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Largest RU Crowd Ever for a Rutgers Basketball Game?

The crazy stat is we haven’t played on CBS since 1991 ! Really sad because that’s the premiere college basketball network. It’s not like they never showed BIG or Big East games
 
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Went to games late 70's against UNC at MSG - which thought was a sell-out; and Holiday Festival game against Ohio St. so maybe 19,500 for both.
The OSU game might have been the most exciting game, or gut wrenching game I have seen
And I have seen all the ones we list
There was a big crowd
 
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I'm sure there will be a significant # of MSU fans. Yes, it willl be a RU crowd (maybe 4 to 1 [?] and if it's a dogfight neutral hoops fans will pull for RU. I'd guess that at the RAC percentageswould be more like 10 to 1.

A "home court" advantage doesn' only ride on who fans are rooting for. MSG is not our home court. We will have no shooters' advantage.

Whatever chance you think we'd have of winning at the RAC (20%?) is cut in half at MSG.
Cannot say that this year. We did not decapitate the cupcakes early with no real blowouts. We lost to Wisconsin at least partially because of Dylan ‘s health and lost to Purdue partially due to Dylan’s health. The other part is the atrocious supporting cast. The RAC is not the same intimidating place it was 3-5 years ago. We lost a lot of games last year down the stretch and granted our team was terrible and could not shoot but the RAC couldn’t save us. The vibe is not the same.
Our neutral site games , Vegas , and even Prudential against Princeton we played really well enough offensively to win but the defense or lack thereof or defense rebounding allowing second chance points doomed us. The team seems to get up and play better offensively , shot making , etc. So I expect a good offensive performance at MSG , which we have hardly seen at the RAC this year. Can they straighten out the negatives and pull out the victory ? A sold out or mostly 12,000 plus Rutgers crowd at MSG this year gives us an equal chance to win as compared to the RAC . Until the RAC returns to the level where we are not losing any games there or going 16-1 , then it is not the same as before .
 
The last game at MSG vs Mich St was decidedly a home game. A lot more RU fans than the RAC can hold that was loud with energy. I can't understand the logic of some of those that can possibly think this is a negative. Home court advantage- check, larger crowd than the RAC - check, most famous arena - check, NYC - check, nationally televised Saturday afternoon game with no football - check, a national audience - check. Unbelievable the cup half empty view here.
 
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This conversation every year kills me. Can we just pin the below and be done with it.

1. The RAC is a better home-court advantage than MSG - full-stop. However, MSG still provides a nice homecourt advantage and is a cool experience for some fans and the players
2. It is frustrating that we have to give up a conference home game for this, particularly given most/all other Big ten teams do not do this. In the future, we should strive to make it a OOC game. However, given point 1 above, it being a BIG home game is not the end of the world given MSG provides a nice homecourt advantage and is a cool experience for some fans and the players.
 
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This conversation every year kills me. Can we just pin the below and be done with it.

1. The RAC is a better home-court advantage than MSG - full-stop. However, MSG still provides a nice homecourt advantage and is a cool experience for some fans and the players
2. It is frustrating that we have to give up a conference home game for this, particularly given most/all other Big ten teams do not do this. In the future, we should strive to make it a OOC game. However, given point 1 above, it being a BIG home game is not the end of the world given MSG provides a nice homecourt advantage and is a cool experience for some fans and the players.
Villanova regularly plays the better Big East teams at Wells Fargo. It's still a Nova home game with a home court advantage.
 
Villanova regularly plays the better Big East teams at Wells Fargo. It's still a Nova home game with a home court advantage.

Yes but they have basically 100% control of everything that happens at Wells Fargo.

It’s essentially their home court and I believe they have full control of tickets. They can also accommodate almost 13-14K more of their fans when they play at Wells vs. the Pavillion. Their entire student section sits behind the basket.

This is not the same as when we play at MSG.
 
Yes but they have basically 100% control of everything that happens at Wells Fargo.

It’s essentially their home court and I believe they have full control of tickets. They can also accommodate almost 13-14K more of their fans when they play at Wells vs. the Pavillion. Their entire student section sits behind the basket.

This is not the same as when we play at MSG.
I fail to see a meaningful difference. Focus on the big picture. The ratio of RU fans to Mich St fans will be significant.
 
Yes but they have basically 100% control of everything that happens at Wells Fargo.

It’s essentially their home court and I believe they have full control of tickets. They can also accommodate almost 13-14K more of their fans when they play at Wells vs. the Pavillion. Their entire student section sits behind the basket.

This is not the same as when we play at MSG.
RU has full control of the tix and arena at MSG this year. Scoreboard will focus on everything RU-related... no MSU pep band or cheerleaders... PA announcer will be much more enthusiastic when Rutgers scores, etc.
 
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RU has full control of the tix and arena at MSG this year. Scoreboard will focus on everything RU-related... no MSU pep band or cheerleaders... PA announcer will be much more enthusiastic when Rutgers scores, etc.

While it seems we have much more control at MSG, it’s still not the same as when Villanova plays 1/3rd + of their games at Wells Fargo.

- Will we have thousands of students sitting behind the basket in a student section?
- Did all Rutgers fans have an opportunity to buy tickets before MSU fans (only season ticket holders got an exclusive offer I believe)
- Will the court have our logo?

Regardless it’s still completely dumb to give up a conference game to play there. We could easily play a big named out of conference opponent at MSG.
 
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Villanova and St. john's do.
Big Ten and the other big time power conferences.

Big East tad different as small arenas and city schools, see SHU and GT ….

UConn probably more akin to RU than Nova or St. John’s. But at this stage in our development, home court advantage far more important for RU than it is for UConn.
And lotta UConn fans don’t like it either.

See also UConn football.
We don’t play games at Met Life, do we?

St. John’s and Nova has been doing it forever.
And far closer to their campuses than RU to MSG.
 
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Jerry forgot about

March 1976 ECAC championship game with St. John’s

February 1978 game in the garden with UNC (Saturday afternoon doubleheader ) …nearly sold out

December 1978 ECAC holiday festival at the garden that we won beating St. John’s and Ohio state ..both gsmes sold out and duke lost twice 😃

The December 1981 game with UNC was also a big crowd. We were 5-1 and played against sone frosh names Jordan …his first game in the garden

But those did have split crowds
"February 1978 game in the garden with UNC (Saturday afternoon doubleheader ) …nearly sold out"

The interest in that game was enormous. Walking back to the bus terminal after the game, I was stopped multiple times by people asking me who won? Sadly, North Carolina ran us off the court in the first few minutes, and we were never close.
 
Both seem to be enjoying the college experience. They and a couple of other MBB players are at many WBB games. I think I read that Harper made the Dean’s list for the fall semester. These guys love RU!
And it certainly has not hurt their draft prospects.

We should all enjoy watching two future NBA all stars even if the wins we were hoping for might not happen.
 
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