Patrick Yates
10-02-2007, 12:27 PM
Bear with me.
This weekend, both of Duke's main targets are visiting what are perhaps our stiffest compeition for each respective player.
Monroe is hitting LSU and Williams is checking out UTenn.
Why the title of the post? Football.
Both recruits just happen to have chosen trips to coincide on weekends when the host schools are playing HUGE home football games (LSU-Florida and UT-UGA). For the respective hoops staffs, this is brilliant planning. Both LSU and UT will get to show off huge football stadiums (LSU-80K and UT 110K) that will be full of rabid and boisterous football fans.
My mother's family is from the Knoxville area, and as a child I attended many football games at Neyland, and it is rocking. Both of these stadiums have a Cameron-Like (lite) atmosphere. The tailgating at both is tremendous (as at virtually all SEC schools). By taking the recruits to these games, the hoops coaches will show off rabid fan-bases, and tell (lie) to the recruits about how those recruits could push the BB team to the same lofty status as the FB team, and that these fans would fill the BB arenas.
Thus, GO GATORS! GO DAWGS! I imagine that most of the fans here have experienced a loss in CIS. It hoovers donkey genatalia. Imagine 75,000 - 100,000 fans experiencing that. It is like nerve toxin hitting the arena. A loss by one or both of the home teams could sour the entire recruiting visit, and cast a pall over the entire campus that would leave a bad taste in the mouths of the players.
It might not seem like a lot, but for any other posters who have ever been to a home SEC FB loss, you can back me up. It is depressing to the extreme. It is worse than losing in Cameron. At CIS, there are fewer people, we do not boo, and the building is situated such as to allow the students and non-students easy egress from the stadium (Good luck getting 70,000 fans out of a FB arena in under 20 minutes, not to mention the ungodly trafic snarl outside. If they are unhappy and little drunk, watch out. It gets Foogly). Also, the losses at CIS, though painful, are not as meaningful due to the fact that BB has an actual NC tourney. We lose at home, too bad. We can still settle the NC debate in March, on the Court. The BCS computers make each week a must win for teams harboring post-season dreams.
So, apathetic FB fans. Actually take an interest in a team not Duke this week. Pull for those Gators and Dawgs (this one will really stick in my craw). Road wins by these two teams could ruin recruiting visits for players Duke needs to get for us to be a real favorite for the FF next years.
Also, there is the hope that, in defeat, the SEC home fans will show their rears (as they are wont to do in big home losses, see Alabama). A shower of boos and or flying projectiles directed at the opposing teams (or home players who dissappointed on the field that day) could be a real eye-opener for family oriented kids like the ones we are pursueing.
I know it is a little far fetched, and home losses wouldn't seal the deal for Duke, but the races for both EW and GM are very tight. Any, and every, little bit helps.
Patrick Yates
ps. You have to give K credit for building a BB team when he cannot take recruits to a hopping FB stadium like other coaches. It makes his success all the more impressive when you factor in that K does not have access to a wonderful recruiting tool like a compeitive FB team and stadium.
This weekend, both of Duke's main targets are visiting what are perhaps our stiffest compeition for each respective player.
Monroe is hitting LSU and Williams is checking out UTenn.
Why the title of the post? Football.
Both recruits just happen to have chosen trips to coincide on weekends when the host schools are playing HUGE home football games (LSU-Florida and UT-UGA). For the respective hoops staffs, this is brilliant planning. Both LSU and UT will get to show off huge football stadiums (LSU-80K and UT 110K) that will be full of rabid and boisterous football fans.
My mother's family is from the Knoxville area, and as a child I attended many football games at Neyland, and it is rocking. Both of these stadiums have a Cameron-Like (lite) atmosphere. The tailgating at both is tremendous (as at virtually all SEC schools). By taking the recruits to these games, the hoops coaches will show off rabid fan-bases, and tell (lie) to the recruits about how those recruits could push the BB team to the same lofty status as the FB team, and that these fans would fill the BB arenas.
Thus, GO GATORS! GO DAWGS! I imagine that most of the fans here have experienced a loss in CIS. It hoovers donkey genatalia. Imagine 75,000 - 100,000 fans experiencing that. It is like nerve toxin hitting the arena. A loss by one or both of the home teams could sour the entire recruiting visit, and cast a pall over the entire campus that would leave a bad taste in the mouths of the players.
It might not seem like a lot, but for any other posters who have ever been to a home SEC FB loss, you can back me up. It is depressing to the extreme. It is worse than losing in Cameron. At CIS, there are fewer people, we do not boo, and the building is situated such as to allow the students and non-students easy egress from the stadium (Good luck getting 70,000 fans out of a FB arena in under 20 minutes, not to mention the ungodly trafic snarl outside. If they are unhappy and little drunk, watch out. It gets Foogly). Also, the losses at CIS, though painful, are not as meaningful due to the fact that BB has an actual NC tourney. We lose at home, too bad. We can still settle the NC debate in March, on the Court. The BCS computers make each week a must win for teams harboring post-season dreams.
So, apathetic FB fans. Actually take an interest in a team not Duke this week. Pull for those Gators and Dawgs (this one will really stick in my craw). Road wins by these two teams could ruin recruiting visits for players Duke needs to get for us to be a real favorite for the FF next years.
Also, there is the hope that, in defeat, the SEC home fans will show their rears (as they are wont to do in big home losses, see Alabama). A shower of boos and or flying projectiles directed at the opposing teams (or home players who dissappointed on the field that day) could be a real eye-opener for family oriented kids like the ones we are pursueing.
I know it is a little far fetched, and home losses wouldn't seal the deal for Duke, but the races for both EW and GM are very tight. Any, and every, little bit helps.
Patrick Yates
ps. You have to give K credit for building a BB team when he cannot take recruits to a hopping FB stadium like other coaches. It makes his success all the more impressive when you factor in that K does not have access to a wonderful recruiting tool like a compeitive FB team and stadium.