ESPN: MU a "School With Upside"

[MisterJaylenBrownMU]

You've clearly never been to a Syracuse game. I would kill for an atmosphere like that.

No, that's exactly my point.  Whether your arena is 100% full or not is meaningless.  What recruits care about is the atmosphere.  80% attendance is good enough that you can still have a great atmosphere.

And no, I've never been to a Syracuse game.  Maybe I'm biased because I don't get back for many games, but I've always been impressed by Marquette's presentation, actually.  Is 'Cuse that much better?  (I suppose this is how threads get hijacked, but I'm legitimately curious...)

[MisterJaylenBrownMU]

He stated that MU was 13th in attendance. Honestly, I can't see how his comments were some sort of jab at MU.

We'll just have to agree to disagree.

I don't think he meant it as a jab.  But of the 343 D1 basketball teams in the country, that comment probably applies to 325 of them.  90-100% attendance is virtually impossible to pull off, especially in this economy.

No love lost.  Happy to agree to disagree.  I just think he should have left it at "13th in the country in attendance" without the editorial comment. 

[DSEEagle]

Putting the atmosphere point aside (because I think Marquette's is good too), the thing I was trying to say was Syracuse attendance statistics are going to be skewed becasue they play in a football dome where there will inevitably be empty seats.

[Schmidtyfactor]

Myron was Star Tribune beat writer for the gophers for a couple yrs. Wrote pretty blah biased pieces for the gophers then. His leap from the star trib to espn is pretty confusing. a lot of his espn work thus that i've noticed is pro big 10.
not a big fan.

[Jay Bee]

His Linkedin page looks like he is from So. MN.  Not a big deal.  Overall, a positive article.

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/myron-medcalf/1/a84/930

He's from Milwaukee.  Went to college in Mankato. (And lives in the Twin Cities now.)

[real chili 83]

I trust you.  Just that his page said he went to Nicollet HS.

[leever]

You've clearly never been to a Syracuse game. I would kill for an atmosphere like that.

I've been there.  Syracuse plays in a football stadium with uncomfortable seating and really bad sight lines.  They put up a curtain to block of 1/3 of the seats for hoops.  Obviously, they are almost never going to sell out the football seating for basketball.

That being said, the fans are loud and loyal, so I guess you could say the "atmosphere" is to kill for.  I'd simply say the fan base is rabid but the arena sucks as compared to most basketball or basketball / hockey arenas.