I question whether Fred can get Hilton Magic back to the level it was when Johnny was here. My thoughts on why Hilton was so crazy and why it won't get to that level again.
1. When Johnny came onto the floor to the Tonight Show song, he would be running, jumping, pumping his fists at the crowd and the energy that he gave the fans was incredible. Fans were going nuts and the players hadn't even been introduced.
2. At the announcement of the players, the announcer would say Welcome to James H Hilton Colliseum for tonights game between Colorado and (he would hestitate and it would get deafening) your Iowa State Cyclones. It was so loud you could hardly hear Iowa State Cyclones. This was something that happened since there was no protocol of playing a video or any of that other crap. When the players were introduced, the energy was created by the announcer, again not videos or lights.
3. During the game Johnny was very animated and the crowd fed off of his emotion which he had even if the game was going ISU's way.
4. During timeouts, which there were a lot less and they were shorter, the fans yelled during the whole timeout and the band may play the fight song. The other team never had 1 second of low noise level to discuss their strategy. Now the timeouts are long and there is so many, we now have entertainment during them, dance squad, etc.
5. Students were not sitting together, but were spread out. That helped in getting the older people involved in the game. There were no special chants, everybody just yelled as loud as they could.
6. ISU was the underdog, but with the crowd, it gave them an advantage that no other school had.
7. Style of play Orr coached. Lots of action and up and down play.
I was 7 rows up behind the basket during the Iowa game with Lafester being the hero. I could turn to my wife and yell in her ear and she couldn't hear one word I would say. It was that way almost the entire game, not just 30 seconds out of every 5 minutes.
My expectations of what Hilton Magic can be have been lowered over the years. I hope Fred can find a way to energize the fans. He hasn't shown much emotion and seems to be very calculated and straight-faced.
My hope is he has a plan to energize the fans. If he isn't willing to show his emotions, he will need to allow the players to show emotions or generate them by style of play, etc.
1. When Johnny came onto the floor to the Tonight Show song, he would be running, jumping, pumping his fists at the crowd and the energy that he gave the fans was incredible. Fans were going nuts and the players hadn't even been introduced.
2. At the announcement of the players, the announcer would say Welcome to James H Hilton Colliseum for tonights game between Colorado and (he would hestitate and it would get deafening) your Iowa State Cyclones. It was so loud you could hardly hear Iowa State Cyclones. This was something that happened since there was no protocol of playing a video or any of that other crap. When the players were introduced, the energy was created by the announcer, again not videos or lights.
3. During the game Johnny was very animated and the crowd fed off of his emotion which he had even if the game was going ISU's way.
4. During timeouts, which there were a lot less and they were shorter, the fans yelled during the whole timeout and the band may play the fight song. The other team never had 1 second of low noise level to discuss their strategy. Now the timeouts are long and there is so many, we now have entertainment during them, dance squad, etc.
5. Students were not sitting together, but were spread out. That helped in getting the older people involved in the game. There were no special chants, everybody just yelled as loud as they could.
6. ISU was the underdog, but with the crowd, it gave them an advantage that no other school had.
7. Style of play Orr coached. Lots of action and up and down play.
I was 7 rows up behind the basket during the Iowa game with Lafester being the hero. I could turn to my wife and yell in her ear and she couldn't hear one word I would say. It was that way almost the entire game, not just 30 seconds out of every 5 minutes.
My expectations of what Hilton Magic can be have been lowered over the years. I hope Fred can find a way to energize the fans. He hasn't shown much emotion and seems to be very calculated and straight-faced.
My hope is he has a plan to energize the fans. If he isn't willing to show his emotions, he will need to allow the players to show emotions or generate them by style of play, etc.
