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Post by mrose on Mar 8, 2017 14:35:29 GMT -5
You guys are beating a dead horse. The HL has two more years in Detroit...at the new arena. It's a great opportunity for the Horizon League. If you don't like the size of crowds or a #10 seed playing a new-to-D I program that's due to each respective school in the HL letting their programs fall into mediocrity or worse...And that in part is the reason for low attendance and apathy around the event....not due to the location of the tournament.
27 of the 32 conferences are playing their tournament this year at neutral sites, sans the Mtn West which always plays their games in Vegas at UNLV. Below are the only 5 conferences playing on-campus/highest remaining seed and their conference RPI.
America East #21 Patroit #22 Big South #25 A-Sun #26 NEC #30
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Post by Big D on Mar 8, 2017 22:30:27 GMT -5
I think there are 4 main problems with Motor City madness and 3 of them are correctable. The unfixable problem is the location. Having the HL tournament in a more centrally located area that has more to do in it like Chicago or Indianapolis would be ideal but those cities weren't interested in hosting for free and giving the HL a paycheck. So to make the best out of the situation I think the HL can still make the tournament much more fan friendly with 3 fixes.
1. Get rid of the women's games. If we are going to act like a big time conference and have a neutral site tournament go all the way and have a separate men's and women's tournament. Most fans could care less about women's basketball and having the games played at the same time and venue affects change #2.
2. We need to condense the tournament so fans will want to attend. There is no reason to have this tournament spread out from Friday to Tuesday when we only have 10 teams in the HL. The bottom 4 schools should play on campus sites the Wednesday before the tournament even starts. The 2 winning teams will then join the top 6 schools in Detroit for an 8 team tournament.
3. The tournament in Detroit should be 3 days from Friday-Sunday. 4 games on Friday. 2 games on Saturday. Championship game on Sunday. More people will attend if the games are on 3 consecutive days and on the weekend so they only have to take 1 day off of work to attend. The average fan isn't going to take off Friday, Monday, and Tuesday to attend games. We have the current set up because ESPN wants to broadcast our championship game on Tuesday. ESPN barely gives us any nationally televised games during the regular season anymore. If we are going to give them our rights to all of our regular season games on ESPN3 they can make that change. If they won't, screw em. See if Foxsports wants to broadcast our games in the future and bring back the HLN.
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Post by gerb on Mar 9, 2017 0:24:50 GMT -5
1. Get rid of the women's games. If we are going to act like a big time conference and have a neutral site tournament go all the way and have a separate men's and women's tournament. Most fans could care less about women's basketball and having the games played at the same time and venue affects change #2. . My stance on the location of this tournament is well stated and odds are I'll be bitching and moaning about it this time next year, too. So moving on to one of Big D's points: It is absolute horse shit what they did for the women's tournament! It was clearly just used as a cash saver to have everything in one place. Sure, fine. I can understand the line of thinking there even if I don't agree. What is inexcusable is the way the league treated it like an afterthought. They took the championship game - what should be the biggest game of the year for the league - and shoved into a time slot of noon on a Tuesday. Noon. On a Tuesday. For the league championship. I'll just let that simmer and attempt to refrain from further comment.
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Post by mrose on Mar 9, 2017 2:10:36 GMT -5
I'm not a fan of our deal with ESPN. I think there's a lot to be desired and it needs to be improved.
That said, Tuesday's final had 820K viewers. It had a 0.3 rating in the 18-49 demographic. That's the same cable rating for that Demo as popular shows such as Hannity, Maddow, and Tucker Carlson Tuesday evening. The HL game had more viewers than ESPN's own "Pardon the Interruption" and the midnight (9 PM West coast) Sports Center.
I don't know how Tuesday's viewership compares to previous years, but I would be surprised if the HL would be willing to lose that exposure if it means switching to a less watched cable sports network for a more favorable tournament schedule. But ratings can be a two-edged sword...the HL should use those ratings (if historically decent) as leverage against ESPN for more and better coverage/schedules.
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Post by hhgreen on Mar 9, 2017 9:18:36 GMT -5
We just need to get better and win. If we were to win it more often I don't care if they play in Los Angeles.
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Post by wsuraider09 on Mar 12, 2017 17:23:06 GMT -5
Whoever wins this tournament will likely be a 15 seed, and get jacked by Kentucky. I still wish it was us. Hate to say I told you so... My wife is a huge UK fan, we've watched every game...NKU is going to get throttled...still wish it was us..
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Post by Deleted on Mar 12, 2017 17:25:18 GMT -5
Whoever wins this tournament will likely be a 15 seed, and get jacked by Kentucky. I still wish it was us. Hate to say I told you so... My wife is a huge UK fan, we've watched every game...NKU is going to get throttled...still wish it was us.. I agree, they're going to get thrashed...but just to fuel the fire of curiosity...stranger things have happened.
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Post by hhgreen on Mar 15, 2017 17:08:27 GMT -5
A zone defense and slow the game down is the only chance the Norse has. Kentucky is a streaky shooting 3 point shooting team.
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Post by wsuraider09 on Mar 15, 2017 17:23:12 GMT -5
NKU has no chance. I think they lose by 20, and possibly a crap load more. I've watched both teams all season. NKU has nobody that can hang with Fox or Monk, and won't be able to score with consistency. UK 78 NKU 52
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