It’s easy to get people interested in college basketball come March.
In February, some people are engaged. In October? yeah, good luck with that!
You need to get really clever and think outside the box in order to get eyeballs on college hoops in the fall, and Northwestern basketball did just that- brilliantly and beautiful. The school created a faux political campaign to have point guard Bryant McIntosh replace Franklin Delano Roosevelt on the dime. They even distributed t-shirts and dimes to journalists who attended Media Day.
The face on the dime has changed five times since the coin was introduced in 1796. Northwestern basketball coach Chris Collins on the origins of the #BMAC4THEDIME campaign:
“I love it, I think it’s great, I’m not smart enough to come up with that stuff, so it was all our marketing team.”
They do a great job, and it was a way to promote Bryant,” he said at Northwestern basketball media day.
“I think Bryant gets a little bit undervalued sometimes as to how good he really is. I think it was good of the marketing team to get him on a pedestal as one of the best players in the Big Ten and also one of the best, in his position, but also nationally. It was a way to put him on stage and show the nation that we do have a gem.”
Here’s the promotional video that Northwestern basketball created and distributed:
McIntosh holds the single-season program record for assists and he 10+ dimes in four different games last season. Of all the nation’s returning players, he’s the third highest in career assists. Lindy’s named him the top playmaker in the Big Ten this season.
“It’s quite an honor, it was a fun experience to be part of,” McIntosh said of the dime campaign at NU Media Day.
“A lot of people have messaged me trying to get t-shirts and stuff and I haven’t even gotten one,” he said laughing.
I’m sure they set him up.
“Just having the idea it was pretty impressive that someone came up with it,” B-mac added.
“The guys are having fun with it and you work real hard you take things seriously, but you want to have fun too,” Collins said.
“Everybody was talking, laughing about it last week at our (league) Media Day in Washington, and all those things can be good for our program. We’re tying to upgrade who we are as a basketball program, we have aspirations we want to be legit and when you’re legit you promote your players and do things at a high level.”
“McIntosh is going to be our leader, there’s no question there.
“I want when people when they think of Northwestern Basketball they think ‘That’s Bryant McIntosh’s team, because this is his time.’”
McIntosh, a 6-3 junior from Greensburg, Indiana, is averaging 14.5 points per game and 5.5 assists per game on the very young season. NU is 2-0 thus far after having played nobodies. Now the challenge level increases significantly as they’ll take on Butler in Hinkle Fieldhouse
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes regularly to the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication and Bold Global.
He also consistently appears on numerous radio and television talk shows all across the country. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram and Sound Cloud.