This may be Al Skinner's first season at Kennesaw State, but the former NBA player has been a Division I head basketball coach for 23 of the last 28 seasons.
So that employment history should carry a little extra weight when Skinner says of asking today's players to play and practice for up to six months over two semesters:
"Academically, everybody worries about grade point averages. It could be because they'e not in school. We were basically on the road for the first 10 days of the season. That's too many days away from class, even with tutors. And student-athletes are suffering for it."
That should be reason enough for reasonable people to reconsider the current basketball model. Too many games too soon, practice and games running, in some cases, from early October to early April. This season cryptically began on Friday the 13th of November for most Division I programs, including the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, which knocked off Skinner's Owls 78-66 on Friday.
But the sparse crowd of 2,421 inside McKenzie Arena to watch the Mocs' latest victory might be a stronger argument for a shorter season.
"The reality is, nobody cares until after Christmas," said UTC super fan Bob Mulkey, who graduated in 1984 and has missed a total of five home games over 27 years. "If we stay healthy, we have a chance to have our best team since 1997 (when the Mocs went to the Sweet 16). But look at these crowds. We had 2,500 in here after winning at Dayton. We've got less than that tonight (Friday). It's not just us, though. It's everywhere you look."
Indeed, even Kentucky, which always battles Syracuse for the yearly attendance championship, has had only one sellout thus far through seven home games.
In fact, attendance figures often are inflated by total tickets sold rather than actual turnstile counts. A quick view of video from Georgia's home win over Murray State in mid-November showed the lower 12 rows no more than half-filled, not unlike UTC's victory over Kennesaw.
Beyond that, when UK beat Duke on Nov. 17, the game had about the same overnight rating (1.8) as that night's halftime show that revealed the College Football Playoff rankings.
"I think football needs to end before we start basketball," said Central High basketball coach Rick Rogers, who was a walk-on for UTC in the 1980s under Mack McCarthy. "At least start on Thanksgiving weekend. No other sport takes up so much time over both semesters."
First-year UTC coach Matt McCall concurs. Pointing to a stretch from Nov. 20 to Nov. 30 in which the Mocs were home for no games and just one class day, McCall said, "There's not another college sport as long as college basketball. You really have to have mature guys who are capable of handling their rest, their diet, their academics. You give up a lot to play this sport at this level."
Longtime television analyst Larry Conley believes it's all become too much. At last Monday's Quarterback Club meeting, the just-retired Conley noted how he'd prefer the sport move to the second semester only. He'd like to start it in mid-December and end it in late April. It would remove the competition with football, allow the student-athletes to actually be students for the first semester and still have the sport reach its zenith in the spring.
"Everybody says, 'But they call it March Madness,'' Conley said. "Well, maybe they could call it 'April Angst.'"
That's not likely to happen for several reasons, the biggest being that CBS has no interest in having the NCAA tournament clash with the Masters.
Or as Skinner noted of backing up the season, "It's a nice idea, but it's not practical. Not with all the money people are making right now. All these early-season tournaments everybody wants to play in. And if you keep playing the same number of games, starting later means ending later. And I'm not sure anybody really wants that."
Perhaps not. But a lot of folks clearly want something different or the Mocs wouldn't be drawing fewer than 3,000 to McKenzie to watch an outstanding 9-2 basketball team that's already won at Georgia, Illinois and Dayton.
Or maybe there just aren't enough fans like Mulkey to fill McKenzie or most other major college arenas.
Those five home games he's missed in 27 years?
"Two were for ice and three for health reasons," said Mulkey, who actually lives south of Huntsville, Ala., making his loyalty all the more remarkable since it's a four-hour round trip from his home.
"I've actually had my wife (Treece) drive me from the emergency room a couple of times to make the games."
With ESPN now losing millions of dollars, it's unclear whether college basketball is about to face an emergency regarding attendance and interest. But when the best team UTC's had in 19 years can't come close to drawing 3,000 fans in the two home games it's played since that stunning victory at Dayton, the sport would seem to be at least a wee bit under the weather.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com