As someone who has been in SFC a lot this year, and was present for the Wisconsin Game, the crowd WANTED to be in it. There were some AMAZING moments (like when Ben hit the three at the end)
But anytime we had momentum 1 of three things happened:
1: Wis hit a three (and drained all the energy with it
2: Mirk Turnover
3: missed Free throw.
As someone in the stands, I couldn't sustain the energy when we presented a C game to watch
I'm going to start out by saying I really appreciate the earnestness of your response. I feel this is the closest I've come to identify what is actually going on this year. And I feel you are probably the most uniquely qualified on here to give us your opinions on how to turn things around so do not take anything I'm saying as a slight.
What you're saying validates what everyone is saying. If a fanbase can't get into a game where an opponent does anything positive or when your team doesn't play an A+ game, routing an opponent by 50pts, or when a team is Top 10 in the country with national championship aspirations, or when it's a 1 possession game late and you desperately need a stop, then yeah, that's indeed the problem.
I mean logically, a team doesn't need a fanbase's support when they're playing well and blowing an opponent out. A team does need support in close games and key moments. So if fans don't have energy to do the latter, what's the point? And by the way, it's not like our fans were going crazy when we were blowing teams out at home either.
And listen, I'm not saying you're not a "real" fan. In fact I think you're very representative of the fans who are going to the games. But it does verify the narrative that the fans aren't going to the games to support the team or affect the game, it's solely to be entertained and see the team win. Like going to a concert and sitting there stoically and silently, politely clapping after each song and then standing up briefly cheering for an encore only if the musician gave what you deem to be a truly exceptional performance. It doesn't make you any less of a fan, but it does make for a much different experience than most of us have had.
I guess the question for you is do you believe that Illinois could do anything that isn't strictly on court performance that could get people out of their seats and energized over the course of a game? Because that I think is what we're all trying to ascertain, and quite frankly I think you might be one of the few people on here to be able to answer that. Is there anything that can be done?
