Halton was rocking & Clemson fans

It reminded me of some of our games against Memphis & Louisville. Not quite as much history or outright hatred, but still packed and loud.

Good comparison. I didn’t think it really came close to Cincy but mostly because of so many empty seats. For the Cincy games, I don’t recall there being a seat left open and people actually having to stand around the track. But it was certainly on par with when Cal or Pitino came in.

Unfortunately, I think the coaches and hatred (as you mentioned) were a huge part of what made those CUSA games so intense. That and the fact that we were usually NCAA tourney-bound.

I had an old co-worker of mine who is a Clemson grad, call me last night after the game. He was amazed by our arena and how close he was to the court even in the upper level. He was also very complimentary of our campus and our fans. He lives in Charlotte and wants to come back for more games this season.

from a Clemson board:

The whole building except for the basketball court is open to the students during the week. First time i'd been on that campus in over 20 years. Amazed at how it's grown and how good it looks. Impressed my son so much he's added it to the list of schools he's considering for college.

Foreword: I understand that this post is kind of preaching to the choir and all over the place and the fact that I don’t yet have the status on this board to cause anyone to read this but I’m going to make it anyway.

The funny thing is that it’s not just local folks, or opposing fans who have negative conceptions of our campus or our basketball program and then change their mind after attending a game.

A friend of mine brought a friend to the game who had never been to one of our games despite going here for a few years and living on campus. He thought our basketball program was a joke for some reason and figured that Clemson would beat us by 30 (now I might not fault him if he’d seen the game against App but this was just his preconception of where we fit in the college basketball landscape without any knowledge to back it up.) My friend and I explained that despite being in a rut for the past 3 years, we still have a solid program and mentioned that we beat Clemson last year at their place to his shock.

Now I guess where I’m going with this is how can we blame people in the Charlotte community with no connection to the school for looking down on us as a program when some of our own students share the same ignorant views?

Obviously it all comes down to the way you market and sell the school. We’re facing an uphill fight but we keep pushing and many things have changed for the better in my four years here but the Administration has shown that they won’t do anything unless we force them to. We finally got football but the Administration is still not very bullish on its prospects and they continue to lower expectations despite the increasing number of reserved FSLs (possibly playing in Memorial while we build a 12,000 seat stadium? Grow some balls Phil). We weren’t loud enough for them I guess.

So what I’m saying is that we need to keep opening eyes and growing the number of people who see this school for the great place that it is. It’s very easy to belittle those who have these negative preconceptions of our school but the fact is that we haven’t done enough to force them to see otherwise and the Administration hasn’t done a good job in selling the school because they don’t seem to believe in it with all of their heart like we do.

So when it comes to the name change push we better be a hell of a lot louder than we were for football because it will be a much tougher battle but we know that it’s what this school needs. Who knows what this school needs more than we do? Absolutely no one. The people on this board are in the 99th percentile when it comes to understanding this school and how to improve its stature and when you combine that with the passion that we have you have the opportunity to push school policy and take this school to the next level. But to do this we have to bring more people to our side and be wary of creating enemies out of potential friends to the cause.

Good post, arn.

[QUOTE=arn;364149]Foreword:
. . .
Now I guess where I’m going with this is how can we blame people in the Charlotte community with no connection to the school for looking down on us as a program when some of our own students share the same ignorant views? . . . [/QUOTE]

Great post arn! We do have the disturber to thank for as far as covering us.:shades:

[QUOTE=Over40NINER;364071]:lmao: :lmao: :lmao: :lmao:

I’m not laughing at you NewNiner. Many of us been asking the same question for years.

BTW… Good question. Keep asking.[/QUOTE]

Well, what’s really pissed me off is how the school doesn’t promote itself. Instead of waiting on the O to do the right thing, how about the shool putting a paper out on the BBall program and distributing it throughout the city.

Advertising the web link would be good also.

I heard a couple Clemson fans after the game commenting on how gorgeous our campus was and how they had no idea it was so nice looking. They were walking outside Halton toward CHHS, COED, and the new Student Union. That part of campus is amazing…its nice to see that our opponents think so as well.

[QUOTE=NewNiner;364068]I don’t understand why the observer won’t just run a story on the history of 49er basketball- something like “getting the facts straight”- they would immediately sell a ton of that day’s paper, not to mention undoing a lot of the ignorance of the Charlotte area that this thread is talking about- you pick up an ally- and you go a long way towards repairing some of the damage done by poor coverage[/QUOTE]

lol, stfu, butch davis is better than niner basketball

didnt u see nc state game?

oh

wait

I don't see a thread title for it. Absolutely amazing crowd last night. Black out and towels were a great idea. We haven't seen anything like that since the big Cinci games. Great job by everyone!

Clearly you haven’t been informed that people weren’t nearly loud or organized enough and that certain sections need to be called out. Being impressed by the crowd isn’t in right now, Lefty. :smile:

[QUOTE=JeffKnife;364208]I heard a couple Clemson fans after the game commenting on how gorgeous our campus was and how they had no idea it was so nice looking. They were walking outside Halton toward CHHS, COED, and the new Student Union. That part of campus is amazing…its nice to see that our opponents think so as well.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Mr. Bojangles;364137]I had an old co-worker of mine who is a Clemson grad, call me last night after the game. He was amazed by our arena and how close he was to the court even in the upper level. He was also very complimentary of our campus and our fans. He lives in Charlotte and wants to come back for more games this season.[/QUOTE]

The interesting thing about our campus in the last few years is that the infrastructure now exceeds the hype. Frankly, the message used to be a bit of polish on a 5 year old dependable, if bland, used car. These days, we have a very attractive product to offer and are doing a poor job getting the word out.

I promise you that when then student union gets finished, if its as nice as I suspect, and when we hire a football coach and announce plans for a stadium, we are going to start moving up the lists of prospective students and their parents.

The school is head and shoulders above the one I attended in the early-mid 90s. Coming here for me was as much about convenience as anything else. Now, it is starting to look like a destination school. Low tuition, PhD & grad programs, superior architecture, engineering & accounting programs, nice weather, major city, beautiful campus, and good athletic programs with football in the pipeline. And the coeds aren’t bad either.

[QUOTE=arn;364149]Foreword: I understand that this post is kind of preaching to the choir and all over the place and the fact that I don’t yet have the status on this board to cause anyone to read this but I’m going to make it anyway.[/QUOTE]

You just got status. Nice post. Would read again +++. :shades: