The University of South Carolina's men's basketball team has - to put it nicely - struggled in recent years.
Since the turn of the century, the Gamecocks have made only five postseason appearances, four in the NIT (winning in 2005 and 2006), and one NCAA Tournament appearance in 2004. Most of that success was under former head coach Dave Odom, who was at the helm from 2002-2008.
He was replaced by Darrin Horn, who, quite frankly, gradually ran the program into the ground. After posting a 21-10 mark in his first season - USC's one winning season under his leadership, Horn's teams gradually got worse until they posted a 10-21 record in the 2011-2012 season. Horn was fired upon the season's conclusion.
Worse than the losing was the irrelevancy the Gamecock basketball program slipped into under Horn, which resulted in a steep drop in attendance.
South Carolina was averaging 11,776 fans per game when Horn took over the program (still only a fraction of Colonial Life Arena's 18,000 person capacity), but that mark stooped to 8,868 in his last season.
USC addressed the problem by hiring the fiery Frank Martin from Kansas State, where he made the postseason in all five of seasons (4 NCAA Tournament appearances, 1 NIT).
The Wildcat program had historically struggled, but the team won over 20 games in every one of Martin's five seasons and posted a cumulative record of 117-54.
South Carolina's hope was that Martin would be able to rejuvenate the program and the distancing fan base the same way he did at Kansas State.
Last year in his first season, the Gamecocks posted a measly 14-18 record, and attendance was just over 8,600 fans per game.
However, Martin appears to have the program on the upswing, bringing in one of the best freshman classes in school history.
The team is expected to be better on the court in the 2013-14 season, and the university is taking measures off the court to try and get fans, particularly students, back into the arena. Giveaways and incentives, such as double loyalty points towards football tickets given to students, have been introduced to try and energize the fan base.
But will it work? Two USC seniors debate with some input from Frank Martin on the problem.
The Gamecocks opened their season with a 82-44 victory over Longwood in front of 8,536 fans before losing 66-64 on the road to a Baylor team ranked No. 23 in the country.
Only time will tell if the measures taken by the university will work, but one thing that is sure to get fans back into seats is for the Gamecocks to start winning again.
Since the turn of the century, the Gamecocks have made only five postseason appearances, four in the NIT (winning in 2005 and 2006), and one NCAA Tournament appearance in 2004. Most of that success was under former head coach Dave Odom, who was at the helm from 2002-2008.
He was replaced by Darrin Horn, who, quite frankly, gradually ran the program into the ground. After posting a 21-10 mark in his first season - USC's one winning season under his leadership, Horn's teams gradually got worse until they posted a 10-21 record in the 2011-2012 season. Horn was fired upon the season's conclusion.
Worse than the losing was the irrelevancy the Gamecock basketball program slipped into under Horn, which resulted in a steep drop in attendance.
 |
| Frank Martin has been tasked with turning South Carolina's program around |
USC addressed the problem by hiring the fiery Frank Martin from Kansas State, where he made the postseason in all five of seasons (4 NCAA Tournament appearances, 1 NIT).
The Wildcat program had historically struggled, but the team won over 20 games in every one of Martin's five seasons and posted a cumulative record of 117-54.
South Carolina's hope was that Martin would be able to rejuvenate the program and the distancing fan base the same way he did at Kansas State.
Last year in his first season, the Gamecocks posted a measly 14-18 record, and attendance was just over 8,600 fans per game.
However, Martin appears to have the program on the upswing, bringing in one of the best freshman classes in school history.
The team is expected to be better on the court in the 2013-14 season, and the university is taking measures off the court to try and get fans, particularly students, back into the arena. Giveaways and incentives, such as double loyalty points towards football tickets given to students, have been introduced to try and energize the fan base.
But will it work? Two USC seniors debate with some input from Frank Martin on the problem.
The Gamecocks opened their season with a 82-44 victory over Longwood in front of 8,536 fans before losing 66-64 on the road to a Baylor team ranked No. 23 in the country.
Only time will tell if the measures taken by the university will work, but one thing that is sure to get fans back into seats is for the Gamecocks to start winning again.
No comments:
Post a Comment