MTOW: How alarming was it to see Joel Coliseum half empty last year, and to see the games against Duke and Carolina with the place half full of blue.
JB: We’re moving forward. It’s interesting. Attendance at college basketball as a whole is down. Our attendance, if you look, we were (sixth) in the ACC last year in attendance. Not bad. It will be better. But overall the state of college basketball, for whatever reason – and people have debated about the reasons – at all the schools attendance has been down. We’re moving forward.
MTOW: What the people I’m talking to compare it to is not what is going on at Florida State or Miami or Boston College, but to what they used to see at Joel Coliseum when they would come to games. Is there a point of no return as to getting fans back to Joel Coliseum?
JB: Fans will be back.
MTOW: What makes you say that?
JB: Because with this team, the foundation, like I said, has been laid and is now in place. It’s been established, without compromising our values. And as they meet our players and watch them – the players now in our program coupled with the class coming in – they’ll enjoy these young men. They’ll enjoy cheering these young men on.
MTOW: Winning is a big component of that obviously.
JB: We’re moving forward.