Both the men’s and women’s basketball ‘09-’10 schedules are out now.

They can be found here and here, respectively.

Looks like the men are playing for another Tri-State NAIA title in December.  I’ve got nothing against an easy tune-up game to start and the Carey game makes sense, but the program is stuck in a Catch-22 in that we can’t host good out-of-conference games because attendance sucks, but one (but certainly not the only) reason it sucks is because of the pitiful, non-NCAA schedule.  Early home games have pretty much reached the “Why bother?” stage (some might argue that stage was passed long ago, but I digress).  At what point do you finally decide to just play on the road for the checks, then save up for a decent payout to someone worthwhile?

photo by George Clark, special to the Clarion Ledger

With the big win over Florida, the baseball Golden Eagles are one win away from the College World Series.  I don’t really want to say a whole lot about that pending the eventual outcome, but there was something else at the game apart from the result that has some pretty big implications for Southern Miss’ athletic program.

As mentioned more than once by the ESPNU commentators and reported by the AP, there was a substantial Golden Eagle contingent at Florida’s McKethan Stadium.  Of an official attendance of 3,571, roughly 1,000 were in black and gold.  Some fan reports actually had Eagle supporters outnumbering Gator supporters.   Yes, the weather probably influenced the home crowd, but even so, selling out one’s visitor’s allotment in a matter of hours and having a crowd of 1,000 on the road is no small feat for a baseball program.  Also, this comes on the heels of Georgia Tech coach Danny Hall actually calling out his own fans after USM’s fans showed them up so badly at the Atlanta Regional:

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About 15 years ago (has it really been that long?), a buddy of mine, after witnessing a spirited crowd at a women’s basketball showdown at Reed Green Coliseum with Auburn and later the boisterous mass of humanity in Death Valley West, observed that for as maligned as Southern Miss fans are, you can certainly count on ‘em if you give them something to truly get excited about–essentially, if you provide them a major-college event, they’ll provide you major-college support.  Saturday bears that out.  The problem comes in when you’re finishing in 4th place in a rather awful football conference while boring people half to death or confusing basketball with keep-away.  Folks who are constantly bombarded with the mystique/drama/hype of Southern schools playing at the highest level and competing for championships on a regular basis simply aren’t interested in that stuff.  For as much as people like to use the word “fickle,” the simple fact of the matter is, you can’t make people care if they don’t.  No one’s obligated to attend a sporting event.  And it certainly doesn’t help if you habitually embarrass yourself every time you do get them to show up.  However, give them something to hang their proverbial hats on, pique their interest, and you’ll get as fanatic support here as you will most anywhere.

One can only hope that what we saw both in the stands and on the field Saturday is merely a glimpse of even bigger and better things to come.