Mahalo for supporting Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Enjoy this free story!
Sunday night’s frenetic finish to the University of Hawaii’s 70-69 victory over Utah Valley was the kind that, once upon a not-so-distant time, used to make things deafening inside the Stan Sheriff Center.
And this one had almost all the elements of another one.
Well, except for the crowd that is.
UH said there were 2,827 on hand, which, this year, constitutes a “crowd” in an arena that has sometimes been two-thirds to nearly three-quarters empty.
The fans, what there were of them, were loud in their numbers Sunday. But there just weren’t enough of them to raise the decibel levels to the kind of din you would expect for a team that is 7-2.
Yes, it is the holiday season with a lot of activities competing for fans’ attention and disposable income. But the paucity of folks in the stands is hardly the fault of the fans. Rather, you can lay this at the feet of the bottom-feeding home non-conference schedule that the NCAA, as of Monday, ranked 308th among 351 Division I teams for toughness.
Prior to Utah Valley’s appearance, the UH schedule was ranked 320th, which says a lot.
Not that this should come as a complete surprise when the schedule includes two Division II teams, Adams State and UH Hilo, plus the NCAA version of the Washington Generals, Prairie View (2-9) and Arkansas Pine Bluff (0-12). And, we’ve still got 2-10 Howard to look forward to come Dec. 29.
The problem with Utah Valley, which was a capable opponent, is the Wolverines are a Johnny-come-lately to Division I and are largely unknown outside of Utah and the Western Athletic Conference.
With Adams State drawing 2,378 and the Vulcans luring 2,387 on top of 2,715 for Prairie View, is it any wonder UH is averaging a meager 3,015 through the turnstiles?
The loss to Nevada (9-2), the most credible of the home opponents to date, brought out the biggest crowd, 4,579, before the Diamond Head Classic, in which UH opens against sixth-ranked and unbeaten Miami (9-0) Friday night.
But, if you are UH, the problem with waiting to play the bulk of your marquee competition in the Diamond Head Classic is that UH doesn’t keep the gate receipts from the tournament. The ticket revenue goes to ESPN Events, the owner and operator of the event. UH gets what has been a $50,000 fee under the terms of its agreement with ESPN but the rest of the ticket revenue for the three-day event goes back to corporate.
This isn’t to say the ’Bows have to bite off the kind of schedule that some of their more money-desperate Big West brethren, such as Long Beach State, play.
The 49ers toned down their schedule to play “only” the 29th toughest schedule in the NCAA to this point. And, they still wound up with Michigan State, West Virginia, Stanford, Arizona, Missouri and Nebraska, using the money to help pay the salary of their head coach and bills elsewhere in the athletic program.
UH has had the luxury of not having to resort to that. Though if the ’Bows don’t draw better at the box office you could see where they will have to start playing more than one paycheck game a year.
It is almost New Year’s resolution time and, for UH, that needs to mean swearing off the propensity for playing a schedule heavy on pushover and Whodaguys opponents in order to entice the fans back.
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.
83