UND Interest in Basketball

[wcbsas]

As an observer from outside the UND community I am a little suprised by the relative inactivity on this board as it pertains to UND basketball.

Any rationale person know Hockey is the primary sport at UND. But for a major university the level of support for basketball seems poor.

For example in this very fan forum there are limited discussions on men's basketball. In the last two months there have been 3 topics on basketball (two of which I started) with a total of 6 posts/responses for ALL THREE.

Attendance averages 2,791 per home game in the state of the art Englestad Center compared to 10,621 for hockey.

I know basketball is just beginning but where's the enthusiasim?

UND is a major college in every respect - school, enrollment, alumni support ... why not for basketball?

[jimdahl]

My impression is that discussion here comes from three primary groups: alums (usually distant), students, people connected to the sports (staff, parents, etc...). Even though there are plenty of people in G.F. going to the games, they aren't necessarily hanging out on message boards because they're able to get their news and do their kibitzing locally. Basketball just isn't the big social event that hockey & football is for the students, and really isn't something that most alums follow once they're gone because there isn't a lot of news available and the teams aren't particularly successful right now.

That said, go to the football forum and go back a couple years and there was 1/5 to 1/10 the discussion there is now. Success of the program has certainly helped, but a couple of us just regularly posting and creating discussions amongst ourselves also led to additional people joining in.

[UND92,96]

There's a fairly small but dedicated group of us who have discussed basketball quite extensively over the past few years on this board. At this point, discussion will, of course, be infrequent due to football, and also the fact that hockey is in full swing. I haven't seen Koenig play since high school, and I've never seen Harkins, Gutter, Miller or Blackwell play in a game so I'll be very interested to see what they'll bring to the table this year. I think discussion will pick up next week since there will be two exhibition games and we'll get a chance to see how the newcomers look.

[UND Fan]

As an observer from outside the UND community I am a little suprised by the relative inactivity on this board as it pertains to UND basketball.

Any rationale person know Hockey is the primary sport at UND. But for a major university the level of support for basketball seems poor.

For example in this very fan forum there are limited discussions on men's basketball. In the last two months there have been 3 topics on basketball (two of which I started) with a total of 6 posts/responses for ALL THREE.

Attendance averages 2,791 per home game in the state of the art Englestad Center compared to 10,621 for hockey.

I know basketball is just beginning but where's the enthusiasim?

UND is a major college in every respect - school, enrollment, alumni support ... why not for basketball?

My thoughts on your question:

Hockey - with our success in this DI sport, it is not surprising that fans (both in the GF area and around the country) flock to a website like this to discuss our team, the WCHA, upcoming games, potential recruits, etc.

Football - with our recent success, a great playing environment at the Alerus and the continued growth and excitement of tailgating at both home and away games - a great deal of interest in discussing the team, the NCC, national polls, upcoming games, potential recruits, etc. has developed. The fact that ND and NW MN produces many very talented DII quality FB players also makes the site more interesting as many posters have first hand knowledge about the quality of these athletes, who is recruiting them, etc.

Basketball - the UND men have had limited success in recent years - including a couple of years where we all expected them to be very good. This has hampered the interest in the team. Also, very few ND and NW MN kids have DII BB potential so there isn't nearly the discussion about potential recruits as no one knows much about them. If we can get back to playing exciting, successful ball again (and not lose a few games each year to clearly inferior teams), the fans and interest in discussing UND buckets will come back.

The UND women have had a lot of success over the last 10 years and the next few years could/should be outstanding. They play very exciting ball - fans really enjoy watching them play. Also, unlike the men, the area produces many very talented women BB players. I am somewhat surprised that there is not more discussion about the UND women on this site. Maybe once the season gets started......

I would guess that there are tons of UND fans (both locally and, like me, 1000+ miles away) that are not aware of this website. We should all do all we can to inform others of the site and encourage them to participate. More posters would be great - more discussion, more debate, more inside information, more insight into recruiting, etc. If anyone has any other ideas how we can spread the word about this site, please post them. As it isn't sanctioned by the University, I am sure that they would not include its existence in any of their publications. Any ideas?

Jim - I haven't thanked you recently for the site. I am sure all of us loyal UND fans and boosters truly appreciate it!

[Cratter]

The men stink..

Need more (black ) dudes who can dunk. Make it exciting.

[bigmrg74]

You guys should try to get GVSU to come up there to play, some Holiday Tournament or something perhaps.