Post by MizzouTiger on Jan 19, 2008 13:27:42 GMT -5
www.kansascity.com/167/story/442237.html
MU fans are coming back
By MIKE DeARMOND
The Kansas City Star
COLUMBIA | Phil Grubaugh, a familiar face at Kansas City Tiger Club meetings and a longtime booster of all things Missouri, admitted he hadn’t graced Mizzou Arena all season.
“Part of it is lack of enthusiasm,” said Grubaugh, formerly president of one of Missouri’s most avid fan clubs.
“Part of it is being tied up in football.”
Missouri, after all, is coming off its best-ever football season, finishing 12-2 with a victory in the Cotton Bowl and a No. 4 final national ranking.
“Part of it is work,” Grubaugh concluded.
Now flash forward just short of two hours, following Missouri’s 97-84 victory over No. 12 Texas on Saturday.
“I’m excited about them,” Grubaugh said after he and a season-high announced crowd of 13,085 watched the Tigers upset the Longhorns. “I’ll be back.”
Don’t be too quick to portray Grubaugh as a fair-weather basketball fan. He isn’t the only member of the MU faithful who until Saturday had failed to fill up more than 7,699 of Mizzou Arena’s 15,061 seats in nine previous opportunities.
Most of those games, in fact, were witnessed by an average of about 5,400 fans who preferred — even though they had purchased tickets — to do just about anything other than attend an MU basketball game.
There have been all sorts of excuses. Bad weather. Bad opposition. Bad basketball by the home team, despite its 10-5 record.
It had gotten so bad that coach Mike Anderson had resorted to pleading to the fans to show up for games, one time saying they should get in their “snow buggies” and come.
Anderson has maintained his team — with its up-tempo style — plays better basketball when spurred on by a big crowd.
“You could feel the energy level go up,” Anderson said on Saturday.
You could hear it, too, if you were anywhere near Eyob Tilahun, a former MU student who had transferred to Missouri-St. Louis because it was cheaper to go to school there. Tilahun came back with friends on Saturday for his first MU game of the season.
As MU’s Jason Horton sank four free throws in the final minute, Tilahun and his friends screamed: “Texas toast! Texas toast!”
Had they come up with the line earlier, they might have had an entire arena yelling the same thing.
With 7 minutes, 23 seconds to play and Missouri up 72-61, the crowd — announced at 11,085 at that time — gave itself a hand on a season-high home gathering.
With 3:37 left the attendance figure was “corrected” and announced at 13,085.
Why?
“Because somebody couldn’t count,” said one MU official who insisted on remaining anonymous.
Well, it was double the number of people on hand for any other previous game at Mizzou Arena this season.
By the way, MU’s next home game — 7 p.m. next Saturday against No. 3 Kansas — is already a sellout.
MU fans are coming back
By MIKE DeARMOND
The Kansas City Star
COLUMBIA | Phil Grubaugh, a familiar face at Kansas City Tiger Club meetings and a longtime booster of all things Missouri, admitted he hadn’t graced Mizzou Arena all season.
“Part of it is lack of enthusiasm,” said Grubaugh, formerly president of one of Missouri’s most avid fan clubs.
“Part of it is being tied up in football.”
Missouri, after all, is coming off its best-ever football season, finishing 12-2 with a victory in the Cotton Bowl and a No. 4 final national ranking.
“Part of it is work,” Grubaugh concluded.
Now flash forward just short of two hours, following Missouri’s 97-84 victory over No. 12 Texas on Saturday.
“I’m excited about them,” Grubaugh said after he and a season-high announced crowd of 13,085 watched the Tigers upset the Longhorns. “I’ll be back.”
Don’t be too quick to portray Grubaugh as a fair-weather basketball fan. He isn’t the only member of the MU faithful who until Saturday had failed to fill up more than 7,699 of Mizzou Arena’s 15,061 seats in nine previous opportunities.
Most of those games, in fact, were witnessed by an average of about 5,400 fans who preferred — even though they had purchased tickets — to do just about anything other than attend an MU basketball game.
There have been all sorts of excuses. Bad weather. Bad opposition. Bad basketball by the home team, despite its 10-5 record.
It had gotten so bad that coach Mike Anderson had resorted to pleading to the fans to show up for games, one time saying they should get in their “snow buggies” and come.
Anderson has maintained his team — with its up-tempo style — plays better basketball when spurred on by a big crowd.
“You could feel the energy level go up,” Anderson said on Saturday.
You could hear it, too, if you were anywhere near Eyob Tilahun, a former MU student who had transferred to Missouri-St. Louis because it was cheaper to go to school there. Tilahun came back with friends on Saturday for his first MU game of the season.
As MU’s Jason Horton sank four free throws in the final minute, Tilahun and his friends screamed: “Texas toast! Texas toast!”
Had they come up with the line earlier, they might have had an entire arena yelling the same thing.
With 7 minutes, 23 seconds to play and Missouri up 72-61, the crowd — announced at 11,085 at that time — gave itself a hand on a season-high home gathering.
With 3:37 left the attendance figure was “corrected” and announced at 13,085.
Why?
“Because somebody couldn’t count,” said one MU official who insisted on remaining anonymous.
Well, it was double the number of people on hand for any other previous game at Mizzou Arena this season.
By the way, MU’s next home game — 7 p.m. next Saturday against No. 3 Kansas — is already a sellout.