There's no "I" in apathy

Missed this column from The Dispatch's Bob Hunter yesterday. I believe the title really sums up the problem, "OSU doing a poor job selling basketball."

The noticeable lack of support in Columbus for what has turned out to be a very good basketball team has been discussed at length on the local sports talk radio airwaves over the last few weeks. It took fourth-ranked Purdue coming to Ohio State for us to see the first sellout of the season at the Schottenstein Center. The Cleveland Plain Dealer ran this article several weeks ago, "Sharp attendance decline for men's basketball catches OSU's attention: Big Ten Insider."

From the Plain Dealer:

With a shot at the Big Ten title and a leading national player of the year candidate in Evan Turner, Ohio State is headed toward its lowest average attendance in the 12-year history of Value City Arena.

The Buckeyes are averaging 13,411 fans per game, which ranks sixth in the Big Ten and is more than 4,100 fewer fans than Ohio State averaged during its run to the Final Four three seasons ago, 2,500 fewer fans than last season. Athletic director Gene Smith said he's dumbfounded. Coach Thad Matta called it odd.

And yesterday from Bob Hunter:

One of my Ohio newspaper colleagues posed an intriguing question last Sunday at Illinois:

"If the basketball Buckeyes and the Blue Jackets were both having comparably good seasons, which one would Columbus have the most interest in?"

I hesitated. The Buckeyes seemed the most likely answer. Basketball is more mainstream than hockey, and the Ohio State brand can sell just about anything, including toilet-seat covers and hot dogs. But after that question sat there for a while, it gradually morphed into another thought:

Given the success the Ohio State men's program has enjoyed over the past 70 years, should that question even have to be asked? And why doesn't the program have more support than it does?

More from Hunter:

Whenever one of these crimes against OSU basketball is committed, we round up the usual suspects:

Ohio State is a football school. The atmosphere in Value City Arena isn't the best. The best seats are committed to seat license-holders. Many longtime ticket-buyers were treated like third-class citizens when the team moved from St. John Arena and have moved on to other things. The nonconference schedule looks like it was designed by a coach who doesn't care about the fans.

Maybe we should add two more: The athletic director looked intently at all those empty seats and determined that it was still a good idea to raise ticket prices next season. And the mentality of a growing number of football fans -- a national championship or nothing -- might have poisoned the air on the basketball side, where simply having a little success in the NCAA Tournament isn't enough.

I think that Bob Hunter and I agree on one thing for sure here. The onus is on THE SCHOOL to get butts in the seats at the Schottenstein Center and to create buzz around the basketball program. I've listened to the 'heads on the radio chastise the fans for not showing up. That's BULLSHIT. Even in a cow town like Columbus in the middle of winter there are many distractions and many ways to spend money other than at Ohio State basketball games.

A little creative thinking is obviously needed at a place used to doing and charging whatever it wants. Cheaper, not more expensive, tickets might help, especially when the ones available are two rows shy of the moon. Do whatever it takes to get more students in the building. A nonconference schedule with opponents such as Dayton, Xavier and Cincinnati would help sell season tickets and keep fans from waiting to join the season in progress in January, if at all.

Yes, Ohio State is a football school, but only a handful of colleges have a more impressive basketball tradition than OSU does.

If you can't sell this team and that tradition, then frankly, you're not trying that hard.

EXACTLY.