It’s no secret that student support for Penn basketball is depressingly low. As the team’s performance has declined, so has student attendance at games.
Every year since my freshman year (and presumably even before then), The Line — the annual event in which students receive season tickets — has declined in participation and enthusiasm.
This year, the revamped Red & Blue Crew resolved to fix this growing problem. But in actuality, the problem is too great for it to solve, even with the support its leaders have received from the Athletic Department.
One group of students and staff, however, can help change this: the basketball team and coaches. Friday night at The Line, players and coaches reached out to students in a much stronger manner than in recent years. Not only did they make an appearance, but a number of players stuck around and interacted with the fans late into the night, participating in nearly every organized activity.
In past years, team appearances have been limited to little more than player introductions. This year, on the other hand, coach Glen Miller got the festivities started off cordially, and players stuck around well past their intros.
In the greatest example of outreach, Miller shocked everyone when he upped the ante for the night’s burrito-eating contest. He said that four members of the team would be participating, and if anyone beat them, they would win four tickets behind the bench to the team’s games at Davidson on Dec. 28 and at Duke on New Year’s Eve, along with transportation on the team bus and the opportunity to participate in the squad’s pregame shootaround.
As it turns out, freshman forward Brian Fitzpatrick is no Kobayashi, and his slow start doomed the hoops team, which also consisted of juniors Tyler Bernardini, Conor Turley and Jack Eggleston. Miller congratulated the winning team — consisting of three freshmen and a junior — and assured them that the prizes were sincere.
Later the players and coaches stuck around, talking to fans and shooting hoops. Particularly notable was Sean Mullan, whose Harry Potter-esque looks and Australian accent drew the attention of multiple female Line participants.
Though many of the players cleared out after that — it was, after all, 9:45 on a Friday night — Miller kept talking to fans, and sophomore point guard Zack Rosen could be spotted riding around on an electric scooter. He and sophomore forward Mike Howlett stuck around until nearly midnight, even participating in the annual dodgeball tournament. Their Swag Team All-Stars lost in the finals due to some questionable calls.
“I just want to come out, thank them, say hi to people, let them know that we also care about them, that it’s a two-way lovefest right now,” Howlett said. “I’m just really appreciative that they all come out, and I just want to talk to people, see how they’re doing and just be a fan for them.”
And though Howlett and Rosen departed after the tournament, Miller later returned to the Palestra — he joked that he was going to Smokey Joe’s, but whether he actually went is unconfirmed — to talk to a few fans before heading home.
This bonding with the fans, more than any marketing efforts, will bring students out on game day.
“You look at why people go out to any student events on campus … and they want to come out because they know these people,” said Wharton junior Sam Sargent, who emceed the night’s events and is one of the leaders of the Red & Blue Crew. “I think if we really have more interaction with the players, fans are going to be much more excited about coming out to the games.”
Such effort will undoubtedly reap rewards for the team. After recent struggles, fans know that going to the Palestra no longer guarantees a happy evening culminating in a Penn victory. So if the players cannot be idolized for their ability to consistently bring in Ivy championships, then the next-best approach is the opposite — humanizing them.
Apart from their incredibly demanding extracurricular activity (and a few inches), Penn basketball players really aren’t that different from the average Penn student. They can connect with the fans at a personal level in a way that teams at major programs can’t. And Sargent is right; fans will be more likely to show up to games and support the team if they consider the players friends or acquaintances.
While increased participation in The Line wasn’t visibly apparent Saturday night, I feel comfortable saying that more people feel intimately connected with the basketball program than last year.
“If everybody here views themselves as a community and gets excited about seeing their friends they met at The Line and at Penn basketball games,” Sargent said, “they’re going to be more apt to come out and participate in the cheers and help us with the rollouts and help us with the in-game stunts we want to do.”
And the consensus that I could gather was that in this respect, the Red & Blue Crew succeeded. However, without the outreach from Miller and the team, this tradition would have continued to fizzle.
Neil Fanaroff is a senior economics major from Potomac, Md., and is former Design Editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian. He can be contacted at dpsports@dailypennsylvanian.com.
The Daily Pennsylvanian is an independent, student-run newspaper. Please consider making a donation to support the coverage that shapes the University. Your generosity ensures a future of strong journalism at Penn.
DonatePlease note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.
