9358 average attendance for Walz Ball last year.
Why so high in on the outskirts of Ames, IA. you might ask? You have to understand the craziness for women's and girls basketball in Iowa. UofL Pep Band Director Al Greener (a transplanted Hawkeye) explained it to me a couple of years ago. Girls high school basketball in the state of Iowa is a religion. From Des Moines to the smallest of cities...the citizenship rolls out to watch the high school game. It is a social event. Main Street shops in rural communities close early so the owner and employees can attend games.
The Iowa State women's basketball coaches are no dummies...the 2015-16 roster has four former Iowa high school stars on it.
Equally high is was the Iowa Hawkeyes roster for 2014-15. (Lisa Bluder either hasn't released the 2015-16 roster yet...the Iowa WBB asst. SID is asleep on the job or I've lost my on-line search skills) They had three former Iowa high school girls basketball stars. Northern Iowa and Creighton draw well, too. The Iowa residents realize and support the fun and excitement of the game...on the high school and college level.
Only Iowa State has crashed the top 50 out of the four schools...but match those four schools mentioned above up against any other four schools from any other state and I'd wager the total attendance is higher in Iowa.
Tennessee...well, the Lady Vols are going to draw because of the Pat Summit legacy. It is interesting to note that the yearly attendance for Lady Vols Hoops has dropped since Pat stepped aside. With the recent transfers to UT and returning roster, the Vols looked poised to be a top 10 program in 2015-16. Fans still gripe about Holly Warlick.
It is hard to replace perfection. And, Pat does still attend home games.
So...would local attendance grow for Louisville if a few in-state girls were on this year's roster? The Cards in the Walz era have recruited well in-state. Let's not forget Sara Hammond, Nita Slaughter, Shelby Harper, Laura Terry and Candyce Bingham...just to name a few. Walz certainly hasn't ignored the Commonwealth of Kentucky since he had been here. He did go after the Lebanon duo of Epps and Goodin-Rogers. He would have loved to had Rebecca Greenwell and Erin Boley. He did have Gwen Rucker, Ashley Rainey and Janae Howard on board in the early days. Does anyone remember Monique Reid or Tia Gibbs? Point made, end of story on lack of local recruitment by the current regime.
Sometimes, you just have to go after the best players. How many Final Fours have Iowa or Iowa State been to in the last eight years? Or, for that matter...Kentucky WBB?
Louisville WBB outdrew the National Champs (UConn) in 2014-15.
You're going to love Sydney Brackemyer and her all-out, 110% hustle and enthusiasm now that she's healthy. We hear Arica Carter has been "reborn again" with the desire and commitment to show us the high-school version Jeff Walz fell in love with.
Yeah, we'll miss not having a Schimmel or two. That could change in a few years if younger sister Milan continues to tear up the New Mexico girls basketball scene. Will the Native American fan base diminish now...since #22 or #23 aren't on the roster? We hope not.
Getting from #3 to #1 in attendance? Quite frankly, it's up to you...the fan base. You have a top-flight facility to watch games. Reasonable season ticket prices. Out-of this-world competition and a highly competitive Conference.Best-in-class players and the best young coach and coaching staff in the college WBB domain.
I reflect on the past sometimes...
I remember going to games at local high schools to watch Louisville WBB. I remember when the women's played before the men's games...maybe 200-300 in cavernous Freedom Hall. When a student could get in by just flashing their student ID and sit at center court in section 335.
I look at today and just smile...my, what a long way Louisville WBB has come!
They fully believe they can bring Louisville women's basketball a National Championship. So does Walz and the coaching staff.
So do I.
Be there for it. Make the commitment and go to games.
For those interested in obtaining season tickets for the 2015-16 Louisville women's basketball campaign, please click here to fill out a wait-list application.
paulie
Shoni played 1 minute in the Dream's loss to Chicago. 1 minute. Did she get injured?
ReplyDeleteThey left the media buffet open until late in the fourth quarter
DeleteShe showed up at the DePaul campus by mistake but scored 32 points in a pickup game
ReplyDeleteI heard Doug Bruno offered her a scholarship.
Deletehear bruno offer yo mama a free ride and shake-em best ever to play at the ville
DeleteShe got an acute case of lackadefenseitis.
ReplyDeleteChicago traffic can be a real headache at times.
ReplyDeleteNick O
You know -- there are some really good movies on Cable TV sometimes. I cry at the end of Shawshank Redemption -- how about you?
ReplyDeleteok KIDS...Let's back off the Shoni bashing.
DeletePaulie
Morgan Freeman was the 5th Beatle. I have proof.
DeleteYoko Ono
Excellent entry today, Paulie. I would point out that, technically, Walz did not recruit Shelby Harper. But I get your point loud and clear.
ReplyDeleteTrue, Charlie. I get foggy on her sometimes. She was the point guard in the year after the first Final Four apperance. Never can seen to remember what year she was, tho,
DeleteGo Cards!
Paulie
I think he's referring more to the fact that she was a walk-on that wasn't recruited at all. Mo Reid was friends with her and encouraged her to try out for the team during open try-outs.
DeleteThat's where the story of her hurling into the trash-can came from. She was such a hard worker during the try-outs that she drove herself to that point. From the sounds of it, Walz was impressed by her work-ethic, if not necessarily her overall fitness at the time of the try-out. While she was in good shape, she wasn't up to the standards of a Walz player yet. That quickly changed thanks to that work ethic.
Most don't realize that Harper was a standout softball player at Allen County-Scottsburg. She had played with Mo on a AAU basketball team.
DeleteThe original Attack Yorkie.
Paulie
Nice post Paulie. In my opinion UL has the best national WBB program image, period. Should be UConn but folks hate them for winning too much!?!?! Shoni & Jude helped lock down the national footprint and primed the recruiting pump for the program. Walz and his staff have done the rest. Now we just have to win. I've never set foot in Kentucky but outside looking in it seems like UK has the high potential kids locked down for now. Full credit to Walz for hedging his bets and going national for talent. I hope he can get more Kentuckians but for now it is what it is. Full credit to the local ULWBB fans for supporting the program even without as much local talent as UK. As most of us know, in sports, winning fixes everything. We need to knock down a National Championship. I think we may have the kids to do it in a season or two. I'll take ULWBB for a NC before I'll take the Gov's crew.
ReplyDeleteNot very nice comments about Shoni but pretty original and humorous.
Like a lot of Shoni fans I'm bummed about how this year is going in ATL. That said for anyone that watched the NBA All Star Celebrity BB game it just isn't that surprising. She was way overweight for that game and pretty much did nothing but shoot every time she touched the ball. It was cute when she was a rookie and on a streak in the WNBA All Star game last year. It's not cute any more. Shoni is getting paid to play basketball now. It's her job to prepare and be ready to go. She has never been a lock down defender. She had to know she needed to improve in that area of her game. She regressed. Not good. Hope she can turn it around but it's on her to get going. I'm still a big fan but she needs to get it together.
Forgot to sign off on it. It's Burn.
DeletePractice? We talkin bout practice?
DeleteAllen Iverson
All true. The bottom line is that Shoni wants to play professional basketball. I hope the motivation is there to turn herself into a quality performer year in and year out. Michael Cooper is a defense-oriented guy. Those that guard effectively will play. He's got scorers galore.
ReplyDeletePaulie
LOL. Thought Michael Cooper snuck in a comment for us...:)
ReplyDeletePaulie
Ha. Didn't mean to come off too harsh but sometime the truth hurts. I think the world of both of the Schimmel kids so hopefully Shoni turns herself around. As you know its not the first time she's been through the lb thingy.
DeleteI'm thinking she needs her sister around...
In all honesty, when I saw that little Washington Mystics/ Princeton guard Blake Dietrick blowing past Shoni in the Atlanta Dream Classic in the KFC YUM! Center....I thought:
ReplyDeleteHouston, we have a problem.
Paulie
There you go. Burn
DeleteFYI Paulie
ReplyDeleteItalian club Azzurra Ceprini Orvieto has announced the signing of American guard Blake Dietrick for the upcoming season.
Dietrick has graduated from Princeton, where she averaged 15.1 points, 4.5 rebounds and 4.9 assists per game in her senior season. She got to try out with two WNBA teams during WNBA preseason – Washington Mystics and Los Angeles Sparks.
Orvieto finished twelfth in the fourteen team Italian top A1 league last season.
Nita, Tia and Monique definitely my three favorites. Really miss those girls. Maybe because they were here when I started following the ladies game.
ReplyDeleteGreat Crew. Understand that Nita and boyfriend are expecting their first baby. Congrats to them!
DeleteSpeaking of attendance I watched the end of winless WNBA San Antonio beating Phoenix last night online. Posted attendance in San Antonio was 1,738 fans!?!
ReplyDeleteLooked at the WNBA average attendance over the past fifteen games which has been 6,187. Compares pretty poorly to around 7,400 per game last year. Not a good sign for the W. Maybe they need to talk to the U of L promotion people to get some fresh ideas. They were averaging over 9,000 per game in the '90's...
Boy, under 2000 fans is a bad sign. There's nothing going on in San Antonio to compete with now either. I think Phoenix missing Griner and Taurisa is a killer for the WNBA.
DeleteOn a side note, my girl rookie Andrea Hoover (Dayton 3rd rounder) scored 17 tonight in Sparks loss in OT to Sun. I picked her to do well and it's fun seeing if you're on target or miss wildly with hunches on talent.
Shoni did not play tonight in Dream win vs Mystics. Coaches decision.
Hoover can ball. I didn't watch but should have. Gotta love it when kids from smaller programs do well. The Sparks are the only winless W squad now...
DeleteThe W is kinda at a tipping point now. Will be interesting to see how the rest of the season goes.