MBB: St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[fcnews]

Interesting points Hopefan.
1.) Parker was not a very good point guard. Way to selfish with the ball. Look at the results with him and without. No comparison.
2.) It is pretty obvious by Kirkpatrick's results at Juco, this kid just did not want to play.
3.) Trevor White was a heck of a player. But, you can't force a kid to stay in school. College was not for him. He is a happy family man now.

And yes from what I've seen, we need to enjoy the entertainment the SLIAC gives us. It is what it is. Fontbonne was the best we had and took their shots. The results in the NCAA speak for themselves. As Q said, Fontbonne has good size for the SLIAC. But, on a National level was just to undersized.

No matter what the season could have been. FU would have drawn either Wheaton, Platteville, Elmhurst or Wash U. Four top 10 teams. It is what it is for the SLIAC in the Midwest.

Plus you would have been really sick watching Hope lose, also.

[hopefan]

You know FC - my association with the Hope team - the players, and pretty much the coach - is long gone - seeing them win or lose is not the end of the world - but Hope travels with so much spirit, and so many nice people, I just feel so doggonned bad for all the fans who support the program so well....  last year when they lost to Wash u, as happy as I was for Wash U, I just felt awful for how devestating it was to all the fans who traveled to Salem from Michigan.

[fcnews]

Hopefan - Every last fan from Hope that I met was first class. They did travel better then what I was expecting from some of the posts. Student group of about 50 and a nice size group of adults.

The set up at Wheaton was not very fan friendly. No designated areas for the different teams. The Hope adults setting behind the visiting bench were very gracious with allowing some of the FU parents to at least get to sit in a halfway decent seat. The FU crowd got to the King Arena 20 minutes before tip off of the first game.

The group was forced to one corner of the gym. Towards the end of the first game, the parents from FU went over to the corner behind the visitors bench. It must be a tradition at Wheaton that their adult fans have rights to all seats behind both benches. Because after the Hope game, when their families were coming down to see the boys, FU adult fans were trampled by Wheaton fans.

Hope parents came to the rescue and jestered to the purple how many seats and waited till our parents got to the seats. To the outrage of the late arriving Wheaton crowd. Still half of the FU parents and families had to watch the game from one corner.

The Hope student sections made way for the FU students. Hope's traveling party was class act.

The game got away about the 10 minute mark of the first half. But, Hope kids played hard and every player got a chance for his time.

I'll give Hope a A+ for off the court performance.

[hopefan]

Interesting story FC  -  I'm pretty sure I'll be going up to Wheaton this weekend  -  I'll be interested to see if team areas aren't designated for Friday's games, though the 3 visitor's impact will likely be less with Puget fans probably scarce, and St Thomas numbers questionable at best given the 400 mile driving distance.

Glad you were impressed with the Hope contingent.....  now, if I could just get you to a Hope- Calvin game..........

[sac]

It was definitly one of the more disappointing parts of the visit  FCNews.  I felt really bad for all the FU fans who made the trip only to find no area set aside for them to sit in.

I've never been to a sectional without any sort of seating directive.

[fcnews]

Thanks for the comment Sac +1k. It will be a point of interest for where ever we go next year.

[Pat Coleman]

The NCAA mandates it. I think Wheaton might be given a pass for one weekend, being new to the whole hosting thing, but I doubt it will happen again.

Seating Distribution
[Reference, Tickets in this section of the handbook.]
To avoid potential conflicts, the men's basketball committee recommends that hosts
designate distinct seating sections within the playing facility for: 1) home supporters;
2) visiting supporters; and 3) walk-up general admission.
Home Supporters Section
• Shall not be behind the visiting team bench.
• Should be available to advance ticket customers.
• Should have a distinct ticket (different from visitor supporters and walk-up sections) for
admittance.
• Can be reserved seating or general admission seating within the section.
Visiting Supporters Section(s)
• Should be directly behind the visiting team bench(es).
• Should have a distinct ticket (different from that for home supporters and walk-up
sections) for admittance.
• Can be reserved seating or general admission seating within the section.
Walk-up General Admission Section
• Should have a distinct ticket (different from home and visitor supporters sections) for
admittance.
• Should be available to supporters from all institutions.
• Should have visible security personnel in the area.

[Pat Coleman]

Well, that's fine, but if there's a problem I recommend that the NCAA has a long memory when it comes to hosting privileges.

[larry_u]

The NCAA mandates it. I think Wheaton might be given a pass for one weekend, being new to the whole hosting thing, but I doubt it will happen again.

Seating Distribution
[Reference, Tickets in this section of the handbook.]
To avoid potential conflicts, the men's basketball committee recommends that hosts
designate distinct seating sections within the playing facility for: 1) home supporters;
2) visiting supporters; and 3) walk-up general admission.
Home Supporters Section
• Shall not be behind the visiting team bench.
• Should be available to advance ticket customers.
• Should have a distinct ticket (different from visitor supporters and walk-up sections) for
admittance.
• Can be reserved seating or general admission seating within the section.
Visiting Supporters Section(s)
• Should be directly behind the visiting team bench(es).
• Should have a distinct ticket (different from that for home supporters and walk-up
sections) for admittance.
• Can be reserved seating or general admission seating within the section.
Walk-up General Admission Section
• Should have a distinct ticket (different from home and visitor supporters sections) for
admittance.
• Should be available to supporters from all institutions.
• Should have visible security personnel in the area.

I think mandating and recommends are to vastly different words IMHO

Well it sounds like because they didn't do what the NCAA "recommends" there might be some conflict.  I would think Wheaton would want to impress the NCAA not turn it into a madhouse of people running for seats on Friday night...but I could be wrong.

[larry_u]

LOL..Pat beat me to it....

[sac]

last word from me is get there early so you dont have to cry about it later.

There were Fontbonne fans standing in the doorway for the entire second half of the first game.

[Pat Coleman]

I dont have a problem reserving seats for as many tickets as your school sells and then setting a time limit on how long those seats will be made available.

Great. And a specific spot for them to be in, like pretty much every other sectional I've been to over the past decade. What you describe is basically what everyone else does and what sounds like did not happen this past weekend.

[hopefan]

I'm a single person and I'll squeeze in somewhere - but fair is fair, and if there are areas of seating marked off for visiting teams (as the NCAA recommends), Wheaton fans should respect those boundries until very close to game time.  If I've driven 13 hours from Minn, or 5 hours from St Louis, or paid to fly from Washington State, I should be given HIGH (100%) expectation of having a REASONABLE seat for my ticket...... Wheaton Admin should have ushers to assure this......

[74impala]

I'm a single person and I'll squeeze in somewhere - but fair is fair, and if there are areas of seating marked off for visiting teams (as the NCAA recommends), Wheaton fans should respect those boundries until very close to game time.  If I've driven 13 hours from Minn, or 5 hours from St Louis, or paid to fly from Washington State, I should be given HIGH (100%) expectation of having a REASONABLE seat for my ticket...... Wheaton Admin should have ushers to assure this......

So who shouldn't have a REASONABLE seat?

[Pat Coleman]

I'm only driving eight hours from Minnesota, FWIW.