In the 2000-2001 season we had the largest student section in the country at CHA. The team started hot, then Luke Recker got hurt and the season fell apart until the miracle BTT run. The Indiana game at home that season was incredible. Huge comeback led by Luke and the crowd was excruciatingly loud. CHA was sold out at 15,500 for every game that season.
The 2001-2002 team was pre-season top 10 with a senior Luke and Reggie. That team won 3 games in the BTT but struggled to make the NIT, ending with a 1st round loss. PP was a freshman starting almost every game. The fanbase was impacted from that underwhelming season, but wasn't killed.
The 2002-2003 team started with the PP debacle, and Alford's reaction to it caused protests outside of the arena before games. This really harmed the fanbase, especially the student section which saw plummeting attendance.
The 2004-2005 team saw PP do his thing a 2nd time, this time mid-season, getting kicked off the team finally. The team underperformed, barely squeaking into the NCAA tourney for only the 2nd time in Alford's tenure and losing in the first round.
At this point the damage was done. The student section has never been the same since. Anybody that was a new student moving forward never experienced a large energetic student section at basketball games and so there was no excitement for new freshmen to purchase tickets and go to games to be "part of the club". The following season was the Jeff Horner, Greg Brunner Big Ten runner-up team which non-student fans bought tickets for and the university was glad to sell to since students weren't coming. But of course NW State happened, Alford followed that up with a mediocre year before leaving, then we had the dark years of Lick.
So yes, PP happened 20 years ago. But it was a bullwhip effect that reverberated and grew over the years during bad timing of underperformance by both Alford and Lick, with only one good season that had a catastrophic ending. And now we've had more than a decade of Fran underperforming in the tourney on top of it. Of course the one team that had an opportunity to truly break that negative momentum and turn things around happened during the no fans season.
Bluder has had some great players and seen tourney success with those players over the last several years with 2 sweet sixteens, an elite eight, and an NCAA runner up. That has led to increased attendance that exploded when CC showed up as a must-watch player.
