Can we bring back the Magic please!
- Thread starter Cydog04
- Start date
Although I will agree it was dying, I do believe it was on life support until GMAC firmly pulled the plug and grabbed a pillow to make sure he finished the job.
I have to say I don't want to blame the fans either but we have to a little. Coach Hoiberg has to be extremely disappointed in the amount of open seats game in and game out. This is part of why the magic is not back YET and the recruits we want aren't here. Fill Hilton. What else is there to do when it is 30 below and snow everywhere. Come on fair weather fans. I have not missed a home game all year!!
At the risk of being ridiculed as an "old geezer" that remembers his time at ISU with heavy rose-colored glasses, I offer up the following...and please remember I was there before "it" had the name "Hilton Magic" (back when it really did exist):
+ No one person or group can be "in charge" of creating the "experience"...you can't create the magic...it just happens. In fact, it would appear that too many efforts have been made to manufacture this in recent years (the advent of Cyclone Alley, for example).
+ What on earth are you talking about..."do away with the family friendly atmosphere"? Back before "it" had the name "Hilton Magic", the students actually sat with the families and the grey-hairs. Frankly, lewd and obscene behavior was pretty much limited to the occassional "bull$hit" chant directed towards the officials...which many of the family heads and grey-hairs chimed in on. We always gave the five "friendly" claps as the opponent was announced (with no deragotory comments made toward any player or coach). But after that, we were hostile and loud towards our opponents, the opposing coach, and the officials (if need be)...without being lewd and obscene.
+ "Better songs at timeouts"? Back before "it" had the name "Hilton Magic", the only "songs" we heard were from our Pep Band during the timeouts...primarily the Fight Song...going into and coming out of the timeout with another tune or two in between if it was a longer timeout...maybe the "Hamms Beer" song, for example.
Excellent points, especially those excerpts — I'm probably in the geezer category by now.
Granted, Cyclone Alley and non-band timeout music became unavoidable CBB trends, so there's nothing "wrong" with any of it ... but thinking that changes to that formula misses the point, and seems to feed a myth I see frequently in the Bring Back the Magic threads:
To me, Hilton Magic (before and at least for some time after it was labeled as such) was generated from what happened on the court. Fans fed off of that, fueling the players, and the more it happened, the better it worked; that's when it would rattle the opposition, and the cycle continued.
The buzz could also grow from game-by-game & season-by-season success (and varied w/ the opponent in some cases), so it was the same principle, just personified.
It really wasn't the crowd "willing the team to win." The fan reaction (and the ensuing noise level) were simply an important ingredient. Trying to do it the other way around isn't the same thing.
(Note: I tried to Rep you, :smile: but apparently you were my most recent, so I couldn't do it again. :sad
It begins and ends with the students. CA is not the answer, enthusiasm shouldn't need to be rehearsed and an offer for a free tshirt shouldn't be the draw to the game. Like others have said, winning is the answer. Think about how old students were when we had a team worth a damn....8-12 years old maybe? Most may vaguely remember the Fizer/Tinsley years but other than that they have no real reason to get excited. When was the last game at Hilton that really actually any affect on postseason or a conference title? When you get students at the games for reasons other than the social aspect or a tshirt the magic will return, that's what Freddie is here for.
Can we please not use a UNC @ Duke game as an example of what our atmosphere should be every game? That is obviously Duke's Super Bowl. If you want to compare that to Iowa @ ISU or KU @ ISU okay, but not as the standard.
This. There hasn't even been any games in recent memory where we have beaten a ranked team at home. Not any. Once this starts again I'm not concerned about a lack of interest from fans. I JUST REALLY WANNA RUSH THE COURT!!
A few years ago there was talk of remodeling Hilton. They talked of making the inner concorse into boxes like we now have at JT. Moving the big donors into that area. This will also stop the people that leave early and stand in the concourse so they don't miss the end of the game in their seats. Then take the area with the folding chairs, where now we have the big donors, around the court and put students in them.
Student section is not in the right place it needs to be behind the opposing bench around the court not on the ends. Or mixed in with the crowd like it used to that was great. I am not sure the magic will ever return to be honest with you. I have been to games this year and the crowd is just most of the time not into it.....boring!!!