Gotta love Jeff Walz

[Charles T]

http://espn.go.com/womens-college-b...s-coach-jeff-walz-writing-fans-bosses-day-off

 

[Hoopz]

Buys beer for fans & gets them out of work for a game. The men's team brings in prostitues for recruits & players. They are creative at Louisville!

 

[uconnfan68]

Buys beer for fans & gets them out of work for a game. The men's team brings in prostitues for recruits & players. They are creative at Louisville!

I wouldn't have used "creative".

 

[Checkmate]

brilliant move by the NCAA (or ESPN) to minimize attendance with a 2:30 start time

 

[RockyMTblue2]

No I don't.

 

[boontonbomber]

no I don't gotta!

 

[ChicagoGG]

Don't always like him, but he does have flair and he loves his fans.

 

[jennyo70]

These posts read like people are not pleased with Walz around this. From the perspective of someone living in Louisville, what you are seeing is a little out of context.

A personal friend of mine sent the original tweet to Walz. Harmless enough. She asked for a "good excuse to leave work". Did she expect him to necessarily respond, I am not sure. But, he did. Once that happened, it went viral.
Everyone was tweeting and retweeting. More and more requests came in from fans saying they wanted to be there but couldn't get off work. It snowballed. Momentum grew. Local press got a hold of it. National media next.

Did Walz plan this as a marketing technique, no. However, we fans love him, much like Uconn fans love Geno. He has a great sense of humor, dry, sarcastic wit. He is passionate about basketball, his players and his fans. Every single home game he thanks the fans for showing up. Every single game he states he, nor the players, take for granted us fans and how we show up in numbers.

So, when a fan sent a simple tweet, he responded. I am not surprised. I personally love it. I appreciate how much he appreciates his fanbase and does not take us for granted. Our fanbase is a lot of 30-50 year olds, families with kids, working folks. It makes sense the time of day of the game is going to be difficult. He responded, and because it snowballed, it turned in to a marketing event made possible by social media.

 

[Huskylove3]

These posts read like people are not pleased with Walz around this. From the perspective of someone living in Louisville, what you are seeing is a little out of context.

A personal friend of mine sent the original tweet to Walz. Harmless enough. She asked for a "good excuse to leave work". Did she expect him to necessarily respond, I am not sure. But, he did. Once that happened, it went viral.
Everyone was tweeting and retweeting. More and more requests came in from fans saying they wanted to be there but couldn't get off work. It snowballed. Momentum grew. Local press got a hold of it. National media next.

Did Walz plan this as a marketing technique, no. However, we fans love him, much like Uconn fans love Geno. He has a great sense of humor, dry, sarcastic wit. He is passionate about basketball, his players and his fans. Every single home game he thanks the fans for showing up. Every single game he states he, nor the players, take for granted us fans and how we show up in numbers.

So, when a fan sent a simple tweet, he responded. I am not surprised. I personally love it. I appreciate how much he appreciates his fanbase and does not take us for granted. Our fanbase is a lot of 30-50 year olds, families with kids, working folks. It makes sense the time of day of the game is going to be difficult. He responded, and because it snowballed, it turned in to a marketing event made possible by social media.

I like Walz. I think he's a fun, fresh face in Women's Basketball. He's very active on social media, and one of the downfalls is dealing with press. I think he is doing what he feels is necessary to create a winning environment, including getting fans to the game. It's great!!