Back in the day...Our 1969-70 season was similar to this one, following several seasons short of national recognition. We were ecomeing a more seasoned team and Rich Yunkus was in his junior year. Attendance was slow as normal for our position in the deep south football world. I pulled together an attachment of attendance figures. We started the year with a home game against Virginia, with 1,873 attending to see our 72-59 victory. We ended our regular season, after receiving an invite to the NCAA and NIT tournaments, at home to #2 ranked Jacksonville with an 86-81 loss, witnessed by then a new Alexander Memorial Coliseum attendance record of 7,759. We had to earn the fans back by performing well on the court, resulting in our acceptance to the NIT in Madison Square Garden. I noted in my attachment that the home crowd averaged about half of the road attendance overall, 3,708 to 7,173. Being an independent, we had to play good teams from all over the country to get noticed and draw a crowd. We played 13 games against AP top-30 ranked teams, including #1 and #2 of top 10 teams and beating the #5, #9, and #10 teams. We played 9 games against current ACC teams, going 7-2. Playing what may be seen today as a boring style of basketball, with no dunking, no 30 second clock, and no three-point shots. We ran shuffle style offenses with set plays to get someone open, mainly center Rich Yunkus, who still holds the school scoring record done in three years with no three pointers. He beat every center he played, including FSU's Dave Cowens, UCLA's Steve Patterson, and Jacksonville's Artis Gilmore. Rich averaged over 30 points per game and 12 rebounds, shooting 56% from the field and 85% from the line. The attendance increases Rich's senior year, also shown below, withus being again invited to both post season tournaments and choosing theNIT, finisishing runner up to UNC. This year's team looks like they have the ability to earn the fans back with their performance. And the fans will be interested in seeing that. After all, last nights Georgia Southern game's attendance was well ahead of Coach Cremins' first game attended by 1,904 fans. And he did ok in the long run.