. CU and CSU AD's are on the radio and news every week in Denver.

Joe Scott does a great weekly radio show and has had students, cheerleaders, players etc. on his weekly show. I think the product speaks for itself and shouldn't need gimmicks to sell it to students.

This could be a special year and would be too bad if most of the campus misses it.