If you stepped foot into the Sportscenter on Sunday, you were guaranteed to see a spectacle.
It was the home opener for The Basketball League’s Owensboro Thoroughbreds, who hosted the Indiana All-Americans for an early-afternoon tilt. The environment inside the building was palpable, to say the least.
The Owensboro Drum Line was in the upper deck, kicking up some noise. Cheerleaders were hyping up the crowd as spectators filed in. And the music playing over the Sportscenter’s audio system was nonstop.
All of that came before the ball was ever tipped, too.
And once the game began, the Thoroughbreds battled. Despite playing their third game in three days, Owensboro had an opportunity at the victory before eventually succumbing 107-104. The Thoroughbreds showed why they started the year 3-0 and now sit at 4-2 — with the potential to be 6-0 had some late-game situations Friday and Sunday gone their way.
In essence, Sunday afternoon at 1215 Hickman Avenue was more of an event than just a basketball game.
And, for the Thoroughbreds to remain successful, their home-opening recipe is the one to follow.
At the professional basketball level, there’s much more to game day than simply rolling the balls out and playing. The on-floor product has to be both good and exciting — which the Thoroughbreds are — but the atmosphere also needs to be engaging and it needs to be exciting.
Check and check.
“I think that’s the largest crowd we’ve ever had in my three years here,” Thoroughbreds head coach Mark Anderson said after Sunday’s contest. “It was fun. It was a great environment. Hopefully, a lot of people will come back after they saw the product.”
With point guard Darhius Nunn leading the way, Owensboro features a deep and talented group that plays hard and competes. The Thoroughbreds get up and down the floor, they play defense, and they share the ball — all important aspects to attracting a consistent fanbase and building a winning contingent.
Along with that, the franchise and team owner Chris Allison have made an effort to engage with the community on an unprecedented scale, and there’s no reason why that shouldn’t be reciprocated. Everything from the planned entertainment — like Corey Wilford emceeing shooting contests, a taekwondo exhibition or a group dance during breaks in the action — down to the courtside seating for VIPs was executed in a first-class manner.
Even the pre-game festivities such as the pre-game hype video and team introductions made the Sportscenter seem bigger than it really is. And that’s not a small building, to begin with.
It also says something when, despite the Thoroughbreds losing a game that ultimately came down to the final buzzer, there were countless children and their parents waiting in line to buy team memorabilia or get autographs from their favorite players — and each of them were warm and accommodating to sign posters, pose for pictures or even just chat. In fact, they probably got as much out of the experience following a hard-fought loss as anyone else did.
The only downside of Thoroughbreds home games? There aren’t enough of them early in the season.
Nine of Owensboro’s first 10 games are road contests, with the next home date scheduled for April 8 against the Indiana All-Americans. After that, however, they’ll play at the Sportscenter for 11 of their final 14 games.
“We don’t play at home a lot at the beginning of the year,” Anderson said, “but we end with a lot of games here in the second half of the season, which is going to be nice.”
If the Thoroughbreds organization continues to bring the same energy and effort that it did for the home opener, that means there’s plenty of excitement to come.