Post by FU73 on Mar 12, 2014 13:46:18 GMT -5
A very interesting article in the New York Times on A-10 Fordham and their Rose Hill Gym:
Among a growing crop of slick new basketball arenas, Fordham’s 89-year-old Rose Hill Gym is a venerable throwback, one of the few still in use that were built during the lifetime of basketball’s inventor, James Naismith. Its walls, made of sturdy bricks of Manhattan schist, seem destined to withstand all challengers.
All challengers except, perhaps, Fordham fans, some of whom grumble that Rose Hill, for all its charms, is one reason the men’s basketball team has had trouble attracting talent lately.......
Fordham Coach Tom Pecora acknowledged that some top players were turned off by the prospect of playing in a 3,200-seat gym. In contrast, St. Louis, the Atlantic 10 regular-season champion, plays in a 10,600-seat arena.
Barefoot in his wood-paneled office before a recent game against Virginia Commonwealth, Pecora said “a good number” of recruiting targets had reacted negatively to Rose Hill Gym, so he has used Fordham’s academic strength in his pitches instead.
“I knew it was going to be the biggest challenge in the recruiting area,” he said. “I know it’s something every other school uses against us. You have to find guys who can look beyond that.”
The gym hosted its first basketball game in 1925, a match refereed by the Fordham alumnus Frankie Frisch, then a star second baseman with baseball’s New York Giants......
www.nytimes.com/2014/03/11/sports/ncaabasketball/at-fordham-basketball-gym-has-history-if-not-allure.html?_r=0
FYI:
Fordham Men's Basketball was (9-20)(2-14) and (7-8) at home and averaged 2,330 with two sellouts but last in the A-10 standings again and also last in A-10 attendance.
Fordham Women's Basketball was (25-7)(11-5) and (14-1) at home and averaged 657 and won their first A-10 Championship with the NCAA bid.
Among a growing crop of slick new basketball arenas, Fordham’s 89-year-old Rose Hill Gym is a venerable throwback, one of the few still in use that were built during the lifetime of basketball’s inventor, James Naismith. Its walls, made of sturdy bricks of Manhattan schist, seem destined to withstand all challengers.
All challengers except, perhaps, Fordham fans, some of whom grumble that Rose Hill, for all its charms, is one reason the men’s basketball team has had trouble attracting talent lately.......
Fordham Coach Tom Pecora acknowledged that some top players were turned off by the prospect of playing in a 3,200-seat gym. In contrast, St. Louis, the Atlantic 10 regular-season champion, plays in a 10,600-seat arena.
Barefoot in his wood-paneled office before a recent game against Virginia Commonwealth, Pecora said “a good number” of recruiting targets had reacted negatively to Rose Hill Gym, so he has used Fordham’s academic strength in his pitches instead.
“I knew it was going to be the biggest challenge in the recruiting area,” he said. “I know it’s something every other school uses against us. You have to find guys who can look beyond that.”
The gym hosted its first basketball game in 1925, a match refereed by the Fordham alumnus Frankie Frisch, then a star second baseman with baseball’s New York Giants......
www.nytimes.com/2014/03/11/sports/ncaabasketball/at-fordham-basketball-gym-has-history-if-not-allure.html?_r=0
FYI:
Fordham Men's Basketball was (9-20)(2-14) and (7-8) at home and averaged 2,330 with two sellouts but last in the A-10 standings again and also last in A-10 attendance.
Fordham Women's Basketball was (25-7)(11-5) and (14-1) at home and averaged 657 and won their first A-10 Championship with the NCAA bid.
