This isn't how forward Glenn Bryant, a senior, wants to end his basketball run at EMU -- winning at home in an almost empty arena during a post-season tournament.
So after only 373 spectators saw the Eagles beat Norfolk State 58-54 in Ypsilanti on Tuesday night, Bryant tweeted that Eastern Michigan has "the top 5 worst support in the NCAA," managing editor Bryan M. Vance posts at Hustle Belt, a Vox Media sports blog. (His post gains national exposure at Deadspin.)
Glenn Bryant, a senior, slaps fellow students for ""the top 5 worst support in the NCAA."
The Division I university, which plays in the Mid-America Conference, reached its first men's basketball tournament in 16 years -- though it's an obscure one, the CollegeInsider.com Tournament.
The win marked the Eagles first postseason victory in 18 years, and gave the team its 22nd victory, marking the best total since the 1995-96 season. . . .
A home postseason tournament game . . . hasn't happened at the Convocation Center (for the men's team) since well before the average student was in middle school, let alone roaming the EMU campus. . . .
The Eagles, which routinely rank among the bottom-tier teams in the nation in attendance, averaged 901 fans per home game when factoring in [Tuesday] night.
One reason, Vance notes in the comment thread under his post, is that EMU's Board of Regents in 1991 changed the nickname and mascot of athletic teams -- which had been called the Hurons, after a Native American tribe.
When EMU switched from Hurons to Eagles, is pissed a lot of folks off. Many of those people have never moved on. . . .
It’s time to grow up, put the pettiness away and start supporting theses teams, or it could wind up that someday the Eagles are nothing more than a relic of the past. A team long gone and all we have is a big community college.
Another blogger, Mark Maynard of Ypsilanti, notes that "tickets to the game were just $5 for students with valid EMU ID."
It’s criminal that only 373 from a campus community of close to 25,000 would turn out to cheer them on.
I’m not sure what the future holds for the Eagles, but . . . their next opponent will be determined tonight, and I suppose it’s conceivable that they’ll have another game this season at the Convention Center. And if they do, I say we fill the place to the fucking rafters!
