GAME 35- THE CROWN - OKLAHOMA (19-15) vs COLORADO (17-15) 7:00pm CST on FS1

[WaymanFan]

My Uncle went to the FF in 88. I went in 2002. He said we were the least-attended fanbase in KC and I agreed that we were way outnumbered in Atlanta. But the Buddy team seemed to galvanize the fanbase. The crowd for KU in Norman was the wildest I'd experienced since early Kelvin. By all accounts (I did not attend but know plenty who did) we had a LARGE showing in Houston. I cannot tell you how many people I've encountered in the last decade who made the trip down there. To a man, all of them talk about the deflating aspect of the loss. It's almost like those 50-50 fans who actually climbed aboard the bandwagon hold the performance against the program. Listening to the stories when Buddy's number was retired a few weeks back....it was like these awful memories were being triggered at the mere mention of the night.

Now, would the wins-losses/nuts-bolts of the program be any different today if we'd lost to Villanova the same way we lost to Indiana? Not sure. What I do believe is that awful game, followed up by that dreadful season, followed up by that unlikeable team cast a pall on the program that has yet to lift.

Interesting perspective. What's sad is that Arizona would have more fans in KC than OU. They were just building their tradition and that was their first Final Four. That alone should tell us our fan base is mediocre at best. In Atlanta, it was expected we would have the smallest fan base. I was at the Sweet 16 / Elite Eight games in Albany, NY during the 2003 Tourney. Obviously, Syracuse fans dominated, but we matched Butler's fan base and completely dwarfed Auburn's. As for 2016, I could easily see on TV that we were well-represented in Houston. I felt horrible for all those OU fans who showed up to have to witness that. I remember they were cheering loudly early in the second half when Cousins made a 3-point play (the last OU highlight that day) to cut the lead to about 10. They did their job that day.

As an FYI, now that I live in the Charlotte, NC area, I attended the 1st round game in Columbia, SC against Ole Miss in the 2019 1st round game and OU was fairly well-represented - Ole Miss had a solid 2:1 edge in fans because they came in busses...but OU represented. The lady I took to see us beat Michigan in Charlotte last year still enjoys telling everyone both how great the game was and how Michigan had all the fans except about 10 (slight exaggeration with the operative word being SLIGHT). I think the OU attendance for these types of events will always be hit or miss with "miss" winning most of the time. It's just hard for me to think it has ever had a positive or negative impact on the program.

 

[WichitaSooner]

I went to Atlanta and Houston. The turnout in Atlanta was as embarrassing as I expected. In Houston, nothing about our turnout stood out to me. I mean, it’s a 6 hour drive from Norman, and every other team was from halfway across the country, so it would make sense if we did have more fans, but our fans didn’t take the place over like would happen if we had a bigger and better basketball fan base. I’d guess most the OU people there that day were already diehards, plus maybe some folks who live in Texas and came because of proximity. Again, I just don’t see the result of that game costing us a lot of future fans.

 

[WaymanFan]

I did have a favorite OU fan for that 2002 tournament, though. We played the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight games that year in San Jose. A clever OU held up a sign that read: "We know the way to San Jose...and we know the way to Atlanta, too!"