Tuesday, July 24, 2007

KU 12th in attendance

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Kansas University ranked 12th in the country - and first in the Big 12 Conference - in men's basketball attendance for the 2006-07 season.

According to official NCAA statistics, KU drew 293,400 fans for 18 home dates for an average of 16,300 fans - which is capacity in Allen Fieldhouse.

Kentucky led the way with an average of 23,421 fans, followed by Syracuse (21,516), North Carolina (20,693), Tennessee (19,661), Louisville (18,488), Ohio State (17,530), Wisconsin (17,190), Maryland (16,822), Arkansas (16,720), Illinois (16,618) and Indiana (16,474).

Oklahoma State ranked second in the Big 12 and 21st overall at 13,008 per game, followed by Texas (22nd, 12,969); Iowa State (25th, 12,489); Kansas State (26th, 12,301); Nebraska (39th, 10,584); Oklahoma (45th, 10,023); Texas Tech (46th, 10,010); Texas A&M (52nd, 9,812); Missouri (69th, 8,243) and Baylor (90th, 6,065). Colorado was not listed in the top 100 with its average of just 3,334 fans.

How important was Bob Huggins to Kansas State's attendance?

The Wildcats drew 4,637 more fans per game in 2006-07 than Jim Wooldridge's final season in 2005-'06.

¢ Hinrich still on team: Former KU guard Kirk Hinrich and the other 16 players who participated in last weekend's USA Senior National team minicamp have been invited back for official pre-Olympic qualifying tournament workouts Aug. 15 in Las Vegas.

Also, USA managing director Jerry Colangelo made it official Sunday, confirming ex-Jayhawk Nick Collison had been added to the list of prospective players.

The USA team will be sliced to 12 before opening play in the FIBA Americas Championship that will run Aug. 22-Sept.2 in Las Vegas. Just the top two finishers in the 10-team event will earn spots in the 2008 Olympics.

Hinrich scored four points off 2-of-7 shooting in Sunday's 105-104 intrasquad scrimmage victory. He missed three three-point tries.

It's believed he's a bubble selection this year at best with Chauncey Billups and Jason Kidd also playing the point.

"I'm not concerned either way," Hinrich told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "I felt like I played well last summer (in starting three of nine games at the world championships), and of course I want to make the team. But if they don't want me back, I'll go home and get ready for (NBA) training camp."

U.S. coach Mike Krzyzewski liked what he saw in Hinrich last summer.

"He had some big games for us. He nearly won the Greece game by himself," Krzyzewski said.

¢ Recruiting: Olek Czyz, a 6-foot-8, 235-pound senior from Reno (Nev.) High School, is drawing a lot of attention at the Adidas Super 64 AAU tournament in Las Vegas.

Czyz told the Louisville Courier-Journal he's considering Kansas, Kentucky, Louisville, Duke, Florida and Arizona State.

"I never did have a big head, and I won't because all you have to do is not worry about the attention and keep trying to get better," said Czyz, who averaged 18.3 points and 8.3 boards his junior season after averaging 10 points and six boards his soph year.

Originally from Poland, Czyz has been in the U.S. for three years.

"I am looking for a great coach, and I would like to play some minutes when I get there," he said of college.

Courtney Fortson, a 5-10 senior point guard from Davis High in Montgomery, Ala., says he's considering KU, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Minnesota, Cincinnati and Florida State. Fortson, who averaged 19 points and seven boards last season, said he will not sign until the spring.

"I'm wide-open," he told the Courier-Journal from the Adidas camp. "That's why I'm playing so hard."

¢ Number talk: Former KU forward Julian Wright, who wore jersey No. 30 at KU, will wear 32 with the New Orleans Hornets since David West has dibs on his favorite digits.

Why 32?

"Well, I thought about wearing 32 even before Byron Scott made those Magic Johnson comparisons," Wright quipped to hornets.com.

He's referring to Hornets coach Scott's comparing Wright to a "Poor Man's Magic Johnson" on draft day.

"I was shocked, but by saying that I was a 'Poor Man's Magic,' that made it a little bit easier to understand. If he had said something like 'Magic in his prime,' that would have been a lot different. If (Scott) had said that, I don't even know if I could have played here," Wright joked. "I appreciate that comparison, but I just want to get better every day. If my playmaking puts me anywhere near that category, then I will be happy."

Wright told the Web site he didn't envision having trouble surviving the NBA's 82-game schedule.

"At Kansas, they stressed conditioning. If you are in good condition, you can think more clearly and not make bad decisions on the court," he said.

As far as his pursuit of a degree in Communication Studies, Wright noted: "Had I stayed at Kansas, I would've graduated in the spring or summer of 2008, but now it's going to take a couple summers.

"That was my plan going into college. It wasn't random. I thought I'd be a lottery pick by the end of my junior year and also be able to graduate in three years."

Comments

CaramelMacchMan (anonymous) says...

Why can't they do the ranking by percent(%)?
This is bunch of BS!!!!

I mean! If we add 6000 more sits in Afeildhouse, i i'm for sure it will still be packed!!!

I dont believe this official NCAA statistics!!!

July 24, 2007 at 12:46 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

KoolKeithFreeze (anonymous) says...

Settle down dude. Anyway, Hinrich isn't gonna make the Team USA cuts unless he starts doing something. Deron Williams and Jason Kidd are playing much better than he is offensively. He needs to put his defense on display.

July 24, 2007 at 1:04 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

one_and_one_is_two (anonymous) says...

Interesting that Arkansas ranked higher than us in attendance. I spent quite a bit of time on their message boards this spring when the Piggies were under the illusion that they were going to steal Bill Self from us. They were always bemoaning the poor attendance in the last year of Stan Heath's tenure, and I got the impression their arena was only half-full for games. Of course, their Wal-Mart Arena does hold several thousand more fans than Allen.

So I wonder about these statistics. Kansas may have had a sellout for every game, but I know there were a couple of games where we had a few hundred empty seats.

July 24, 2007 at 6:39 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

rohdek (Kyle Rohde) says...

one and one...even when there are empty seats for KU games, they were sold anyway. With student tickets and GA seats, they "sell" 16,300 for every game. I think that's how it works.

July 24, 2007 at 8:12 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

frompekka2sasha (anonymous) says...

Attendance is measured in different ways depending on the sport. If tickets sold were not the measurement for Chiefs football, for instance, then think how many games wouldn't have been sold out over the years. I personally like the true attendance measurement but it will always be a lesser number than tickets sold.

July 24, 2007 at 8:38 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

okjhok (anonymous) says...

The USA Basketball quagmire really pisses me off. The original idea was to get a group of guys committed to the team and stick with that group until the '08 Olympics. The goal was to achieve some team cohesion, much like other, more internationally successful teams do before they whoop our ass. Hinrich was a part of this plan. What happened to the process?

July 24, 2007 at 10:42 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

sensei (anonymous) says...

Very good point okjhok. It seems to me they're trying to assemble an All-star team again.

July 24, 2007 at 10:57 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

jross1972 (Johann Ross) says...

It personally doesnt say anything to me about what ordinal Kansas receives in attendance because if the field house seated 26,300 it would still sell out. Attendance to games is a bogus statistic, unless you're telling me that you can judge how avid a fan base is by the number of seats in its basketball auditorium.

July 24, 2007 at 11:38 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

JayhawkPhil (anonymous) says...

My primary concern with this talk about attendance is that it gives Big Lew more ammunition for him to try and talk alumni into building some 25,000 seat palace, with all kinds of luxery suites, out in the middle of some field between Lawrence and KC. I know he has denied any such plans but I am positive he is waiting for the right moment to pull this off. It would be a travesty if KU ever even considered abandoning Allen Fieldhouse and I think the powers that be know that but this is the same guy who kicked descendants of Phog Allen out of their seats, tried to build new football facities that would have blocked the stadiums view of the campenellia(sp) and scheduled the home football game with Missouri at Arrowhead stadium, all in the name of money. I may be paranoid but we fans need to be vigilant and make sure we never leave Allen Fieldhouse, the greatest College Basketball arena in America.

July 24, 2007 at 12:05 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

soapboxstew (anonymous) says...

I think that the spring signing period will be huge for Self
& Co. We could end up with a top class if we land a bunch of players that want PT and see that KU has much to offer. I think that our top priority has to be 3 bigs. We can deal with just signing 1 guard (Releford), but the bigs are needed.
i am assuming that Darrell Aurthur will go in the early lotto next year. That will leave us with Cole as our only big, and he is a true center. So the PF spot is vacant for the crimson and blue in the 08-09 season. If DA goes in the lotto, that would mean that we have had 2 soph. PF's that have gone in the NBA lotto in a row. Not to mention Drew Gooden, another NBA lotto pick and former PF in Jayhawk land.
I would like to know what the other bloggers think that we could get in terms of bigs in 2008. I am optimistic, and I see that we could get: Greg Monroe, Tyler Zeller, and J'Maison Morgan.

July 24, 2007 at 12:40 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

jross1972 (Johann Ross) says...

We better never leave the fieldhous JayhawkPhil. Never as in the limestone better erode away first.

July 24, 2007 at 12:55 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

frompekka2sasha (anonymous) says...

JayhawkPhil just hit the nail on the head as to what I fear most. Nothing would surprise me with Lew but my hope is that the money that has already been spent on improvement is still recent enough that no one would listen to his reasoning.

July 24, 2007 at 3:38 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

justanotherfan (anonymous) says...

I think Lew recognizes that basketball is king at KU and wouldn't leave the homecourt advantage that is Allen Fieldhouse. The football argument isn't as persuasive to me because KU's football tradition is very strong, so there isn't the pull on Memorial Stadium like there is at the Fieldhouse. Plus, it's huge for recruits to be able to recognize the name Allen fieldhouse and feel the mystique of the place. A lot of recruits don't know their history, but the Fieldhouse is still one of the top college venues out there. Lew understands that. Memorial stadium isn't one of the top venues for college football so the argument isn't even close to being the same.

July 24, 2007 at 4:28 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

mightyjoyung (anonymous) says...

I think someday in the near future Kansas has to be thinking about building a new arena. AFH is over 50 years old and you can't keep fixing the infrastructure. I say start new with an 18-20,000 seat arena to take us to the next 50 years.

July 25, 2007 at 12:38 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

Jacobpaul81 (anonymous) says...

Calm down guys. No one's gonna touch the fieldhouse. Hell, most of the schools ahead of kansas, are among those with the biggest arenas. Heck, in the BIG 12, Allen is the biggest in the north, and second biggest in the conference (behind Texas). Ain't it funny, even with Durant last season, Kansas out sold Texas.

If you went by percentages, Kansas would be #1, at 100% average. Duke would be the only school as high. Which is funny, no one mentioned the fact that duke wasn't in the top 12. I wonder why? That's cause Cameron Indoor is smaller than Allen!

Notice also, three other basketball schools: Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, with similar sized student bodies, all located in a similar ag-meets-industrial midwest regions are within 500 seats of Allen fieldhouse in size/ticket sales.

July 25, 2007 at 3:26 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

jpstrayer (anonymous) says...

I love AFH...but if football doesn't take off in attendence, then KU will have to figure out ways to continue squeezing $ out of men's basketball: more sponsorships, more attendence, more contributions, more...more...more. That's the nature of college athletics now days. At some point in time KU may need to think about increasing supply to meet demand.

Of course a couple of national championships over the next several years would also increase cash flow....

July 25, 2007 at 9:45 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

jross1972 (Johann Ross) says...

jpstrayer...

Lew has already prostituted the field house for the sake of monetary gain by reassigning seats to the highest contributors; nevertheless, a lynch mob will emerge to threaten mortal harm to his person if any strategies to increase "supply to meet demand" involves movement from or substantial commercial renovations to the field house. I will be among them.

July 25, 2007 at 10:02 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

wannabe (anonymous) says...

Guys, I think you might at some point want to step into the real world. The fieldhouse will have to be replaced at some point. It will need to be done for safety as well as economic reasons. Great venues all over the country have been replaced lately and the architects do a great job recreating the magic. It is not the same but that does not mean it is bad.
About location: Coach Allen built a field house out in the boonies and the world did not come to an end. When the time comes A solution to the location problem will be found.
Like maybe the area north of Nasmith hall.
It will happen, threatening lynching wont put it off forever.

July 25, 2007 at noon ( | suggest removal )

bmcmich1 (anonymous) says...

I understand that the fears of Lew building a new basketball arena are not totally unwarranted, but his pet project now is football. There are SO many more things that need to be done to Memorial besides just the football-only facility outside. Let's hope the football team performs extremely well this year and keeps it going, because I'm telling you that track NEEDS to go, but if attendance doesn't spike there is no real justification for the increased number of seats that the track removal will bring.

In other words, let's hope for football success because that will bring in more $ to appease Lew's insatiable thirst for it (not that that's necessarily all bad); keep his attention toward improving Memorial for another decade or so, and keep his hands off of Allen.

More football wins => increase in $ and fan support => valid reason to tear out the track in Memorial/various other stadium improvements => Lew's attention AWAY from Allen.

July 25, 2007 at 12:06 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

Kirk (anonymous) says...

bmchmich1 -- Agree. Football is the focus. If you win there, you win everywhere. But if you lose there, no other sport will save your butt.

Football is enough to keep Lew busy until he falls over.

July 25, 2007 at 4 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

jross1972 (Johann Ross) says...

wannabe...

LIES!!!!

the "real world" is neither synonymous with a loss of nostalgic icons nor a tip of the hat to your way of thinking. Only when Allen falls into disrepair will they consider moving away from it; hell, they've just added the Booth renovation a few years ago. No, you and I will be long dead before there is another basketball venue built on campus...long dead! And since Lew is older than both of us (Im assuming youre not his age) I have no concerns about his trying to move basketball. Besides Lew is a fairly intelligent man and he knows that you cant just erect iconic edifices overnight. Allen's lore is a recruitment tool. The building itself is a monument to greatness. It embodies the whole of the tradition here at Kansas.

Blasphemous you are for even suggesting such nonsense. For example, the seating capacity of Cameron Indoor Stadium is only 9300 and Duke's basketball machine has not been slowed by that number. Get out your calculator now so you can check it for yourself: their capacity is only 57% of ours, and that is with expansion as recently as '88.

Pauley Pavilion, home to the storied UCLA program, is only 79% of our current capacity at 12,830. and this is in california!!! Hmm...California, 12.8K,...Kansas, 16.3K.

'Nuff said? No? Okay.

Kentucky and UNC have both expanded their arenas, and yet their programs have not outdistanced us. Bigger ain't always better, chum. Kentucky is 401-50 since Rupp Arena opened ( seating capacity: 23,000; http://bigbluehistory.net/bb/statisti... ) for a winning percentage of 88.9%. Kansas is 90.2% in the field house in that same stretch. UNC's capacity is 21,750 and is at a 86.7% pace since 1986 when it opened ( http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:t...).

There is no magic like that of the field house. Vacating it...even the IDEA of vacating it...is simply dumb. Stupidification. Preposterousity. Asininity. Loco. CRAZY!

Reminds me of stupid theme in the vonage commercials (whoo-hoooo...woo-hoo-hoo).

Lew moving us? Dont hold your breath.

July 26, 2007 at 1:29 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

beebe1 (anonymous) says...

Jack up the roof of Allen, and put in a double deck that could push it to 32000. Then we could make room for the old faithfuls who should have been there all along!

July 26, 2007 at 11:54 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

JayhawkPhil (anonymous) says...

bmcmich, give me some more reasons why you think we need to rip out the track. I am not disagreeing with you but I really enjoy watching the KU Relays at Memorial Stadium and need to feel more comfortable about that event moving somewhere else. Granted, proabably there are only about 10 people besides me that aren't related to or friends with one of the participants, who actually attend the event but I still think it is a cool atmosphere.

July 26, 2007 at 2:56 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

BabyJay5953 (anonymous) says...

I think they should do the capacities by percentage rather than amount as well. However, I do not believe people should be blasting for a new arena. Allen Fieldhouse is the magic of KU Basketball and in better condition now, than it has ever been in the past.

July 28, 2007 at 8:49 p.m. ( | suggest removal )