The first installment of Fred Glass's office hours took place this afternoon at the Indiana Memorial Union.
During the two hour session, discussions ranged from how to improve attendance at football games, the possibility of making basketball games general admittance on a first come-first serve basis and how Glass thinks this years basketball team will go down in history.
There wasn't many people in attendance - Osterman, IU student body president Luke Fields, three other students who appeared to be associated with some organization and I were the only visitors. But Glass took questions, shared his opinions and ideas and took into account what the students had to say.
The two most frequent topics of discussion were how to get more people to come to football games and how could the game day atmosphere improve at Assembly Hall for men's basketball games.
For football, Glass stressed the importance of making it a true collegiate event. If people are solely interested in football, the Colts are likely going to be the best option. Glass thinks if they can do as much as possible to give the college feel to all parties concerned, more people will be in attendance. One idea the students and Glass discussed was the possibility of offering a free bus service to the game for dorm rooms or Greek housing based on the amount of tickets they purchase.
As for basketball, Glass did not shy away from the possibility of IU switching student seating to a first come-first serve basis. Along this same line of thought, Glass talked about trying to make the upper balcony area its own atmosphere similar to the Dawg Pound in Cleveland Browns games or the Bleacher Bums at Chicago Cubs games.
As for this year's team, Glass predicted this season will go down as one of the best coaching jobs Tom Crean will ever have; and that this year's team is the kind documentaries are made of in the future. Glass said he thought it would actually be worse - such as the team would get routed constantly before the season started - and has been impressed with their ability to hang with more experienced teams in the conference.
All in all, it was a pretty interesting couple of hours. Glass plans on having another office hours session next month; potentially at one of the residence halls. For students who wish to have their voices heard and for those who have any suggestions or questions about the state of Hoosier athletics/ It was a very informal, laid back setting where the students in attendance all had a chance to share their views with one of the IU big wigs.
