Game 33: (A-10 Tournament, Brooklyn, NY), St. Bonaventure, Friday, March 15th, 2:30 PM, NBCSN

[JimP]

Thank you URI for making this a 2 bid league this season

URI?

 

[Washingtonian]

URI?

For knocking out vcu, it allowed a 2nd bid.

 

[TweederGMU]

Some observations from the A-10 Tourney this year.

1. I think our fan base that showed up to Brooklyn has been the lowest in attendance in probably 20 years. And probably the most quiet I've ever witnessed in our CAA and past A-10 tourneys. St. Bonny is 6 hours away and probably had the 2nd largest fan base there.

2. Our "Mason Nation HQ Bar/restaurant" was actually St. Bonaventure's bar and they outnumbered us probably 10 to 1 . Not even joking. They rented out the 2nd floor of the bar. One of the St. Bonnie fans I talked with at the bar jokingly said what are we doing here and did you all know this has been our bar for the past 2 years!? I said our Patriot Club people were 6 tables over and to go tell them that. He laughed. But it was pretty embarrassing. Apparently apathy and not caring about providing a solid GMU experience has hit our Patriot Club team. I mean how in the F do you not confirm with a restaurant/bar that no other school has that bar? Fail. Tired of these people not caring. Especially when one of the GMU staffers is an alumni of St. Bonny.

3. St. Bonny fans were very cool and nice. Made friends with one before our A-10 game with them, I'd say he is in his 50's and is an alumni and fan for over 30 years. He told me their fans love Schmidt. So much they pay a portion of his salary! Yep.... the fans are so dedicated and made it a point to the school they want to have a voice to make sure their Bball team is successful so they take donations from the fanbase in order to help pay the coach. I don't know the logistics and legalities behind this.... they probably have the fund setup where its legal but thought that was very cool.

He mentioned he liked our Coach and our fans. He didn't mind us and rooted for us in the NCAA tourney over the years.

4. The Barclays Center food was pretty awful. Chicken Tenders and fries were burnt and awful. My friends pretzel and nachos were not good either. For being so damn expensive you all need to up your food quality.

5. Green Machine killed it as usual. The ushers were dancing to them over on the sidelines most of the game. So many random people were commenting on them and taking pics and videos of them during our game. St. Bonny fans in front of us took a video of them a few times.

6. A mason fan sitting around us laughed at our comments on Reuter. I've never seen him at games before but he even commented on the A10 player of the year comment about Reuter and laughed and shook his head in disgust. We all agreed that was a huge and epic failure of player assessment.

7. I think the marketing and patriot club needs to seriously be looked at and improved by Brad. Tired of apathy and fans not showing up to anything. We have 30K students and have pathetic tourney showings every year. Winning may or may not cure this so need to think of ways to perk up some passion in our fans.

8. vcu fans were still dicks in Brooklyn. Dayton, St. Bonny, and others hate vcu too and all cheered when they lost. The delusions of grandeurs in a vcu fan's head is comical.... they think they are entitled to everything in basketball. I don't know if its hysterical or actually sad on how delusional they are!

 

[JimP]

For knocking out vcu, it allowed a 2nd bid.

Gotcha - should have figured that out. Yep - thanks URI.

 

[GSII]

Why wasnt the full band their?

 

[Washingtonian]

Some observations from the A-10 Tourney this year.

1. I think our fan base that showed up to Brooklyn has been the lowest in attendance in probably 20 years. And probably the most quiet I've ever witnessed in our CAA and past A-10 tourneys. St. Bonny is 6 hours away and probably had the 2nd largest fan base there.

I wonder if the fact that you didn't have to buy the book had something to do with it. It was smart of the A-10 to do general admission, which made the crowd look better on TV. I suspect the A-10 will continue this for many years to come.

 

[TweederGMU]

Why wasnt the full band their?

Costs most likely. Transportation, food costs, and hotel rooms add up! Especially in NYC. Probably only took the bare minimum.

 

[GSII]

Costs most likely. Transportation, food costs, and hotel rooms add up! Especially in NYC. Probably only took the bare minimum.

There's a coach and team worth creating a fund for.

 

[GMUgemini]

Man, I knew vcu would get stuck on the 8/9 line with Duke looming in the second round.

 

[TweederGMU]

There's a coach and team worth creating a fund for.

Apathy man....apathy.

I would put money towards a bus to get GMU students and alumni up to the tourney rather than pay for 6 trumpet players.

Its nice and all but not a necessity.

 

[Walter]

You are spot on. Our fanbase was a joke in Brooklyn. Not many came nor cared to cheer or stand and cheer much outside a handful. Apathy has set in.

True. Our fans only filled the section behind the Mason bench. Bonnie fans filled the middle section, the section behind their bench, and much of their student section. We hardly had any students there.

Doc Nix and the cheerleaders tried to get the Mason fans to stand but were ignored. To be truthful, I only stood when I couldn't see over the standing Bonnie fans. But in our defense, there wasn't much to cheer about.

 

[psyclone]

Why wasnt the full band their?

Actually I remember that the NCAA limits (or at least use to) the number of people in the band that schools can bring. I don't know if the A10 has the same rule.

Related to the band, during one of the games in Brooklyn, one of the CBSsn announcers turns to the other and says something like, "who would you pick as having the best band?" The other guy says, "I know the fans from George Mason and Dayton won't be happy, but I think the Peppas are the best band"

Booo!

 

[jessej]

Some observations from the A-10 Tourney this year.

1. I think our fan base that showed up to Brooklyn has been the lowest in attendance in probably 20 years. And probably the most quiet I've ever witnessed in our CAA and past A-10 tourneys. St. Bonny is 6 hours away and probably had the 2nd largest fan base there.

2. Our "Mason Nation HQ Bar/restaurant" was actually St. Bonaventure's bar and they outnumbered us probably 10 to 1 . Not even joking. They rented out the 2nd floor of the bar. One of the St. Bonnie fans I talked with at the bar jokingly said what are we doing here and did you all know this has been our bar for the past 2 years!? I said our Patriot Club people were 6 tables over and to go tell them that. He laughed. But it was pretty embarrassing. Apparently apathy and not caring about providing a solid GMU experience has hit our Patriot Club team. I mean how in the F do you not confirm with a restaurant/bar that no other school has that bar? Fail. Tired of these people not caring. Especially when one of the GMU staffers is an alumni of St. Bonny.

3. St. Bonny fans were very cool and nice. Made friends with one before our A-10 game with them, I'd say he is in his 50's and is an alumni and fan for over 30 years. He told me their fans love Schmidt. So much they pay a portion of his salary! Yep.... the fans are so dedicated and made it a point to the school they want to have a voice to make sure their Bball team is successful so they take donations from the fanbase in order to help pay the coach. I don't know the logistics and legalities behind this.... they probably have the fund setup where its legal but thought that was very cool.

He mentioned he liked our Coach and our fans. He didn't mind us and rooted for us in the NCAA tourney over the years.

4. The Barclays Center food was pretty awful. Chicken Tenders and fries were burnt and awful. My friends pretzel and nachos were not good either. For being so damn expensive you all need to up your food quality.

5. Green Machine killed it as usual. The ushers were dancing to them over on the sidelines most of the game. So many random people were commenting on them and taking pics and videos of them during our game. St. Bonny fans in front of us took a video of them a few times.

6. A mason fan sitting around us laughed at our comments on Reuter. I've never seen him at games before but he even commented on the A10 player of the year comment about Reuter and laughed and shook his head in disgust. We all agreed that was a huge and epic failure of player assessment.

7. I think the marketing and patriot club needs to seriously be looked at and improved by Brad. Tired of apathy and fans not showing up to anything. We have 30K students and have pathetic tourney showings every year. Winning may or may not cure this so need to think of ways to perk up some passion in our fans.

8. vcu fans were still dicks in Brooklyn. Dayton, St. Bonny, and others hate vcu too and all cheered when they lost. The delusions of grandeurs in a vcu fan's head is comical.... they think they are entitled to everything in basketball. I don't know if its hysterical or actually sad on how delusional they are!

6) if you were sitting behind the basket close to the Mason bench - that was me

 

[smccart5]

Some observations from the A-10 Tourney this year.

1. I think our fan base that showed up to Brooklyn has been the lowest in attendance in probably 20 years. And probably the most quiet I've ever witnessed in our CAA and past A-10 tourneys. St. Bonny is 6 hours away and probably had the 2nd largest fan base there.

2. Our "Mason Nation HQ Bar/restaurant" was actually St. Bonaventure's bar and they outnumbered us probably 10 to 1 . Not even joking. They rented out the 2nd floor of the bar. One of the St. Bonnie fans I talked with at the bar jokingly said what are we doing here and did you all know this has been our bar for the past 2 years!? I said our Patriot Club people were 6 tables over and to go tell them that. He laughed. But it was pretty embarrassing. Apparently apathy and not caring about providing a solid GMU experience has hit our Patriot Club team. I mean how in the F do you not confirm with a restaurant/bar that no other school has that bar? Fail. Tired of these people not caring. Especially when one of the GMU staffers is an alumni of St. Bonny.

3. St. Bonny fans were very cool and nice. Made friends with one before our A-10 game with them, I'd say he is in his 50's and is an alumni and fan for over 30 years. He told me their fans love Schmidt. So much they pay a portion of his salary! Yep.... the fans are so dedicated and made it a point to the school they want to have a voice to make sure their Bball team is successful so they take donations from the fanbase in order to help pay the coach. I don't know the logistics and legalities behind this.... they probably have the fund setup where its legal but thought that was very cool.

He mentioned he liked our Coach and our fans. He didn't mind us and rooted for us in the NCAA tourney over the years.

4. The Barclays Center food was pretty awful. Chicken Tenders and fries were burnt and awful. My friends pretzel and nachos were not good either. For being so damn expensive you all need to up your food quality.

5. Green Machine killed it as usual. The ushers were dancing to them over on the sidelines most of the game. So many random people were commenting on them and taking pics and videos of them during our game. St. Bonny fans in front of us took a video of them a few times.

6. A mason fan sitting around us laughed at our comments on Reuter. I've never seen him at games before but he even commented on the A10 player of the year comment about Reuter and laughed and shook his head in disgust. We all agreed that was a huge and epic failure of player assessment.

7. I think the marketing and patriot club needs to seriously be looked at and improved by Brad. Tired of apathy and fans not showing up to anything. We have 30K students and have pathetic tourney showings every year. Winning may or may not cure this so need to think of ways to perk up some passion in our fans.

8. vcu fans were still dicks in Brooklyn. Dayton, St. Bonny, and others hate vcu too and all cheered when they lost. The delusions of grandeurs in a vcu fan's head is comical.... they think they are entitled to everything in basketball. I don't know if its hysterical or actually sad on how delusional they are!

Point #2 is very disappointing.

With attendance- why would people take the time to travel when they know we are not going to win? This team really didn't show any REAL hope we could pull it off. People like us probably had some glimmer of hope, but in our hearts we knew the chance of winning was very small.

We've had ZERO post season success in 8 years, and even before that it was sporadic. To really build up the fan base you need a good run of a few years where you're competing at a high level, and we've never had that even during L's time. When you have one good season, and the next season you lose your first home game, people think the success was fleeting and move on to something else.

 

[GSII]

Stop blaming the fans. They are smart but not diehards. They wont come out until we have a real program.

 

[gmujim92]

Stop blaming the fans. They are smart but not diehards. They wont come out until we have a real program.

Disagree. Players and coaches come and go. The fans are the program ... or should be.

 

[CHRISTOPHER JAMES JOLLAY]

I mean, I had off, had $, eager to drink and still couldn't justify the trip.

The you have to pay $270 for an all-session plus lodging is a big minus for me. Frankly I'd rather spend 100 bucks at Brion's than $500 in Brooklyn.

The team has something to do with it but it's more the big city trip. Just have no desire for the hassle.

Lets go back to the CAA so we can go to Charleston.

 

[Five Two]

Lets go back to the CAA so we can go to Charleston.

They are actually coming to DC next March.

 

[CHRISTOPHER JAMES JOLLAY]

They are actually coming to DC next March.

Oh yeah are they doing that new arena in Anacostia?

 

[p8triotfan4life]

ok guys....we have one scholarship left that we know of. We shall see how the exit interviews go....You would have to think our freshmen (Hartwell and Miller are happy with their roles). Is Douglas-Stanley happy with his role this year? Looking at the roster next year, I find it hard to believe his minutes increase more than this past season. I think Douglas-Stanley could be a transfer candidate. No knowledge of this, but it wouldn't surprise me.

Looking at the sophomores... Javon Greene is happy, although his productivity fell off steeply in February/March. He needs to bulk up, same with AJ Wilson, who could also be another transfer candidate. Calixte needs to spend the entire summer shooting free throws. Mar needs to return to his productivity as a freshman. His sophomore year was a complete downer year.

I won't talk about the Juniors because they aren't going anywhere. Unless Reuter?

Now onto needs.....with the open scholarship

Do we sign a scorer like Daddy Haidara......

OR

Do we sign a Grad Transfer PG who can come in and run the show like Isabell at SLU, or sign a big man knowing that big men in spring market are few and far between? Or do we look at schools who fired their coaches and poach a player or two who signed this past fall elsewhere?