Death to Cyclone Alley!

[CloneAbuse]

The whole place was pathetic today. I felt bad for Hoiberg. You'd think that those that actually purchased tickets would show up. For the person that said there were better things to do today....what?

I guess we can thank the McD years for this...but for those that are critical of Carver Hawkeye, take a look at what's happened to the magic.

 

[Chitowncy]

I completely agree with this. I was a student before and after the change to the formal CA, and the student section was much better before the change. You could just feel the energy change from one year to the next. And this was before 4 years of McD suckage, so that wasn't it at all. Just let the students be students. It works great for football, and it used to work great for basketball.

I second this point. My tenure also stretched the change in the student section and a move toward Cyclone Alley. The energy went downhill (along with the rowdiness) when CA took over. There's no more banging on the backs of chairs, no more whistling and screaming (lots of "oooohhhhhs" though, which doesn't do ****), but much more crossed arms and lame cheers.

Honestly, if I knew what it was to become I would have fought it. I was a GSB Senator and a member of the Senior Class Council (an SAA group) when the change occured. I would have spoken up if I knew CA would eventually take over both sides, but during my last year (CA's first year) it was only instituted on one side. One side is ok, and kind of nice because there is a segment of the student population which would like to belong to a group like this, but two sides has stifled and killed the student atmosphere.

All the rowdies on the other side seem to have disappeared.

 

[cyclonez7]

Most of the people I know that have tickets were either out of town, studying, or had to work. I don't think going to basketball games is very high on students' list of priorities.

 

[alarson]

Lets be honest, attendance sucked everywhere today. Might see more sprinkling in in other sections, but thats because student section is GA, and attendance pushes towards the front.

And Id also add, its no secret that this season is supposed to not be very good. The only hype on this season is that Fred Hoiberg is there. This means something to quite a few alums, but what does it mean to the average student who was 3-5 years old when he graduated?

Short answer: lets not blame the students. This is a problem created by several years of slow death of the hilton atmosphere, first from Wayne and then from Greg. I would however, agree, lets pare back the cyclone alley stuff, make it one side CA, one side regular student section, like it was in 03-04

 

[JP4CY]

Going to the game Friday night, I was thinking, OK there must be a lot of people at the bars, that's why it's empty here. Then going to the game today, I was like, where is everyone, it's worse in here than Friday night.

 

[IcSyU]

The whole place was pathetic today. I felt bad for Hoiberg. You'd think that those that actually purchased tickets would show up. For the person that said there were better things to do today....what?

Homework. NFL. Group projects (that's what kept me from the hoops game). Home for the weekend. Study since every professor and their uncle decided this was a good week for a test.

Bad ISU basketball + Bad opponent = Little motivation for ISU hoops.

 

[aeroclone]

People can talk about their glory days of hoops games and awesome attendance, but CA isn't the issue. The difference is winning basketball games. Anyone thinking a t-shirt makes a difference on the cheering is just making **** up to make themselves feel better. Wins get people in seats. We aren't very good, people aren't going to go out of their way to attend games. Its as simple as that.

It really has nothing to do with a t-shirt. That was a pain, but it wasn't the major problem. The problem is the culture and the attitude. You want your student section to be wild and crazy, fun and spontaneous. Once again, see football where it is working. We used to have that in basketball too. With CA it seems controlled, supervised, organized, forced. It doesn't breed or encourage the kind of atmosphere you want in a student section at all. I have no idea if that was the intent of the organization or not, but that is what it did.

Winning helps things. Winning helps everything. But even if we were winning more, I still think the student section and Hilton as a whole would be better without CA than it is with it.

 

[alarson]

Going to the game Friday night, I was thinking, OK there must be a lot of people at the bars, that's why it's empty here. Then going to the game today, I was like, where is everyone, it's worse in here than Friday night.

Sundays are always not great for attendance. Competing against NFL, other sunday events, etc, especially in november when most spent their saturdays watching football and have stuff to get done on sundays.

 

[wxman1]

Has anyone ever emailed or spoke with JP on this topic? Just curious what his thoughts/excuses are on it.

 

[SenorCy]

It really has nothing to do with a t-shirt. That was a pain, but it wasn't the major problem. The problem is the culture and the attitude. You want your student section to be wild and crazy, fun and spontaneous. Once again, see football where it is working. We used to have that in basketball too. With CA it seems controlled, supervised, organized, forced. It doesn't breed or encourage the kind of atmosphere you want in a student section at all. I have no idea if that was the intent of the organization or not, but that is what it did.

Winning helps things. Winning helps everything. But even if we were winning more, I still think the student section and Hilton as a whole would be better without CA than it is with it.

I agree, CA seems really forced. Football has a better atmosphere without anyone officially leading the cheers.

 

[mharder]

Homework. NFL. Group projects (that's what kept me from the hoops game). Home for the weekend. Study since every professor and their uncle decided this was a good week for a test.

Bad ISU basketball + Bad opponent = Little motivation for ISU hoops.

You can't spare 2 1/2 hours? Get off your butt and go to the game. No excuses.

 

[alarson]

You can't spare 2 1/2 hours? Get off your butt and go to the game. No excuses.

Sometimes with group projects, you dont get that option...

 

[ISUAgronomist]

Has anyone ever emailed or spoke with JP on this topic? Just curious what his thoughts/excuses are on it.

I know he doesn't like empty student seats. During my undergrad he sent an email to students to let them know if the seats remained empty he was cutting the total in half to sell to donors.

 

[Tornado man]

Homework. NFL. Group projects (that's what kept me from the hoops game). Home for the weekend. Study since every professor and their uncle decided this was a good week for a test.

Bad ISU basketball + Bad opponent = Little motivation for ISU hoops.

Everyone has "reasons" not to attend. They're all good ones. Fans in my section have everything from work obligations, to visiting their elderly parents, to other activities with their kids. It's not just the students who are busy.
I'll be curious to see how Wednesday's game turns out regarding attendance. That's a big game.

 

[gwoodclone]

Everyone has "reasons" not to attend. They're all good ones. Fans in my section have everything from work obligations, to visiting their elderly parents, to other activities with their kids. It's not just the students who are busy.
I'll be curious to see how Wednesday's game turns out regarding attendance. That's a big game.

And pheasant hunting. Don't forget pheasant hunting.

And I agree. Drake will be interesting. I really hope people show up.

 

[alarson]

I know he doesn't like empty student seats. During my undergrad he sent an email to students to let them know if the seats remained empty he was cutting the total in half to sell to donors.

But lets be honest, the donors arent buying either. Im a first year buyer (sat with family tickets or in the band prior). I got seats just a few rows up in the balcony, at midcourt. I had tons of options when i ordered a few weeks ago. I heard at higher levels there were parquet seats available, when in prior years, even at the right donor level you still had to be on a waiting list to move down. And even among those buying, tons arent showing up, as we saw today. At least donors have a way to sell their tickets. Cyclone alley, thanks to the shirt requirement, makes it very difficult to sell your tickets.

This is going to take time... and when we're back to being good again, all the fans, including the students, will be back, and we'll very much regret it if we dont have a student section down there leading the noise.

 

[IcSyU]

With CA it seems controlled, supervised, organized, forced. It doesn't breed or encourage the kind of atmosphere you want in a student section at all. I have no idea if that was the intent of the organization or not, but that is what it did.

Winning helps things. Winning helps everything. But even if we were winning more, I still think the student section and Hilton as a whole would be better without CA than it is with it.

Nothing is controlled, forced, or supervised. Obviously there is some organization or CA wouldn't be there.

CA hurts nothing. A losing culture of basketball hurts everything. CA does make transferring tickets a little tougher, but the people that want to be at the games already have tickets anyways. CA is just a convenient excuse for people to *****.

I remember football games in the mid-late 90s when JTS was empty. There was no noise. Why? Because we were god awful. Now JTS gets much better attendance even on days we think attendance is crappy now. Why? Because we started winning more than 1 win per year. I remember basketball games at the same time until now. We won basketball games, and expected to win them. Iowa State basketball was a primary activity, not a secondary activity. Now, we haven't won a big game at home in eternity. Iowa State hoops isn't at the top of the list.

 

[wxman1]

Nothing is controlled, forced, or supervised. Obviously there is some organization or CA wouldn't be there.

CA hurts nothing. A losing culture of basketball hurts everything. CA does make transferring tickets a little tougher, but the people that want to be at the games already have tickets anyways. CA is just a convenient excuse for people to *****.

I remember football games in the mid-late 90s when JTS was empty. There was no noise. Why? Because we were god awful. Now JTS gets much better attendance even on days we think attendance is crappy now. Why? Because we started winning more than 1 win per year. I remember basketball games at the same time until now. We won basketball games, and expected to win them. Iowa State basketball was a primary activity, not a secondary activity. Now, we haven't won a big game at home in eternity. Iowa State hoops isn't at the top of the list.

Everything to do with CA and where the students sit is controlled forced and supervised. How many examples do you want?

 

[IcSyU]

Sometimes with group projects, you dont get that option...

Bingo. Getting 5 schedules to work together is a pain in the ***. Meeting with a group for a project worth a huge chunk of your grade is a bigger deal than a basketball game against the Sisters of Charity.

Everyone has "reasons" not to attend. They're all good ones. Fans in my section have everything from work obligations, to visiting their elderly parents, to other activities with their kids. It's not just the students who are busy.

You need to re-check your post and make sure you said everything you meant to say. I actually agree with everything you said.

 

[jsmith86]

Sometimes with group projects, you dont get that option...

Especially if you include studying for the tests that professors inevitably put this week, and traveling back from the Colorado game. I think sometimes people forget what it is like to be in college.


People also forget that no matter how much they like to be, and no matter how much money they pay, they aren't in college anymore, and this is college basketball. If it really pains you that much that students get good seats, I'm sure that there are several minor league/semi-pro/NBA teams that would love for you to attend their games.