Saturday: Jacksonville State Gamecocks 83, Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles 62
(Pete Mathews Coliseum, Jacksonville, AL)
(If you missed Part I -- Week 3 of the Big Bottom 10 -- click here)
You can't just "end up" in Jacksonville, Alabama. You have to want to go there. Jacksonville State University is 77 miles from Birmingham, 95 miles from Atlanta, and about a million miles away from being relevant in the college basketball landscape.
You can't just "end up" in Jacksonville, Alabama. You have to want to go there. Jacksonville State University is 77 miles from Birmingham, 95 miles from Atlanta, and about a million miles away from being relevant in the college basketball landscape.
The "other" Gamecocks (yes, JSU has played South Carolina twice in a true Cock fight) joined Division I in 1995 as a member of the Atlantic Sun conference after years of success in Division II, including a national championship in 1985. But the transition into a respectable Division I program, even at the low-major level, has been a slow one -- the Gamecocks have finished with a winning record just 3 times in 17 seasons, never reaching a postseason tournament and even struggling in most years to reach the conference tournament (since moving up to the OVC in 2003, JSU has made the conference tourney in just 4 of 9 seasons).
But might the Gamecocks, longtime cellar-dwellers in the OVC, actually be making some noise this season? Don't get ahead of yourself if we're talking about a possible NCAA berth -- that will be decided between Murray State and Belmont on Saturday, March 9 in Nashville. But a third- or fourth-place finish and a couple of OVC tourney wins would constitute an outstanding season under fifth-year head coach James Green, and JSU is off and running after a 2-0 start to OVC play including this thrashing of Tennessee Tech to open conference play. Four Gamecock starters scored in double figures, led by junior guard and Atlanta-area native Brian Williams' 18 points and 3-4 from beyond the arc.
But the Road to 592 isn't about analyzing basketball, it's about the fan experience. And as far as I could tell, at Jacksonville State there is no fan experience. Yes, it's tough to draw any semblance of a crowd with a combination of Christmas break, no tradition, and a middle-of-nowhere school whose alumni likely live many miles away. But for the conference opener, there's no excuse for no band, no cheerleaders, no mascot, no video board, no halftime entertainment (seriously, we just sat there for 15 minutes while "Call Me Maybe" ran on the loudspeaker) ... you get the point. And while it's fine to have "just basketball and nothing else" at, say, Penn or Butler, it doesn't work at JSU. There were about 300 people mildly enjoying this tilt, and it was unclear who was there other than boosters, other JSU athletes, and family members of both teams. Maybe a decent JSU team with a tough opponent will start generating good midseason crowds (Murray State comes to town on Saturday, January 26).
(Update, thanks to Luke Thompson of the (Clarksville) Leaf-Chronicle: JSU is ineligible for the NCAA and OVC tourney this year due to a low APR score. Perhaps that's a factor in low fan support.)
The good thing about the silence was that it gave me an opportunity to listen to this guy:
But the Road to 592 isn't about analyzing basketball, it's about the fan experience. And as far as I could tell, at Jacksonville State there is no fan experience. Yes, it's tough to draw any semblance of a crowd with a combination of Christmas break, no tradition, and a middle-of-nowhere school whose alumni likely live many miles away. But for the conference opener, there's no excuse for no band, no cheerleaders, no mascot, no video board, no halftime entertainment (seriously, we just sat there for 15 minutes while "Call Me Maybe" ran on the loudspeaker) ... you get the point. And while it's fine to have "just basketball and nothing else" at, say, Penn or Butler, it doesn't work at JSU. There were about 300 people mildly enjoying this tilt, and it was unclear who was there other than boosters, other JSU athletes, and family members of both teams. Maybe a decent JSU team with a tough opponent will start generating good midseason crowds (Murray State comes to town on Saturday, January 26).
(Update, thanks to Luke Thompson of the (Clarksville) Leaf-Chronicle: JSU is ineligible for the NCAA and OVC tourney this year due to a low APR score. Perhaps that's a factor in low fan support.)
The good thing about the silence was that it gave me an opportunity to listen to this guy:
Don't let the Alabama fleece jacket fool you -- this guy is the biggest Gamecock fan there is. Among his various quips, jeers, and cheers were the following:
"That's why you don't bring an eagle to a cock fight!" (but what about a golden eagle?)
"Hey 25 ... is that your shooting percentage too?" (after 25 made both free throws, he muttered "guess not")
"All right, JSU, let's get back to playing Gamecock basketball!" (which, as far as I could tell, involved some passes, screens, and a man with the ball either shooting or driving to the basket -- a very unique style indeed)
"Hey, what happened while I was gone? Did anybody dunk while I was gone?" (said across the aisle to no one in particular after he left his seat for about two minutes)
Alas, no JSU player dunked today, though several almost died trying during the last 4 minutes of this blowout win. If you happen to attend a JSU game later this season, sit on the far right side of the court facing the scorer's table, across the aisle from that beautiful mullet. Your fan experience will be enhanced significantly.
College basketball count: 13/347; Total count: 42/592
Next One Up
The last week of Christmas break leaves opportunities for one or two semi-remote locales to be checked off the list. I'll either be headed to Louisville, UT-Martin, or Alabama A&M this week (or some combination of the three). Any of those games will be better than tomorrow's barn-burner between Vandy and William & Mary...
--The Road to 592 is a pipe dream started by a diehard Atlanta fan with a sparse history of truly great sports atmospheres (being Atlanta and all). Read up on my unending pursuit here and check out the full list of venues here. For those sick of conference realignment, you can also relish in another pipe dream of mine -- the 28-team SEC. Follow me on Twitter @andrewhhard.
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