Purdue is only a relative marquee opponent in Indiana and the Big 10. Most folks in the country don't know what state Purdue is in. I doubt they are viewed any different than Alabama in basketball as an opponent when they come to town.
I think most of the basketball support revolves around the pro teams in Texas. The pro teams in Texas have 8 titles led by the spurs with 5 in the last 25 or so years.
Kind of surprising UT drew over 10k with the Cowboys-Eagles on TV. Still, college basketball is fine in the state even with football being king in Texas. The Horns average 10k plus to their games which is in the top 40. I think the new arena will be more along the lines of 10-12k. IMO, that will create a great atmosphere for the basketball team much like the volleyball team has going in the old gym which holds around 5-7K or the baseball team has going in the Disch. Hopefully the V-Ball team moves to the bigger arena. They can certainly draw more fans.
What’s amazing to me is so many of us are commenting on our cousins up North. Why don’t we enjoy the resurgence of our program and put them on ignore? By the way, we are 5 points from being 5-5 with two of those being at home. Let’s focus on us.
So what winning margin does a team need to attain before fans can view a victory as a true victory? 10, 12, 20?
And as a follow up, what do we as fans need to focus on to make a difference on the oncourt product, that badmouthing Purdue is preventing us from doing?
