Attendance kind of reminds one of football, right . . .I'm not going to pretend like I've been following MBB, but I have watched some. Namely, Harvard, Tech and a little of Samford. So you guys can take this as an outside view.
First, M$M standing his ground is good to see. I think we see the same thing in terms of what kind of potential this roster has. Lewis is the missing ingredient this program has missed for a long time. Someone compared him to B Hamilton. I think that's pretty accurate. PG play has been much better than the previous few years. If Dalcourt and Garnett continue to make shots, this team should really never struggle to score points. They have all of the pieces in place.
I don't think it's fair to expect much out of Julien. I have no idea what he will provide this team with other than toughness and leadership. If he can contribute on the court, that's just an added bonus. Seems like a good dude, so I hope he gets the best out of his physical gifts for the rest of his eligibility.
The critics are right in that we still lack quality wins on the ledger. If you're going to argue Harvard (they just beat Clemson last week), I'll raise you Drake, who just got their doors blown off by a sub .500 Richmond team. The critics are also right in saying there weren't 2600 in the dome for an 8-1 team against Samford on a Saturday night. 2600 is tickets sold and half of those tickets are purchased by the Social Club. (Y'all can get mad at me if you want, but that's a fact.) There may have been 1500 for LaTech. Apathy has set in and winning isn't fixing it. It's no secret why that may be. You can say all you want about Marlin and his "accomplishments" but the fanbase quit on the man 4 years ago.
This 2022 roster is good enough to win the league. But 2017 was good enough to make an NCAA run and we couldn't get to the conference tourney final. I don't want to hear about Stove's belly ache or Gant's sniffles. That roster was loaded and the SBC was WAY down that year. I can't really blame fans for rolling their eyes about the "hype" so far this season. This is what happens when you pump a fanbase full of propaganda and never deliver. We're a victim of our own BS.