Memphis President David Rudd yesterday on Twitter "appeared to defend" students in response to "public criticism" from men's basketball coach Josh Pastner about poor student attendance at home games, according to Jason Smith of the Memphis COMMERCIAL APPEAL. Pastner early yesterday said UM has "one of the worst student-attended arenas" in the country. Pastner: "When we go to Cincinnati, the place is full of students. When we go to Connecticut, the place is full of students. If we got 2,000 students a game -- or even 1,500 students a game -- like most schools do at the level that we're at, we're not sitting here talking about the (ticket) scan issue. That's a big, big area that we have struggled with is student attendance. It's mind boggling." Rudd tweeted UM has the "hardest working students in the land, 2nd to none. They're the reason the U of M is a very special place!" Pastner later "released a statement from the men's basketball Twitter account, thanking the students who do attend home games" (Memphis COMMERCIAL APPEAL, 3/15).
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UNIV. OF MEMPHIS HOME MEN'S BASKETBALL ATTENDANCE TREND
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SEASON
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AVG.
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OVERALL RANK
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% CAP.
|
|
'15-16
|
12,029
|
17
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65.4%
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'14-15
|
13,915
|
14
|
75.6%
|
|
'13-14
|
16,121
|
8
|
87.6%
|
|
'12-13
|
16,336
|
10
|
88.8%
|
|
'11-12
|
16,234
|
6
|
88.2%
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