Keeping Up With The Joneses
April 26, 2007 at 6:05am by Walking on Sunshine
Filed under Arkansas Razorbacks, Basketball
This is the second of a three-part series on the atmosphere of Razorback basketball games at Bud Walton Arena.
In this day and age, coaches are always trying to get an edge. Working harder…working smarter…technological advances in film study…state of the art weight and training facilities…and the list goes on and on. But as we described in part one of this series, one of the areas where we are failing our coach and players is in our game day experience at Bud Walton Arena. Time has passed by the individuals that currently ‘put on the show’…and the 18-year-olds have noticed.
You don’t realize how far behind we are until you see what others are doing. Music, video, computer animation, fireworks, and laser shows are everywhere…with the focus being to bring energy into the equation.
Most of the pre-game hype, of course, is centered around the buildup to the announcement of the starting lineup. Clicking on the school links below, you can see that the video presentations that precede the team intros are, in some instances, very elaborate. Some schools like Kentucky and Kansas choose to celebrate their past accomplishments by interweaving old footage of their championship past. Others like Alabama list their prior successes while focusing on their current stars.
It’s surprising to find some schools like North Carolina State and Marquette really do a great job in this area. Both have new venues in the RBC Center and Bradley Center, respectively, that they share with professional teams. That certainly helps in the presentation of their product.
Only where music, video, and computer animation meet do you find the best of the bunch. The early 90’s Chicago Bulls introduced stars Jordan and Pippen with pioneering use of computer animation. The Bulls now work with partner Luma Studios to refresh their animation every year (2005-06 version), with updated technology allowing for a better show.
The Dallas Mavericks take a back seat to no one in their pre-game hype, letting the sounds of “Eminence Front (Remix)” by The Who be the backdrop for their starting lineups. The Detroit Pistons, and their PA announcer ‘Mason,’ certainly make the top three among the sea of NBA intros.
But don’t misunderstand…we are not advocating making BWA, ‘NBA-like.’ But rather, an experience that takes the best from all worlds…college and pro.
In the end, all of these universities and professional venues make an effort to energize the fans. They make use of technology, music, and presentation in every way possible. We have all of the means to put on a show like this today…even complete with laser light technology. But instead, we wallow in the security of ‘doing the same old thing.’
In the final segment on Monday, we’ll offer a few suggestions that we feel could make the Bud Walton Arena experience the talk of college basketball once again.
Again, great post!
100% agree
Some of the commenters from the previous segment seem to know a lot of who makes these decisions. What can Joe Razorback Fan (me) actually do to help get some of these changes going? Do the fans actually have any voice in something like this? We want it – but it sounds like the people in control don’t want to make any effort to change the status quo.
If you have ideas on making these changes a reality by the time Pelphrey’s boys take the floor this winter, please let us know. Grass roots movements like this can make a change. Otherwise we are just a bunch of loud mouth complainers.
Razorback fans are a proud group. We want to bring back the fire the program had just yesterday. Let’s all commit a little time, a little effort and call those hogs all the way back into the national spotlight. Bud Walton Arena is a great facility.
GO HOGS GO!
oh – and that Wobbly Blow Up Razorback-thing scares me too! pull the plug on that animal.
……..and, put a team on the floor.
ALL GREAT IDEAS, don’t get me wrong, but 10 years of no recruiting and poor coaching is what has killed this program.
Everyone has taken so many hits it doesn’t seem fair to pick on Frank or Nolan or Stan anymore but, we failed miserably at capitalizing on our success. That is a great opportunity wasted.
Nice to see Kentucky stole their song from the 76ers and that NC State stole theirs from the Bulls… but whatever.
A special thanks to 10KHog for providing the great picture of Boss Hog and the Fire Truck that appears in the story. That Fire Truck really works the crowd up into a frenzy.
Proud – There are various UofA web sites that have contact information for some of those that put on the current show. If you feel strongly, I would voice your opinion.
http://www.razorbackspiritsquads.net/contact.html
http://bands.uark.edu/
Sunshine.
The fact 10KHog actually had a picture of Boss Hog and the Fire Truck scares me. Something is desperately wrong with that guy.
There have been a lot of people who have commented that the football game day and RRS also need an upgrade. Can you imagine if they played something like this before the game:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIcX0N35Fzg
Now…I realize that’s really a commercial for a movie. But still…it shows that there’s a lot more we could be doing with the resources (i.e. Pig Screen) that we already have at our disposal.
I don’t know if you’ve seen it but the Lady Razorbacks’ starting lineup is introduced via a video presentation out of a brief highlight package that is pretty cool. It was definately much better than what the men did.
Thanks for putting my picture on the site. Yes that’s me depressed on the megaphone in Spokane, WA. Some of your arguments are valid but remember the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. The best thing for BWA (as a student and a fan) would be to relocate the student section to something like what the Cameron Crazies have. What would be better than that? I know: for some of these sponsorships to lower the costs of student tickets. 4 years ago they were about 130$ for all the home games. It boiled down to about eight bucks a game but it was still a pretty penny to drop for a college student living on Ramen. Now, they break the tickets up into packages of about four games each and you have to select which one you want. In conclusion, I had to become a cheerleader to get in for free and get closer to the court. Mediocrity is hard to get pumped up about from a distance and for money we don’t have. With amped up students comes amped up fans. With amped up fans comes amped up music. The demogrographic that rules Bud Walton Arena is upper class white families who aren’t going to jump up out of their seats for the latest rap song played over the loud speakers the same way their not going to jump up for WT. I agree you and I would, but not them.
If we have the same spirit person that we had when I was in school 1978-82 then I think that tells the entire story. Time for new blood. It is really hard for anyone to do a job that long and do a good job and not have burn out. I know I have worked in the sports arena for 16 plus years, now I don’t watch a tenth of the games I used to watch, don’t care as much as I used to etc. Also Jean Nail is too close to the program to begin with….example when I was in college I tried out for the dancing razorback along with the brother of a friend. We both were great dancers and did back flips, splits, high toe touches etc in our try outs. One of the crazy things we had to do at the try out (after we did our prepared routine) was to put on the suit of the current dancing hog who probably weighed anywhere from 60-100 lbs more than both of us and was taller (needless to say the crotch of the suit was at our knees!) The current dancer, who tried out again, did no jumps, splits, backflips etc., the most energetic thing she did was to bicycle her legs in the air (exercise). Well guess who was re-elected?? Both me and my friend had everyone from the fans, pep squad personnel to the jaintors tell us we both were robbed and either one of us should have been the new dancing hog. I later found out that the re-elected hog was related to Ms. Nail who coordinated the tryout (and probably the judges too. So as you can see things were mediocre then and probably even worse now. Sour grapes, yeah a bit but I also know we can do a lot better than “hey baby” and “our house” for fan songs. Get with the times and what draws people into the atmosphere!!
Tyler…thanks for your comment.
Sorry about using that pic from the USC b-ball game. Trust me…that game was such an ugly blowout…we all looked that way. Most of us were just looking that way sitting on the couch at home without a camera there to “record the moment.”
Anyway…we all know the pic below is the way you guys were 99% of the time this year. Thanks to you and all the other members of the spirit squads for all your hard work and effort.
You know, it is funny. I cannot stand Boss Hog. Never liked him, from the first time I saw him. However, my 7 year old son just lights up when he sees him at the basket ball games. He thinks Boss is the funniest guy on the floor.
Go figure!
Man, that video was awesome. I had never seen that before I guess because I was at that awful game. Man, I may disagree about a lot of things with Houston Dale, no one holds a candle to his pregame speeches. Granted, we haven’t really seen one in a few years, but no one can question HDN’s motivational skills. He can get you fired up.
I didn’t see one national championship team from the past ten years used as an example of what to do…seems to me the theatrics aren’t being used by the NC programs.
Ken, thanks for the comment. I tried to give you a flavor of what other schools are doing. But if you would like to focus on NC teams, here’s Florida (2006, 2007) and Maryland (2002). Enjoy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wloUiqQk7_E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6shwQ0kBg0