Sojka Pavilion (capacity 4,000)
Lewisburg, Pennsylvania
The Result: Northern Iowa 57, Bucknell 48
While the Bison led early and trailed by only four at the half, Northern Iowa proved too much for Bucknell, which mounted a number of comeback attempts, but fell short. Said Bison coach Pat Flannery, "We're still trying to find that spot at the end of the game where we develop consistency."
Venue Rating: B-
Facility: A-. Sojka Pavilion opened in 2003, and replaced the venerable Davis Gymnasium as the home of Bucknell basketball. With 4,000 seats, it still keeps everyone close to the action, and has a sharp color scheme and bison logo on the court. There are two large student bleacher sections behind each hoop. It’s a modern facility that manages to carry on much of the small-court spirit of Davis Gym.
Attendance (4,011): D. The box score may say there were 4,011 at Sojka Pavilion today, but I'm not buying it . There were many, many empty seats, most glaringly in the student sections.
My attendance ratings give some consideration to the home team's opponent. I cut Rhode Island some slack for their half-full arena when they played Iona on Tuesday. Conversely, I am taking Bucknell students and the Lewisburg community to task for only filling about 80% of the seats for a game against a high mid-major team. Not only that, but a team that beat us in a double-overtime thriller at their court 10 months ago. Worse, this is only the second and already the last home game for Bucknell before January.
Basketball Atmosphere: B. Pep bands, cheerleaders, a “Bucky Bison” mascot and a great student performance of the national anthem. If only the fans lived up to their potential.
Fan Face-Off: Bucknell Steals One
You may think there’s some “home cooking” going on here, but there isn’t. Truthfully, after observing this game and the Wake Forest's visit last month, I would prefer to give the honors to UNI, but can’t remember any meaningful activity by the few fans who came all the way from Cedar Falls, Iowa.
Why fire a shot across my own school’s bow? The non-students almost never stand or chant, and only about a third of the students put forth a full forty minutes of effort.
The Bucknell men’s soccer team is the heart and soul of the student fan population. Today, they originated almost every cheer, and used large signs to communicate which one would come next. It appeared all of the team stood behind the south basket. They would double their effectiveness by splitting up and sending half their forces to the north basket, where the student section left a lot to be desired. The north side has a critical role, since they are on defense in the second half. They would surely benefit from the soccer team’s leadership.
The fans do deserve praise for cheering the Bison on with class. The university recently implemented a “Bison Good Sports!” campaign to promote a positive atmosphere, and it appears to be highly effective. Today's favorite chants: a sloppy turnover prompted a chant of “fundamentals!” while a traveling violation sparked another of “you can’t do that!” When the students attacked the refs, they were pointed without being profane.
Best Mascot: Bison
No contest…the bison is a striking, noble beast and—as the largest mammal in North America—a majestic symbol of the United States of America.
Graduation Success Rate: Bucknell 100, UNI 22
Aside from the Ivy League’s forfeits, this is the biggest blow-out so far. While the NCAA calls every competitor a “student-athlete,” there’s no reason to roll your eyes when you use that term at Bucknell. It’s one of the aspects of Bucknell basketball that makes me so loyal to and enthusiastic about the program.
Shirts and Superstition
Most fans and athletes have at least one superstitious bone in their body, and I’m no exception. Earlier this year, I wore the same orange Bucknell t-shirt to Bucknell’s losses against Wake Forest, Penn State and Saint Joe’s. Enough was enough. For our game at Yale, I switched to a grey shirt with “Bucknell” across the front and an orange and blue “B” on the back. Sure enough, the Bison nabbed their first win of the season.
Today I wore a shirt that I consider an historic artifact. When Bucknell went to the NCAA tournament at the Ford Center in Oklahoma City in 2005, they did so without their own pep band. Quick-thinking Bucknell leaders arranged to pay the University of Northern Iowa’s pep band some pizza money to serve as our band.
Before Bucknell’s historic victory over Kansas, UNI played and lost to Wisconsin. Feeling very much outnumbered by the thousands of Jayhawks in Oklahoma City, I’ll never forget the feeling I had when I saw the UNI band hurriedly donning orange Bucknell t-shirts for our game. The t-shirt I wore today was from that same batch.
Historical significance aside, this shirt is now 1-2. It came through as I cheered on the Bison to an upset of Syracuse at the Carrier Dome last year, but not when I wore it at UNI in February or at Sojka today. When I mentioned its two-game skid to Forrest Chilton after the game, he said, “You know, I have a fireplace at my house…”
Spontaneous Invitation Yields Spontaneous Gift
Today’s highlight came late in the second half. As he had done frequently during the game, Forrest stood and screamed his encouragement to the Bucknell huddle. The south end students cheered him on, appreciating his passion and energy. Feeding on their encouragement, we held up our orange BISON banner and displayed it to both end zones and the fans behind us.
Seeing this, the soccer team started waving, beckoning us to join them in the end zone. They didn’t need to ask twice. We promptly relocated, drawing a huge cheer from the students. We stood on the bottom bleacher for the last three minutes of the game, bouncing, yelling and giving it our all with the students. As we thanked one of the students after the game, he said, “You’re welcome any time. You cheer better than half the students.”
When we encountered two of these students later in the afternoon, we asked if they would be attending tomorrow’s George Mason game. Todd Dowling said that, in the interest of fiscal responsibility, he didn’t feel comfortable with the BB&T Classic triple-header’s triple-size price.
Through over-planning on my part, Forrest and I ended up with two extra tickets for the Mason game. We were hoping to sell them and recover the cost or maybe more, but as Todd walked away, another idea struck me. “Forrest, we have those two extra tickets…”
He instantly understood, and nodded his approval. I ran after Todd and his friend, and offered them our tickets. “Your’s for free, just for the love of Bucknell and the game.” He gratefully accepted them.
Todd and his fellow students had made our day with their spontaneous invitation to join them in the student section. It just felt right to do something nice in return.
Life on the Road
Forrest took care of the driving today, giving me a much-needed break. I entertained him for the first hour by using the Bucknell basketball media guide to quiz him. “Who had the most personal fouls in a season?” (John Watson, 103) “What is Bucknell’s all-time winning percentage in in-season tournaments ? (.442)
Then I draped my orange sweatshirt over my head and dozed until we were a little south of Selinsgrove, Pa. I woke in time to once again enjoy a view of the gorgeous Susquehanna River, flowing slow and steady around heavily wooded islands.
My halftime interview with Bucknell radio sportscaster Doug Birdsong was a lot of fun. Since I live in San Antonio and watch or listen to most Bucknell games via bucknellbison.com, Birdsong—along with broadcast partners Doug Byerly and Mike Turpack—is an integral part of my Bucknell basketball life. Birdsong has a fun, often frantic approach to his broadcasts which echoes the pace and spirit of the sport itself.
Forrest’s driving gave me the luxury of writing this on the drive to Alexandria, Virginia. All week, I’ve been writing until 1 or 2 am after arriving at each night’s lodging. Tonight’s extra time yielded many extra words.
Total Miles To Date: 2,070
Next Game: In a sequence that says a lot about the scheduling challenges of mid-major teams like Bucknell, I’ll be with the Bison again as they play George Mason in the BB&T Classic at the Verizon Center in D.C. (Yes, I realize the District of Columbia is not a state, but “10 Games, 10 States, 10 Days” rolls off the tongue much better than “10 Games, 10 Sub-national Government Entities, 10 Days.”)
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2 comments:
The District of Columbia is a state of confusion.
One comment about the Sojka attendance. The actual number of seats, despite the 4000 figure that is generally published, is actually 4100 according to a source in the BU athletics department. Plus you have to factor in that there are always between 100 and 300 people who choose to stand behind the top seats on the side opposite the benches. Those standees are often adults who got tickets in the student areas and would rather not stand for the whole game in a mob of students. Plus there were maybe 50 tickets that were not used in the men's game that belonged to Marist women's fans. So if you do the math and assume 150 standees, that would mean 300 empty seats during the UNI game would equal a crowd of 4000.
Also I wrote a note to HoopTime today that you might find interesting about his piece on the empty seats and the lower-than-normal noise level - - - - -
A couple of comments on your piece about Bucknell students jumping off of the bandwagon. As an alum and the parent of a current student, I too would have liked to see more of a student presence at the UNI game. I think it is WAY too early to jump to your conclusion, however, given several of the reasons for the lower-than-normal attendance and noise:
1. Classes end tomorrow. Most students have term papers due today and tomorrow and amany have tests today and tomorrow. My daughter knows a number of students who spent Saturday doing the term papers they should have done weeks ago.
2. There were several fraternity formals and many other end-of-semester frat parties that went on into the early hours of Saturday morning. These events left a lot of tired, hung-over students. Had it been a 7 PM, I'm pretty sure that you would have had a larger, noisier crowd. This will not be an issue every game. Some would like Bison hoops to be the #1 priority at all times but that is never going to be the reality and it wasn't last year either.
3. The ticket distribution system, while much better than last year, causes students to pick up tickets that they may or may not use in situations like this, and doesn't make it easy to get the tickets into the hands of other students.
4. Also, while there were a lot of empty seats at the top of the student sections at tip-off, a good number of those seats filled up in the first few minutes. Ultimately there were a couple of hundred empty seats at the top, which were partially offset by the many standees behind the top seats on the press-row side. These are often non-students who end up with seats in the student sections but have no desire to stand the whole game in a mob of students. The tickets in the student sections actually are numbered but by general agreement no-one actually looks for the seat that is on their ticket. The number of standees at the top of the press-row side sometimes numbers as many as 300.
5. There were also some empty sideline seats a few rows up near the visitors' bench. Some of those seats were actually used by Marist women's fans who showed up for the second game of the doubleheader.
The true test of whether there has been any bandwagon jumping will come when the Bison face Lehigh at home on the night of January 23rd. If that game is not packed and loud, then I think we may conclude that a few fans have jumped off. Until then, I think it's too early to say.
One last thought. Even with the lower student attendance at the UNI game, it was still much higher than is drawn at any other PL school including Holy Cross, where they often only draw a few hundred students. Other than the Bucknell game last year, their student attendance was VERY low, even for a "home" game with BC where there was a huge number of empty seats.
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