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| (above) Boone whipping up the students pre-game |
photo credit: Andrew Fielding
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| (above) The students were en fuego |
photo credit: Andrew Fielding
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| (above) DU students storm the court |
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| (above) How sweet it is |
"When DU plays like that, they could beat a lot of top-20 teams. They had a fantastic crowd. It was set up for them to play well."Forward Chris Udofia scored a career-high 27 points, as the University of Denver won 75-60 to give Middle Tennessee its first Sun Belt Conference loss of the season in front of a national television audience on ESPN2 at Magness Arena on Saturday.
-Middle Tennessee Coach Kermit Davis
Redshirt-senior forward Rob Lewis tied a season-high with 17 points, and freshman guard Royce O'Neale rounded out DU's double-figure scoring trio by adding 14 points off the bench.
17 comments:
Fantastic atmosphere on campus today.
DU spirit was everywhere, and the students were as great as the team was today.
What a great day to be a Pioneer.
Great effort by the team under the bright lights and the pumped up crowd.
Sweet victory! It was really cool seeing men's hoops on national TV.
DU is ready for it's first trip to the big dance.
If the season ended today, with its RPI at 89, DU will need to win the SBC tourney to get the NCAA auto-bid. The Pios have the talent level to get that done, but they will need to win three in three days to make it happen in Hot Springs.
What I liked about yesterday is that DU didn't need three point shots to destroy MTSU (a team with a mid 40s RPI). DU won the game in the paint, which is an emerging capability with Rob Lewis getting healthy again.
DU has moved up to 86 in the RPI. DU has the third best basketball team in Colorado behind CU @ 70 and CSU @ 21:
Good article on the game. http://www.denverpost.com/colleges/ci_19896318
Thanks for the heads up on the article.
Great birds eye view photo of the crowd at Magness on Saturday.
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2847745307202&set=a.2847745067196.2134612.1066500028&type=1&theater
Here's my write-up, including lots of photos and videos, on the game:
http://milehighmids.tumblr.com/post/17159179054/return-on-investment
Phenomenal atmosphere. Good times. I hope the students who came to their first DU hoops game Saturday liked it enough that they come back!
If you’ve never been to a college basketball game DU is fun. If you have been to one of the top basketball schools, these are sort of sad and rinky-dink.
Dude, it's all about progress. No one expects a Duke basketball environment at DU. Basketball has not been on the radar at DU for a long time, if ever. A recent history of small crowds, not a lot of success, and little national attention. Fast forward to this year, and all that is changing. They are probably averaging about 5,500 per game (it used to be about 1500), great student turnout on Saturday (students used to just go to hockey games), and the game was played on ESPN 2 to a national TV audience (unprecedented for DU). Plus, the team is actually GOOD. (Some stumbles along the way, but when they play well this team belongs in the tourney.) Rome wasn't built in a day, and DU basketball won't be, either. But there has been pretty amazing progress this year. With the excitement that DU lacrosse generated last year, plus DU hoops this year, it's becoming apparent that DU doesn't have to be a one trick pony anymore for attendance-generating sports.
This is probably WAY TOO LONG of a response for a troll. I'll consider it my charity work for the day.
that was not my first game, but lot's of my friends had never been before and all they were talking about was how fun it was and how they should go more... i would expect greater turnout for future games. GO DU!!!
Its similar to new hockey fans coming to Magness to see the CC game for the first time and then they come back against UAA or Bemidji and the place is dead.
The trick for DU is how are they going to get some name brand opponents to visit Magness?
"The trick for DU is how are they going to get some name brand opponents to visit Magness?"
It depends on your definition of "brand name." DU has done an excellent job of non-conference scheduling the last two years, if you have realistic expectations. They had Utah State last year, and will playing them annually now in the WAC starting next year, along with Boise State (admittedly. Boise's brand is more football-specific), New Mexico State (okay, that's a stretch), and, uh, whatever other detritus is left in the WAC. Anyway...they also had Portland from the WCC last year. This year, they had St. Mary's and Southern Miss at Magness, along with Boise and some others.
USU and SMC, especially, are among the biggest mid-major "brands" out there, just a notch below Gonzaga and Butler. Would love to see DU try to schedule series with the Zags and BYU, though I don't know if they'd be interested. (More long-term, what Denver REALLY needs is an invite to the WCC. But I don't know if that'll be forthcoming.)
They've also consistently scheduled Mountain West opponents for home-and-homes (CSU, Wyoming) ... would be nice if they could get the bigger MWC teams like San Diego State, UNLV and New Mexico, but those are tougher "gets." Even harder is to get Pac-12 teams to visit. There isn't a lot of incentive for those teams to play a team like Denver on the road, since they get no credit for a win and lots of grief for a loss.
The other problem is that virtually Denver's entire non-conference season takes place during the school's long winter break, so no matter who they schedule, the student support is going to be limited for the marquee non-conference games. At least the Utah State game will be during school starting next year...
I could see us bringing in Some bottom half PAC -10 teams. Oregon State has been here before as has Stanford. Maybe service academies and Ivies or Patriot league schools might make sense as would other WCC schools. ACC, Big 10, Big East, Big 12 likely aren't coming.
Work towards playing CU, Kentucky or Duke in the Pepsi Center for starters.
Think big or go home.
Got to be the first time anybody rushed the court after beating Middle Tennessee State, LOL.
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