ADVERTISEMENT

Frank Martin

mikey888

Active Member
Aug 21, 2011
1,357
69
48
Columbia, SC

I agree, we suck at marketing our men's basketball program. Maybe we should get Justin King to enhance our social media content.
 
I️ was there and didn’t want to be because of deadline. But after last week and raining I️ thought I’d better go. Give the tix to fort Jackson
 
  • Like
Reactions: king ward
Carolina fans will support a winner, but it needs to be a captivating winner. We have a mid-major team.
Most fans are fair weather fans, and that statement I just read proves it. If you care about your school you will support it, no matter what. Most people do not care. But hey, the fans will go and yell loudly if they have a chance for a free sandwich. Clemson rules in football and that is part of the reason why.
 
I think Martin will be a goner after this season. For a guy to put in this much effort into our program, get us to a final four while taking down the likes of Marquette, Duke, Baylor and Florida to only then see an empty stadium home game after home game the following season is completely disgraceful and unacceptable.

This is on Ray Tanner no? Isn't he the guy that's in charge of all things Gamecock athletics? How does this happen? Where the hell is the support for this man and this program? Good luck defending this y'all, because I'm sure as hell not.

Ray Tanner is so pitifully unqualified for this job it's painful. Why isn't the man putting more resources into efforts to increase the attendance? If you're Frank Martin would you want to continue to work under this incompetent sports administration? Nah, me neither.
 
I wonder how the percentage breaks down of Carolina fans vs Fans of Basketball wanting to see good games. I think part of problems is OOC schedule stinks. Who wants to go see Wyoming, Western Michigan, Temple, Limestone? Yeah I know it is normal to schedule weaker schedule early but if there are universities there that people haven't heard of they will not come. Plus add in Final Exams and Christmas break to take away students then Martin should try to increase quality of opponents, generate interested fans but also locals that would like to see a Syracuse, Louisville, UConn, Kansas, etc, etc. You get the point. Crappy schedule gets crappy fan turnout, bottomline!
 
To tell you the truth I had no idea Wyoming was any good until I saw someone mention it in the game thread. I doubt the average fan knew Wyoming was a tough team too. We aren't Tobacco Road here, football is king and will always be in this state. The turnout has been poor, why I'm not really sure. I haven't been to a game yet, hope to go to some here soon. I'll go to Saturday's game for sure.
 
To tell you the truth I had no idea Wyoming was any good until I saw someone mention it in the game thread. I doubt the average fan knew Wyoming was a tough team too. We aren't Tobacco Road here, football is king and will always be in this state. The turnout has been poor, why I'm not really sure. I haven't been to a game yet, hope to go to some here soon. I'll go to Saturday's game for sure.

+ 1000 I go to all the men and women's games . The SEC games are much better than the outer conference games . outer conference schedule needs to be beefed up .
 
Last edited:
I would think being close to christmas has an effect. Lots of money spent on gifts, goin to parties and get togethers and etc. If things dont pick up after the holidays then i would begin to think there may be a legitimate problem
 
I would think being close to christmas has an effect. Lots of money spent on gifts, goin to parties and get togethers and etc. If things dont pick up after the holidays then i would begin to think there may be a legitimate problem
Also, it's still early in the season. Like you say, after the holidays, basketball interest in general (not just Gamecock, but overall) will most likely pick up.
 
Exactly right about the out of conference schedule. The truth is like someone mentioned they didn't know Wyoming was any good. But what fans want are games vs OC teams who fans are familiar with. Give us a game or two vs major schools. Hell get us in something like the Jimmy V classic or Maui Invitation. But also why does Syracuse not have to come back to Columbia? A few home and away series with the likes of a UConn, Kansas, Ohio St...just some bigger named schools would help before Christmas attendance.
 
  • Like
Reactions: joplin gamecock1
[QUOTE="yeasos, post: 3694723, member: 6346"Clemson rules in football and that is part of the reason why.[/QUOTE]

Not true , for one we support our Basketball program much better than Clemson. This isnt saying much , I know, but fan support for football has never been an issue. We sold out and had great attendance when we were 0-11, better than 99% of other teams would have. Our mistake is choosing leadership for our football program, I’m not necessarily talking about current leadership. Crap like hiring King Dixon as AD, Sparky Woods as coach set us back years, we are still dealing with the public perception they left.
 
For me, it wasn't just the poor turnout... it was the fact that those who showed up sat on their hands the whole game!! Barely ever cheered at all... we win by 16, lead the whole game and you would have Thought we were losing to SC state for how quiet the place was... it is just odd.
 
Losing 2 already hasn't helped. Frank will tell you it doesn't matter, but losing to south east or southern Illinois, whomever the hell it was bites you in the ass on selection Sunday if you are on the bubble. He complained about Saturday saying what 7th round offensive lineman evaluation going on. . No, it was the day of all college football championship games. Keep winning Frank and we will fill it up. Make sure you don't go down to Clempson and lose again. Want to build excitement, win that road game.
 
Exactly right about the out of conference schedule. The truth is like someone mentioned they didn't know Wyoming was any good. But what fans want are games vs OC teams who fans are familiar with. Give us a game or two vs major schools. Hell get us in something like the Jimmy V classic or Maui Invitation. But also why does Syracuse not have to come back to Columbia? A few home and away series with the likes of a UConn, Kansas, Ohio St...just some bigger named schools would help before Christmas attendance.
Didn't we just finish a home and away with Ohio state like 2 years ago? And as you mentioned, played Syracuse a couple times... we always play the taters OOC... let's not act like this is a trend of us never scheduling power conf teams OOC... this year is a little weaker but the SEC schedule is MURDER this season! Have you seen how many are in the top 25? TOP TEN even?!? This is going to be a tough season even if we played all cupcakes OOC...
 
I appreciate Frank's passion. He could just collect a paycheck and go through the motions for many years thanks to the Final Four run. Unfortunately, I think the insane amount of turnover in the program prevents fans from becoming too invested in the team. Maybe that's the nature of the college basketball game today or that's the only way to win at South Carolina. I wish I was more in the team, but I'm just not feeling it.
 
Last edited:
To tell you the truth I had no idea Wyoming was any good until I saw someone mention it in the game thread. I doubt the average fan knew Wyoming was a tough team too. We aren't Tobacco Road here, football is king and will always be in this state. The turnout has been poor, why I'm not really sure. I haven't been to a game yet, hope to go to some here soon. I'll go to Saturday's game for sure.

The problem with the "football is king" argument is that we lead the nation in WBB attendance. So there's something more involved.
 
The real issue is most people know this team isn't very good. It will be a miracle if they made the tournament. We have fickle basketball fans like a lot of SEC teams. The women win big year end and year out. What happened with the men's team last year was great and unbelievable, but 95 pct of the fans don't have much faith in this team even playing above .500 in the SEC.
 
Martin is laying the groundwork to move on and using these paltry non-conference game crowds vs. undistinguished opponents as his pretext. He's encouraging other schools to come after him. Maybe he just wants to find some leverage for a better deal here, but what he is doing is transparent. He's telling us all he could do better and signaling other schools of his availability at the same time..
 
I appreciate Frank's passion. He could just collect a paycheck and go through the motions for many years thanks to the Final Four run. Unfortunately, I think the insane amount of turnover in the program prevents fans from becoming too invested in the team. Maybe that's the nature of the college basketball game today or that's the only way to win at South Carolina. I wish I was more in the team, but I'm just not feeling it.

There's only 15 players on any given team , teams will sign 3-5 players a year , losing 4 players ( including a suspended player) a year isn't unusual , regardless of the amount of players loses a fan should invest in the entire program ,especially a program that won over 50 the last 2 years including a final 4 and not because specific players graduated or left the program
 
There's only 15 players on any given team , teams will sign 3-5 players a year , losing 4 players ( including a suspended player) a year isn't unusual , regardless of the amount of players loses a fan should invest in the entire program ,especially a program that won over 50 the last 2 years including a final 4 and not because specific players graduated or left the program
What you bring in is at least as important as what you lose - or how many.
 
I appreciate Frank's passion. He could just collect a paycheck and go through the motions for many years thanks to the Final Four run. Unfortunately, I think the insane amount of turnover in the program prevents fans from becoming too invested in the team. Maybe that's the nature of the college basketball game today or that's the only way to win at South Carolina. I wish I was more in the team, but I'm just not feeling it.

I agree somewhat, if PJ had stayed things would be better. The big thing in NCAA basketball, the thing that brings excitement and fan turnout, is not developing a well coach team over a 2 or 3 year period, its signing the next bigtime player. Thats what the game has devolved too, sadly.
 
It doesn't help that USC built an insanely large arena - so even a nice 10,000 person crowd looks small. I get there are other reasons the building was built - but it was never good for USC basketball on any level. I can only imagine how 5,000 people looked in there.

That's not going to change though. I think Frank is just pushing some buttons to spur on the fans. Notice he blames the "marketing department," but really he's calling out the fans without trying to insult them. It was a good move. And if the fans don't come out, he'll have some more leverage over the athletic department next time he negotiates because he can always go to a school that has real basketball fans (not just people that show up to see a winner). Overall, Frank was doing some work, on and off the court, Wednesday night.
 
Sadly, our fans only support our basketball team when it's winning games. It is a shame that other programs at our school don't get the kind of loyalty that our football team gets. When the football team went 1-21 people were still in the stands. We just came off of a Final 4 run and we still can't seem to put the fans in the bleachers. It really is pathetic.
 
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest posts

ADVERTISEMENT