Here's a call out to the UMass students and so called fans. Can you please, please support your basketball team? It's utterly pathetic when watching clips on TV and seeing wide swaths of empty maroon seats. I realize that not all the blame can be placed on the students; a large majority of the empty seats aren't in the student sections. Why? Boston and Massachusetts (and many northeastern venues) is a pro town and state. Pure and simple.
Yes, fans get excited when the local college team produces a winner (see the occasional BC football season or UMass basketball during the 90's), but a college team will never ultimately win the hearts and minds of the Boston fan to the extent that they'll be able to compete with the pro teams. It's a Red Sox, Patriots, Celtics, Bruins (in that order) state of mind. Sorry, that's just the way it is and it will never change. (I'll discuss it at another time, but the love for the big 4 pro teams wasn't always in that order)
A competitive college team in Mass. will bring out the bandwagon fans while they're winning (and I'm not criticizing bandwagon fans; all teams have and NEED them), but they'll never become diehards. As soon as the party's over and the keg is dry, the food is stale and the music gets softer, they'll be gone.
The bottom line is this: Unless a coach comes in who can build up a program AND is willing to embrace and stay in Amherst for decades (Jack Leaman fit this bill - he may have never built them into a national power, but that was another era, an era where UMass was in the non-powerful Yankee Conference; an era when only the superpowers were shown on TV, making it that much more difficult for a small, unknown school to get national expsoure), UMass will never consistently be a draw to the fans of Massachusetts. Calipari fit the bill of turning them into a national power. I have full belief that had Calipari stayed, UMass would consistently be a Top 15 team to this day. But Calipari had other aspirations. I can't blame a guy for that.
Is Travis Ford the guy? I think Ford can build UMass into a strong team, one that cracks the Top 25 and becomes a perennial A-10 power, but I think that Ford has bigger aspirations, perhaps to even one day become coach at his alma mater, Kentucky. If the planets don't align and that doesn't happen, I still think Ford is destined for a bigger, better (BCS) job down the road.
Melissa Haro
Chelsey Buhler
Did You See That?
College Football Top 25 Review
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Go UMass! Minutemen need to win a few of the close ones with the A-10 elite. they have good talent and a good coach.
- craig in Alabama
cquist
Huntsville , AL
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go UMass! the Minutemen need to win a few of these close A-10 elite games. they have a talented team and a good coach. hope they can find their way into a tourney and win a few.
- craig in Alabama
cquist
Huntsville , AL
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I do miss those days, the old glory days of the minutemen. The Tony Barbee, Harper Williams, Will Herndon, Lou Roe, Marcus Camby, Donte Bright, Mike Williams, Dana Dingle, Rigo Nunez, Inus Norville and Carmelo Travieso days (just to name a few and not excluding the PHd player himself, Dr.J). It's almost painful to think back at how it used to be. Unfortunately those days seem to be gone for good. They stuck around just long enough for Umass to upgrade and build the Mullins Center. Times are different now, and to be honest, they started changing right around the same time Camby signed his letter of intent with Umass. Back when bribing a player to go to a specific college just to play ball was unheard of, and coaches knowing about it pretended like it never happened. That's why "Coach Cal" and "Mr. Camby" himself bolted after that final four loss to Kentucky back in 1996, leaving the mess for someone else to clean up. They knew times were "a-changing" and that the ride was over and it was NBA time for both of them (Toronto Raptors for Camby, New Jersey Nets for Cal). It's different now. Players commit and go to schools whose basketball teams get more prime time television play and coverage just to up their status for NBA and even Euro Basketball scouts and to have themselves seen the most so that they can get their name, image and game out to as many organizations with bottomless pockets as much as they can before they finish the one year of school, that they're now required to play, and then bolt. Umass, unfortunately, is not one of those schools that top notch prospects like Greg Oden, Kevin Durrant and O.J. Mayo even look at to help them accomplish their goals. It sucks. I miss the days of listening to 'Coach Cal's Corner' and all the games on 98.3fm and going uptown to buy Umass gear at 'Bruisers Basement' on main street and the buzz that Amherst had in those days. Who knows, maybe time will change and the powers that be will get into the same mind set as they did back before money, fame and publicity changed the way college basketball used to be. But given the current economy and the attitude of younger fellas these days, I'm sad to say I doubt it. In my opinion, take it or leave it, everything Umass basketball was known for back then, what made them popular and so much fun to watch, changed Jan. 29th, 1993. When Umass beat Southwestern Louisiana (the Rajin' Cajuns) in the last rage at the cage, on the backs of Harper Williams and Derrick Kellog, before closing the cage down for good after 60 years of enjoyable, rowdy, hoopla fun. When they closed those doors and opened the new ones, it was just another sign of the times. I'll always be a Umass fan and attend games and root for the Minutemen, I just can't fool myself enough to think that the program can ever achieve those heights again. If they do, however, I will be the first in line to eat my slice of humble pie and admit I was a fool to say these things. It would be a small price to pay though, and I would gladly pay it ten times over and over and over again to see the Minutemen be back to glory form. Go Umass.
wbianr369
Amherst, MA
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