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Like most coaches, Wayne Tinkle, Head Men's Coach at the University of Montana, knows that having a supportive home crowd can be the difference between an intimidating home court advantage and an arena that no one fears visiting. But four days after his Grizzlies upset UCLA at Pauley Pavilion, a meager crowd of 2,641 showed up for Montana's home game on Dec. 9.

Less than a week after that game, Montana was slated to host Oregon State University, a high-profile match-up for a school that rarely has a chance to play a major conference program in its own gym. To pull off another win over a Pacific-10 Conference team, Tinkle knew his squad would need the help of a loud, boisterous crowd. But how could he appeal to students to come out?

The Grizzlies' coach decided to go viral. Urging fans to "Make Dahlberg [Arena] the loudest it has been all season," Tinkle teamed up with school's marketing department and shot a video to encourage fans to attend.

The fans heard him loud and clear, with 4,378--at that point a season-high--showing up in the middle of finals week to watch their team take down the Beavers 71-66. "Generating excitement early in the year can be tough," Tinkle says. "I was thrilled with our fans' response to the video.

"When the fans are drawn into a game, our players feed off the crowd and play with a whole new level of intensity and emotion," he continues. "There have been times in the past where people will show up, but they'll treat the game like a matinee movie and not have much energy. The Oregon State game was the opposite."

The key to the video's effectiveness, according to Tinkle, was its simplicity. The 42-second video shows Tinkle standing on the court, urging viewers to come out and support the team. There aren't many bells and whistles, save for some music playing in the background and highlights from the team's win over UCLA.

"We had kicked around some other ideas to increase attendance, such as having me start a Twitter account," Tinkle says. "But when you're asking fans to show up, you need to be careful that you don't cross the line of being hokey or sounding like you're begging. Also, the timing was perfect. We had just come off of the big win against UCLA, and we struck while the iron was hot."

Tinkle discovered the fans appreciated having a head coach communicate directly with them. "People I spoke with said it was nice to hear straight from me," he says. "As a team, we do a lot of things, both on and off the court, for the community, so I think they responded well when we asked them for this."

The home court buzz that started with the Oregon State game grew even louder as the season progressed. The Grizzlies began to routinely draw over 4,000 fans a game, peaking with an attendance of just over 7,000 for their rivalry game against Montana State University.

Tinkle says that while his main focus remains putting a competitive product on the floor, he sees the value in working with other departments to create a buzz for the team. "I try to concentrate on the X's and O's" he says. "But attendance has been down everywhere and some coaches are even losing their jobs as a result, so we need to do what we can to get people to show up and this video was a great way to do so."

Patrick Bohn is an Assistant Editor at Athletic Management.