Shame on the Students
- Thread starter COUGinNCW
- Start date
Give me a break. A significant portion of the students went home for the weekend, and those that didn't can not be blamed. No fun to go and cheer for a team who is a pile of you know what. You sound like one of Kents sorry excuses. Win and they will come. The inverse is silly to expect.
Kids want to do things that are fun on a Saturday.
Cougar basketball is in no way shape or form, at this time, FUN. It is maddening.
I held season tickets for the Bennett years - including the first years with Dick when it was pretty painful to watch. But it was fun to watch him yell "Damnit Weaver" pretty much every time down court. I honestly thought Kyle's first name was "Damnit" the first two years. and it was fun because there was hope and you could see something was brewing.
There's no hope with Ernie. Nice guy. Charismatic. Has a grasp of the game. But Moos' Going Away present is the Groundhog of hoops - six more years of bad basketball.
Got my first season tickets when Beasley opened. Watched more bad hoops than many of you can imagine, interspersed with some occasional good hoops. For the bulk of those years the students found games to be an enjoyable break from studies. They clearly don't feel that way anymore, as is their right. It just puts even more pressure on the program.
By the way, this team is not nearly as bad as 4 or 5 teams I watched during the Sampson and Raveling eras.
By the way, this team is not nearly as bad as 4 or 5 teams I watched during the Sampson and Raveling eras.
That's not exactly the kind of endorsement you'd like to read right now, but yes....George & Kelvin had some bad teams. I can only hope that EK ultimately ends up with the kind of success they had. So far, that has been elusive.
I never missed a home basketball game during my four years in Pullman (73-77). Clearly, today's students are simply more apathetic...especially when the program is struggling.
Glad Cougar
Been there all those years. My wife and I still go to every game. Sampson's bad teams were thanks to Len Stevens. The worst was the Graham years. The students quit then. Ever since then except for the Bennett years there have never been enough students to spill into the upper deck. There were students up there even during the Stevens years. During the Raveling and Sampson years you could go and be entertained even without a basketball game. Not the same atmosphere anymore.
I was always interested in why student attendance dramatically spiked Dick's first year and what it meant in terms of what draws in Pullman? We won more but it wasn't the prettiest of hoops. I am sure part of it was just the ability to compete a lot more nights but it was dead under Graham and students returned for essentially the same roster pretty quick.
The Stanford game was a near sellout. They were #1 but still surprised how many showed up on a Thursday.
The Stanford game was a near sellout. They were #1 but still surprised how many showed up on a Thursday.
My theory: Dick brought his grinder, blue collar mentality to town and to the team and I think it resounded with the students. Paul Graham was just such an unlikable person - he of the "I like Armani suits because I can afford them" ilk. People stayed away because of him. And yes, doubling the win total and keeping games competitive had a lot to do with it. And the chicks dug Tony.
Clearly the caliber of play, and the personality of a coach can impact attendance. If we were suddenly a 500 team attendance would be up. If we were a post season threat it would increase even more. The problem is that the upside of that potential increase is much lower than it was even a few years ago, let alone during the Raveling Sampson era
The "blue collar" element makes a lot of sense to me. It's a tough recruiting model though to a tough place to recruit to. Sampson's better teams had that blue collar mentality and people were drawn to players like Hendrickson, Daniels, and Fontaine who was a scorer but worked hard at defense (not that he was a great defender). Talented of course but some of it was Sampson's approach. Then Low, Weaver, etc. out of Dick's philosophy was definitely about toughness. Don't let teams beat you blue collar mentality.
Some loved Bennett's approach while others hated it but loved having a chance to win games. Bone's brought in an approach that hurt him to an extent. I didn't agree with it but some quickly called the style "rat ball". Then there is Kent who is about as far away from "grinding it out" as you can get.
Not to mention that EK brings that suit and tie look to the court, ala Paul Graham. And his semi-evangelist mantra doesn't sell too well, at least not to this Coug. And not that I am personally judging, but EK's past (Ole'), doesn't exactly jive with his mantra. It all adds up. Oh then there is being in last place.........
It was pretty much a consensus that Bones low key personality was a big detriment to him in Pullman and that the big personality of Kent was important not withstanding who was a better coach. Kent has a lot of early Raveling in him, and I always felt that it was more important to Coug success than Ravs coaching ability, or lack thereof.
uhhh ava I'm sure you have met George Raveling so I am surprised to read this from you.. I watched him coach when I was a student, met him at the ceremony when he was inducted into the WSU Hall of Fame, and have followed his site, watched his interviews, and reveled in his continuing affinity for WSU.
To paraphrase Lloyd Bentsen, Ernie Kent is no George Raveling - early or not. I see no resemblance whatsoever. None.
Raveling was not a very good coach.He has great following among some but is nowhere near the coach people make him out to be
Raveling was a salesman as much as a coach, known for being very quotable. He brought attention to WSU. He was way over his head when he started. Overoached to a fault. Improved over time, but was not highly thought of in Iowa where he inherited some pretty good talent. Did a better job at USC..
Why do I read these posts after a few beers? Gawd my blood pressure skyrockets. Help, I've fallen and can't reach my beer or the keyboard.
ElC, this is the stupidest post I have read for a long time. You should be ashamed of yourself.
And who agrees with me? Oh let's see:
The WSU Athletics Hall of Fame
The College Basketball Hall of Fame
The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame
The Pac-10 3 times (Coach of the Year)
The NCAA tournament (6 appearances)
The US Olympic team (Asst coach twice)
I'll stop there. Feel free to read on.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Raveling
http://coachgeorgeraveling.com/
"Pullman isn't the end of the world, but you can see it from there" - George Raveling
Raveling was great for WSU because the school needed a salesman for athletics desperately at the time. As for coaching I always remember two instances. One was his first year in the closing moments of a very close game against GU. Rav calls a timeout and starts jumping up and down in the huddle screaming at the players to stay calm. Never said anything else. The other time I remember was after 49-48 loss he blamed poor defense on the lost game. That was a staple of Rav. For the first 3 years he never brought in one player other than Poudakis who could shoot a lick. Our half court offense consisted of passing the ball around until we could force it in to Steve, or turned it over first.
Why do I read these posts after a few beers? Gawd my blood pressure skyrockets. Help, I've fallen and can't reach my beer or the keyboard.
ElC, this is the stupidest post I have read for a long time. You should be ashamed of yourself.
And who agrees with me? Oh let's see:
The WSU Athletics Hall of Fame
The College Basketball Hall of Fame
The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame
The Pac-10 3 times (Coach of the Year)
The NCAA tournament (6 appearances)
The US Olympic team (Asst coach twice)
I'll stop there. Feel free to read on.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Raveling
http://coachgeorgeraveling.com/
"Pullman isn't the end of the world, but you can see it from there" - George Raveling
Yep, spot on, Loyal.
This is somewhat what Bone did with the offense. Brand y actually has an article recently that talked about the usage rates for Thompson and then Motum. It was actually a complimentary look back.
Agree. Bone never did employ a run and gun offense, and he got even more conservative the last 2 seasons.
Here is the thing about coaches. Graham was so bad in every respect that Dick Bennett was going to look like John Wooden even though we were losing. Conversely, Tony was so successful that nobody was going to live up to his standards.
Here is the thing about coaches. Graham was so bad in every respect that Dick Bennett was going to look like John Wooden even though we were losing. Conversely, Tony was so successful that nobody was going to live up to his standards.
