By Nic LaPonte
We have good teams. We have a strong Athletic Department here at UP.
So why aren't we a basketball school, in the vein of say, Gonzaga?
I get it that we're a soccer school, that's more or less obvious. But why do we have to be just a one-trick pony?
I spoke a bit with Coach Eric Reveno of the men's basketball team to get his take on why our fan base for that sport is a bit weaker.
"College basketball is all the rage on other campuses. A strong student section helps with recruiting, helps the team out, but it's not the students' responsibility," Reveno said.
The problem in getting students excited in basketball doesn't seem to lie with advertising. If I had to guess, the reason students aren't excited about basketball is that historically basketball here hasn't been very exciting. It's been years since either team has boasted a winning season.
Even though this season our teams have been delivering exciting games, as well as being quite competitive, fans still don't want to go and watch the home team win.
Recent programs like Hall Stars and the official adoption of Purple Pride as a University-approved club have bolstered game attendance, but something is still missing.
Tricia Miller, director of Athletic Marketing, expressed her thoughts on the matter.
"Many people are here for academics: that's just the culture," Miller said. "We could easily be a basketball school; we have a great venue and we go up against big schools."
Keep in mind though that all promotions aside; the biggest turnout of the year is when we play Gonzaga. Students seem to need a sense of excitement that doesn't come just from promotions in order to put going to a game over their other obligations
I think it's a little absurd that people here show more excitement at the excitement of just watching Gonzaga play as compared to watching the Pilots on any other big game day.
The background of the student body itself may also contribute to low basketball turnout. Many of our students come from areas with very competitive college basketball programs.
"I think we get overshadowed by schools with very successful programs," said senior Janet McElligott, head of the Student Alumni Association and the Athletic Marketing intern.
Students from those kind of schools could understandably find it hard to get excited for a team without the record of say, the University of Washington behind them, and would rather go to a game just to see Gonzaga play.
Another factor that works against any forward momentum of an athletic movement here is that all of our programs have to compete for press against the nationally recognized women's soccer team. Not that the fact our soccer program is so strong is a bad thing, it just makes it more difficult for the little victories of other teams to get the appreciation they deserve.
"I think soccer has set a high bar, but it's a good bar to have," Reveno said.
There seems to me to be a prevalent attitude of "well, they didn't win a national championship, so why should we care" among the student body.
Reveno recounted a similar experience that he had when he played for the Stanford Cardinal.
When I was first (at Stanford) we had no fans, by my last year we were setting attendance records," Reveno said. "Team improvement went hand in hand with that."
Getting out from under the shadow of a long series of losing seasons is difficult, and building faith in a program is harder still.
"I don't think students understand the potential of this team: it's easier to remember the losses than the good things," McEllligott said.
The situation goes back to the whole premise of fan appreciation. As Reveno put it, it is not the responsibility of the fan base to support the team no matter what; it is the responsibility of the team to earn that support.
