Welcome to The Holy Land of Hoops

The Big East is providing some of THE most exciting/entertaining hoops action since the start of the NBE. Oddly, this site has not reciprocated with the equal passion of the past. I'm guessing the dismal season on display in Philly has a lot to do with it.

Hindsight tells be that this sight derives most of it's energy from the Nova contingent here...and, as human nature goes, folks tend to be more "chatty" in general while sitting on a high perch and losing tends to snuff sanctimonious interaction. That likely explains Gumby's 25 day absence, Chap is feeling far less chipper and you can't find Chest with a search warrant.

HOWEVER, this place is noticeably lifeless without ol' Gtmo....nothing posted since December 2nd. Any info would be greatly appreciated Omaha.

I’ve noticed that our CU message board has quite a bit less daily banter than it used to as well. Not sure why.

As far as gtmo goes, I know that he has posted on Twitter a couple of times here and there. His absence is missed for sure.

Xuperman wrote:The Big East is providing some of THE most exciting/entertaining hoops action since the start of the NBE. Oddly, this site has not reciprocated with the equal passion of the past. I'm guessing the dismal season on display in Philly has a lot to do with it.

Hindsight tells be that this sight derives most of it's energy from the Nova contingent here...and, as human nature goes, folks tend to be more "chatty" in general while sitting on a high perch and losing tends to snuff sanctimonious interaction. That likely explains Gumby's 25 day absence, Chap is feeling far less chipper and you can't find Chest with a search warrant.

HOWEVER, this place is noticeably lifeless without ol' Gtmo....nothing posted since December 2nd. Any info would be greatly appreciated Omaha.

Yup, less chipper for sure, lol! Had some stuff going on too Xup, but all good now. Go Cats!

BTW, I visited the X board a bit ago. The excitement is fun to see, Boum has had such a dramatic influence on the team. Good guard play down the stretch is so needed to make Arun, I think you got that this year.

Speaking of good guard play our guy that was too small, slow and unathletic to be drafted in the first round after 2 NCs and national POY, is doing pretty good right now in the league. Nova is retiring Jalen Brunson's number on 2/8 at the DePaul game. Man, I miss him!

I am worried about GTMO. Haven't heard a peep and sent him an email too. He mentioned some health issues a while back, sure hope he shows up / surfaces again.

It is really weird. Normally this place is going great this time of year, especially with the fantastic results of the last month or so. But doesn't seem to be the case at all.

I know for me, not sure why, but not quite as much into college hoops this year compared to the past. I wonder if others are feeling the same?

stever20 wrote:It is really weird. Normally this place is going great this time of year, especially with the fantastic results of the last month or so. But doesn't seem to be the case at all.

I know for me, not sure why, but not quite as much into college hoops this year compared to the past. I wonder if others are feeling the same?

Seems like X fans are more engaged this year. What changed?

Creighton fans are still shell-shocked from the 6-game losing streak. Omaha1 is carrying the load for us. I agree with Chap's concerns for Gtmo. At first it seemed like he had sunk into a deep malaise over the December losses, but now I'm worried about our lovable, crazy Git.

stever20 wrote:It is really weird. Normally this place is going great this time of year, especially with the fantastic results of the last month or so. But doesn't seem to be the case at all.

I know for me, not sure why, but not quite as much into college hoops this year compared to the past. I wonder if others are feeling the same?

I wondered this and probably fall into that group. I feel like the world has changed some and many people have rearranged their priorities.

I've noticed this too. My thoughts:

Long-term issues:
1. Lack of site evolution. This site, while great, hasn't evolved at all since it was created 10 years ago. There still isn't a mobile version, "thumbs up" feature, and I need to log in every time I use it. Other message boards have evolved over the years but this hasn't. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate HLOH and know it must be a lot of work for the admins, but I do believe this is a reason we've seen a general decline for some time now.
2. The COVID reset. I've been to far fewer games post-COVID, though that is in large part due to our mediocre coach. Once people get out of a routine though (going to games), it's sometimes tough to go back. That's especially true for something non-essential like basketball.
3. HLOH branding. I've noticed that very few UConn fans joined, and part of that could be due to the religious website name. That said, I understand there may be copyright issues with using "Big East".
4. The rise of Twitter, Twitter Spaces, etc. For St. John's fans for instance, #sjubb is very active. Twitter Spaces after each game sometimes get 100+ people. Twitter is where personalities like our beat writer, AD, coach, players, Fanta, etc. are, so it's tough for message boards to compete.
5. Success. This league has won a national championship (2X) and continues to send a minimum of 4 teams per year dancing (even in a down year like this one). It has proven, in the current landscape at least, that it will be perfectly fine. Therefore, there is less demand for a conference-specific website. There's not much remaining for the conference to prove and for members to rally behind.

Short-term issues (this year):
1. Failures for individual teams. I don't believe St. John's has been mentioned yet, but there are far fewer St. John's fans posting this year. I can assure you, they are definitely active on #sjubb. The issue isn't the league, it's finding the right head coach for us. While 4 or 5 teams have had great starts to the season, the majority of teams this year simply aren't in the conversation to get a bid. That's quite different from the COVID-ended year for instance, where every fanbase still had hope this time of the year (though that kind of performance was an outlier and shouldn't be a realistic expectation for most years).
2. Awful year for potential expansion teams. We generally always have at least a few posters (often trolls) from potential expansion teams like Dayton, St. Louis, VCU, Gonzaga, etc. For obvious reasons Dayton fans aren't posting here this year. Even Gonzaga is down from their typical high.

Overall, add all of these together and you have a recipe for apathy. The season is essentially over for the majority of fan bases and there aren't any trolls to drive discussion. The site overall has unfortunately lost momentum, but I do think there's a lot of room for growth with some improvements.

adoraz wrote:I've noticed this too. My thoughts:

Long-term issues:
1. Lack of site evolution. This site, while great, hasn't evolved at all since it was created 10 years ago. There still isn't a mobile version, "thumbs up" feature, and I need to log in every time I use it. Other message boards have evolved over the years but this hasn't. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate HLOH and know it must be a lot of work for the admins, but I do believe this is a reason we've seen a general decline for some time now.
2. The COVID reset. I've been to far fewer games post-COVID, though that is in large part due to our mediocre coach. Once people get out of a routine though (going to games), it's sometimes tough to go back. That's especially true for something non-essential like basketball.
3. HLOH branding. I've noticed that very few UConn fans joined, and part of that could be due to the religious website name. That said, I understand there may be copyright issues with using "Big East".
4. The rise of Twitter, Twitter Spaces, etc. For St. John's fans for instance, #sjubb is very active. Twitter Spaces after each game sometimes get 100+ people. Twitter is where personalities like our beat writer, AD, coach, players, Fanta, etc. are, so it's tough for message boards to compete.
5. Success. This league has won a national championship (2X) and continues to send a minimum of 4 teams per year dancing (even in a down year like this one). It has proven, in the current landscape at least, that it will be perfectly fine. Therefore, there is less demand for a conference-specific website. There's not much remaining for the conference to prove and for members to rally behind.

Short-term issues (this year):
1. Failures for individual teams. I don't believe St. John's has been mentioned yet, but there are far fewer St. John's fans posting this year. I can assure you, they are definitely active on #sjubb. The issue isn't the league, it's finding the right head coach for us. While 4 or 5 teams have had great starts to the season, the majority of teams this year simply aren't in the conversation to get a bid. That's quite different from the COVID-ended year for instance, where every fanbase still had hope this time of the year (though that kind of performance was an outlier and shouldn't be a realistic expectation for most years).
2. Awful year for potential expansion teams. We generally always have at least a few posters (often trolls) from potential expansion teams like Dayton, St. Louis, VCU, Gonzaga, etc. For obvious reasons Dayton fans aren't posting here this year. Even Gonzaga is down from their typical high.

Overall, add all of these together and you have a recipe for apathy. The season is essentially over for the majority of fan bases and there aren't any trolls to drive discussion. The site overall has unfortunately lost momentum, but I do think there's a lot of room for growth with some improvements.

maybe I need to go back to how i used to be? lol. j/k

stever20 wrote:maybe I need to go back to how i used to be? lol. j/k

Where's that Stever GIF we all know and love?

jfan wrote:

stever20 wrote:maybe I need to go back to how i used to be? lol. j/k

Where's that Stever GIF we all know and love?

A classic.

How is the AAC doing anyway? I honestly have no idea.