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Southern Illinois fans...

I had a fun time yesterday at BuffWildWings/Grand Prairie with a couple Saluki friends of mine (along with some BU fans).
 
Met some SIU fans at JBucks after the game...they were very cordial and said they were lucky to get that game.....mentioned how they were not looking forward to another year of JC and Ruff....asked about our incoming recruits as well....a very good conversation......wished them the best and would root for them in the NCAA's.....
 
I got to the game at 1030 am to wait for student tickets (to make sure I sat front row), we were the only two there among the 40 or so SIU fans. Needless to say my friend and I waited 30 minutes before another fan came while they continued to heckle us. It was funny, they brought up POB, our mascot, and the braves name in general. We waited to talk to back to them until other fans came.

Also did anyone see the sign that said "Bradley. The ISU rejects"?

Thought it was hilarious because it is harder to get into bradley then siu or isu combined! 8)
 
I really didn't have too much time to talk with SIU fans, as we were pretty busy talking with all the BU fans at the pregame events and at the games, but......

The several SIU fans I talked with while in lines and at the arena were very friendly and very respectful of BU and its fans.

The one thing I heard several times was the comment that the SIU fans really admired and appreciated what Bradley did for the conference last season with the big wins over Kansas and Pitt and advancing to the Sweet 16.
The SIU fans were a a little embarrassed that their team lost quickly and soundly, but they were full of praise for what Jim Les has done to bring the Braves back to the big time gaining lots of well deserved respect for the MVC, and what the Bradley fans do all the time in supporting their team.

In years gone by I have felt the SIU fans looked down on BU people as if we were the doormats of the conference and that we were dragging their reputation down.
Not this time........it was almost as if they were pretty surprised and happy that they were able to get by BU and that they really feared playing us as much as anyone else in the conference.
Several noted that the tough game against BU likely wore their kids down so much that if they lost the next game to Creighton (which they ended up doing) that it would be in large part from the exhaustion they suffered in the game vs. BU.
 
Most of my experiences with the SIU fans was really great. That's what makes the MVC tourney so exciting IMO... especially as a student!! Of course there is always gonna be the small group of fans that try to ruin it for the whole school. As I was walking to the parking deck after the game there were two SIU students who were shouting "F*** Bradley" to our faces. I laughed because I was not about to let two Drunken idiots ruin it for the whole Saluki fanbase, I just turned around and replied with a "Really classy". Besides I know that with my Bradley degree, chances are i'm gonna go way further in life than any Southern student!! HAHA, Just joking.
 
I sat with some SIU fans Saturday. Obviously, you can't judge all of their fans by such a limited experience. But they were very nice, and also admitted they were lucky to beat Bradley. I think they expected it to be easy, but admitted Bradley should have won.

I don't understand why they have trouble drawing fans in Carbondale. They average 7743 fans per game at home, but there had to be that many just at the Scottrade Center Saturday.
A couple hours before the game, there was a long line of cars backed up onto the I-64/55 offramp from SIU fans pouring into the city from Illinois. It's great to see such incredible fan support for them, but I wonder, where were they all year?
 
I don't believe SIU's Arena is all that big is it? It didn't look to big on TV elr in the season. Probably why they've won so many games in that building the last few years. Smaller building with 8000 fans probably sounds like a rock concert when SIU is doing good.

Jason
 
yeah we were cheering w/ my BU alums in the bar after a will franklin or z andrews dunk, and i hear the comment of some siu fans.... "it only counts for two!" (alot of sense in that, i couldn't been a smart a$$ but didn't respond directly to them)so that became the joke amongst my buddies ...
 
jasonpeoria911 said:
I don't believe SIU's Arena is all that big is it? It didn't look to big on TV elr in the season. Probably why they've won so many games in that building the last few years. Smaller building with 8000 fans probably sounds like a rock concert when SIU is doing good.

Jason
Click to expand...

The official capacity of the SIU Arena is 9,628, though they have had several larger standing-room only crowds as large as 10,300.

http://siusalukis.cstv.com/facilities/facilities-arena.html (see last 2 paragraphs)
 
I understand where you're coming from, Coach, but you have to remember that Carbondale only has a population of about 20,000 and there aren't that many big towns in the surrounding area. Also, I'm sure a lot of SIU alums don't stay in the Carbondale area after they graduate. It's too bad they don't sell out every game (because the team is good enough that they should), but 7500/night in a town like Carbondale is still pretty impressive.

And to play devil's advocate, you could argue BU should sell out every game because it has a richer history, larger fanbase and larger population to draw from. IMO, if averaging 7500 in Carbondale isn't that impressive, then any game around 9000 in Peoria is about the same, regardless of who BU is playing.
 
Scouter said:
I understand where you're coming from, Coach, but you have to remember that Carbondale only has a population of about 20,000 and there aren't that many big towns in the surrounding area. Also, I'm sure a lot of SIU alums don't stay in the Carbondale area after they graduate. It's too bad they don't sell out every game (because the team is good enough that they should), but 7500/night in a town like Carbondale is still pretty impressive.

And to play devil's advocate, you could argue BU should sell out every game because it has a richer history, larger fanbase and larger population to draw from. IMO, if averaging 7500 in Carbondale isn't that impressive, then any game around 9000 in Peoria is about the same, regardless of who BU is playing.
Click to expand...

Are you kidding? If Bradley was coming off 6 straight NCAAs and MVC titles, we'd sell out before the season even started....
 
Mikovio said:
Are you kidding? If Bradley was coming off 6 straight NCAAs and MVC titles, we'd sell out before the season even started....
Click to expand...

a) I hope we have that problem someday.

b) I did say they should sell out every game because the program is that good.

IMO the only thing preventing that is a 9000-seat arena in a town of 20,000 people. Do you really expect half the town to show up for every game?

While we're on the subject, how big will SIU's new facility be?
 
Scouter said:
Mikovio said:
Are you kidding? If Bradley was coming off 6 straight NCAAs and MVC titles, we'd sell out before the season even started....
Click to expand...

a) I hope we have that problem someday.

b) I did say they should sell out every game because the program is that good.

IMO the only thing preventing that is a 9000-seat arena in a town of 20,000 people. Do you really expect half the town to show up for every game?

While we're on the subject, how big will SIU's new facility be?
Click to expand...

The town has 20,000, but there are 16,500 students I think... so really your population is more like 36,500... Not sure how populous the surrounding area is (guessing it isn't very much so) So we're still talking like a 1/4 of the population to be at a game, which would be a challenge.
 
But the point made is quite valid...

If they can draw 7-8,000 all the way to St. Louis to see a tournament game, then why can't they sell more than 4-5,000 season tickets, and some of their home games draw only 6200!!

As said above, If Bradley had the kind of success with 6 consecutive NCAA seasons, what would the press be saying if the attendance was only a little over 6000 for some hoime games?

Even one home conference game (1/15/07) drew only 6500.
The excuses I have heard so far are a little lame.
 
My guess is that a lot of the people weren't from C-dale, but were alums or other fans in the St. Louis-metro area.
 
I think a lot of SIU grads live in and around the St. Louis area which explains the large contigent of SIU fans at the tourney. It would be hard to drive 2 hours back to Carbondale from St. Louis on 2 lane roads for every game.
 
I saw huge number of cars streaming off the Interstate from Illinois, with Illinois license plates and people wearing SIU gear. I couldn't tell, of course, how far they'd come, but they weren't from St. Louis, they were from Illinois.
And the campus of SIU has a total enrollment of close to 20,000 students.
http://news.siu.edu/news/September05/090705sd5039.jsp

It's not like there are many other Division I schools in the area to compete with, there are none (St. Louis U. is 2 hours away and not really much of a competetor for fan support in Carbondale's area). Even U of Illinois is not big down there, there may be more Missou fans. And there are few other sports or entertainment options this time of year to compete with.
They should be able to fill a 9600 seat arena easily. It is still a mystery why they can do it for some games, but have a half empty arena for others.
 
a group of us were followed out of the stadium by a couple drunk siu fans. we had to walk all the way to the arch practically to our car and they kept telling us that we should have Buescher as our head coach instead of assistant. they were pretty convinced that because Buescher had won state as a high school coach, he deserved to be our head coach at bradley. i don't think they understood that having livingston and ruffin on a high school team together automatically wins state regardless of coaching staff. They wanted Les fired and Buescher put in because then "we would surely be in the top 15 teams in the nation every year".
 
Majik45 said:
I think a lot of SIU grads live in and around the St. Louis area which explains the large contigent of SIU fans at the tourney. It would be hard to drive 2 hours back to Carbondale from St. Louis on 2 lane roads for every game.
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No excuse! If driving 2 1/2 hours in traffic on I55 and then driving home the same night is possible, then they can do it to.
 
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