B'Ball Ready for next year
Posted
#171165
(In Topic #30532)
Wise Owl
Member since 2003
By Ted Hutton
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Posted March 4 2006
JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. ? Coach Matt Doherty was performing a delicate balancing act Friday morning, less than 12 hours after the Owls' season came to a disappointing end.
At a team breakfast, he wrote "winners" on a board as he told his players they could hold their heads high despite Thursday night's 54-44 first-round loss to Stetson in the Atlantic Sun Conference tournament.
Then Doherty got on his cell phone and talked to St. Andrew's star and FAU recruit Xavier Perkins, who was getting ready to play in the 3A state championship game in Lakeland later Friday.
Next was a call to Tavarus Harris, a point guard for Palm Beach Community College, who also has committed to FAU and was getting ready to play in the state junior college tournament.
"The kids we have coming in are good players from winning programs," said Doherty, but at the same time he was looking to the future, Doherty said it he wanted the current players to appreciate what they had accomplished.
FAU was 15-13 and 14-6 in the A-Sun, the school's best conference record ever, and just the third time since moving to Division I in 1993 that the Owls had a winning record.
Doherty admitted he had some sleepless nights in the summer, when he was trying to figure out what he had gotten himself into by taking the coaching job in April.
"I had no idea what I had or who we were playing," said Doherty, who was hoping to at least win 11 games, which would have been an improvement over the 10-17 record of the previous season.
Despite a late start, Doherty was able to sign three eventual starters – juniors DeAndre Rice, Brent Crews and Kevin Green, along with freshmen Carlos Monroe, an A-Sun All-Freshman team selection, and Paul Graham. The team will be built around them next season, when FAU moves into the Sun Belt Conference.
"It's a step up," Doherty said. "It's a bigger, stronger, more athletic conference, but that's something we're excited about."
Athletic Director Craig Angelos said he was happy how the first season went with Doherty as coach.
"He elevated our program considerably. Attendance increased by more than 100 percent and our ticket revenues tripled," Angelos said. "We're looking forward to getting better."
Posted
Wise Owl
Member since 2003
B'Ball Ready for next year
Matt is doing Ok on the local front!
Posted
First Flight
Member since 2005
B'Ball Ready for next year
The A-Sun tourney was $15 a session with free parking. I considered it a bargain.
Posted
Wise Owl
Member since 2003
B'Ball Ready for next year
B'Ball Ready for next year
hoot4fau said
Let's see, now how does that work? Attendance double, but ticket revenue tripled. I can only assume that prices went up 50%. What does it cost to see an FAU basketball game? What did it cost?
The A-Sun tourney was $15 a session with free parking. I considered it a bargain.
I believe that the ticket prices were $10 for adults and $7 for kids. Doubling the attendance and tripling ticket revenue is possible when you consider students are free. So the number of paying customers may have tripled. For example if last year we had 500 people attending the games and 200 paying customers and this year we had 1000 people per game and 600 paying customers. The rest of the attendance could be made up of free students.
Posted
First Flight
Member since 2005
B'Ball Ready for next year
By the way they were pretty good. They had a cute little blonde point guard. I can't remember her name, but i had a class or two with her. 1986, maybe 87.
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Wise Owl
Member since 2007
B'Ball Ready for next year
FAU - THE REAL SLEEPING GIANT
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VIP DONOR
Member since 2005
B'Ball Ready for next year
Posted
Bytor
Member since 2004
B'Ball Ready for next year
The success Doherty had so far goes beyond the players, attendance, but the overall aspect of our program which should continue to grow, can we double our attendance next year - wouldn't that be nice.
Posted
Wise Owl
Member since 2003
B'Ball Ready for next year
As in football, the students are the key to attendance. I think a better goal for the program for next year is not just to double attendance again, but to double the number of students at the games.
Posted
First Flight
Member since 2006
B'Ball Ready for next year
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