After suffering through sparse crowds last season while in the Big East, the Hurricanes are now enjoying a more raucous home atmosphere as a member of the ACC.
Anthony Harris has a confession. The University of Miami guard was so depressed by the lack of fans at home games last season, he kept his eyes downcast and rarely looked up from the bench. This season, he takes great pleasure in scanning the audience at the Convocation Center, where attendance is up 75 percent from last February.
''I remember last year, it looked like an open gym, like people were coming to see their little nephew play or something,'' Harris said. ``It was sad. I'm from Chicago, so I'm used to big crowds, and last year, when I'd see nobody there, I'd just put my head down and not look up. This year, it's great. The students are even making funny signs. They didn't do that last year.''
UM is averaging 6,171 fans in six ACC games, a sizable difference from the 3,536 who showed up for the first six Big East games last season. Four games have sold out, and fewer than 100 tickets remained for tonight's game against fifth-ranked Wake Forest as of Monday evening. The Hurricanes are on the cusp of a possible NCAA tournament bid, and the murmur surrounding the team has officially become a buzz.
The Hurricanes had just one sellout in the previous two seasons -- the day the building opened. The student section, which typically had hundreds of vacant seats the past two seasons, has been much more lively this season, particularly on the night of the Duke game, when a line of 1,100 students snaked around the arena four hours before tipoff.
Even the scalpers are getting business this season.
SURPRISING RESULTS
First-year coach Frank Haith admits he is ''surprised'' by the crowds. Before he took the job, he heard all the horror stories about South Florida's apathy toward college basketball. More than one colleague asked him why he'd want to take a job where people don't care about basketball, why he didn't wait to coach a team that had a following.
''Honestly, I didn't anticipate us getting these kinds of crowds in Year One, but I really felt we had the potential to sell out games here because the number [of available seats] wasn't that huge,'' Haith said. ``It's not like we were trying to reach 12,000. It's 7,000, and we're in the ACC and have a nice, new arena, and we're putting out a good product, so there's no reason we can't fill the seats.''
The Hurricanes said they truly have a home-court advantage this season, and their 11-3 home record suggests as much. UM has home victories against UMass, North Carolina State, Florida State, Clemson and Maryland.
''We're kind of tired of hearing that we put in a good effort against top five teams,'' Harris said. ``It would be so great to steal a home win against Wake, to win a game we're not supposed to win.''
Haith and Harris urged fans to raise the volume to new heights tonight. The Hurricanes (15-7, 6-5) will need all the help they can get. The Demon Deacons are 21-3, including a 94-82 win against the Hurricanes two weeks ago. In that game, UM shot 10 of 11 from three-point range in the first half but cooled off after intermission.
INCREASE THE VOLUME
''Now that we've got fans in the building, we've got to make more noise,'' Haith said. ``We've had more of a reactionary crowd. They get excited when we play well. But we need noise when we're down, too, to pick us up. We need noise and energy all the time.''
Wake Forest coach Skip Prosser, whose team is playing its third game in six days, expects the Convocation Center to be a tough venue.
''The Hurricanes are fighting for their NCAA [tournament] lives, they're a well-coached and talented team, and I'm sure it will be a bit of a cauldron down there,'' he said.
Anthony Harris has a confession. The University of Miami guard was so depressed by the lack of fans at home games last season, he kept his eyes downcast and rarely looked up from the bench. This season, he takes great pleasure in scanning the audience at the Convocation Center, where attendance is up 75 percent from last February.
''I remember last year, it looked like an open gym, like people were coming to see their little nephew play or something,'' Harris said. ``It was sad. I'm from Chicago, so I'm used to big crowds, and last year, when I'd see nobody there, I'd just put my head down and not look up. This year, it's great. The students are even making funny signs. They didn't do that last year.''
UM is averaging 6,171 fans in six ACC games, a sizable difference from the 3,536 who showed up for the first six Big East games last season. Four games have sold out, and fewer than 100 tickets remained for tonight's game against fifth-ranked Wake Forest as of Monday evening. The Hurricanes are on the cusp of a possible NCAA tournament bid, and the murmur surrounding the team has officially become a buzz.
The Hurricanes had just one sellout in the previous two seasons -- the day the building opened. The student section, which typically had hundreds of vacant seats the past two seasons, has been much more lively this season, particularly on the night of the Duke game, when a line of 1,100 students snaked around the arena four hours before tipoff.
Even the scalpers are getting business this season.
SURPRISING RESULTS
First-year coach Frank Haith admits he is ''surprised'' by the crowds. Before he took the job, he heard all the horror stories about South Florida's apathy toward college basketball. More than one colleague asked him why he'd want to take a job where people don't care about basketball, why he didn't wait to coach a team that had a following.
''Honestly, I didn't anticipate us getting these kinds of crowds in Year One, but I really felt we had the potential to sell out games here because the number [of available seats] wasn't that huge,'' Haith said. ``It's not like we were trying to reach 12,000. It's 7,000, and we're in the ACC and have a nice, new arena, and we're putting out a good product, so there's no reason we can't fill the seats.''
The Hurricanes said they truly have a home-court advantage this season, and their 11-3 home record suggests as much. UM has home victories against UMass, North Carolina State, Florida State, Clemson and Maryland.
''We're kind of tired of hearing that we put in a good effort against top five teams,'' Harris said. ``It would be so great to steal a home win against Wake, to win a game we're not supposed to win.''
Haith and Harris urged fans to raise the volume to new heights tonight. The Hurricanes (15-7, 6-5) will need all the help they can get. The Demon Deacons are 21-3, including a 94-82 win against the Hurricanes two weeks ago. In that game, UM shot 10 of 11 from three-point range in the first half but cooled off after intermission.
INCREASE THE VOLUME
''Now that we've got fans in the building, we've got to make more noise,'' Haith said. ``We've had more of a reactionary crowd. They get excited when we play well. But we need noise when we're down, too, to pick us up. We need noise and energy all the time.''
Wake Forest coach Skip Prosser, whose team is playing its third game in six days, expects the Convocation Center to be a tough venue.
''The Hurricanes are fighting for their NCAA [tournament] lives, they're a well-coached and talented team, and I'm sure it will be a bit of a cauldron down there,'' he said.
