By Nick Bond
There was a time, a long long time ago (or more accurately, my freshmen year) when the David S. Mack Sports and Recreation Arena represented something wonderful and unique on our humble campus.
Home of the Lion’s Den, for a brief period it was also the home of the nation’s longest home unbeaten streak, as the program made its great, albeit unsuccessful, push – which included two wins over eventual Final Four participant George Mason University – to the Big Dance on the backs of the students, whose school spirit led them to perhaps the finest season in school history.
Sadly, that spirit died this Saturday.
The funeral was solemn event, which is awkward, considering there was a basketball game being played.
To call the crowd at the team’s most recent home game the worst crowd in the history of the program may be overstating the putridity of the crowd a little bit, but I promise you, it is at least in the discussion. It started badly, as the crowd managed to botch the introductions of the visiting team, which is ridiculous considering it literally only requires the word “sucks” to be said in unison after a player’s name is announced.
Now, I understand we aren’t an Ivy League school, but I am pretty sure a kindergarten class could have done a better job making the opposing team feel unwelcome.
From there, it only got worse, as the crowd seemed to completely unable to generate any type or inkling of enthusiasm despite not only the best player in the conference being completely shut down, but our team being up by as many 12 points in the half.
Now, again, I understand we aren’t an SEC school, but for the love of God, and all that is holy, would a simple “DEE-FENSE” be too much to ask? Apparently it was, but you know what was a chant the crowd really seemed to like to do? Chanting “OVER-RATED” repeatedly at the best player in the conference.
Which would be fine, in theory, if he wasn’t THE LEADING SCORER IN BOTH HALVES.
It’s a fairly simple concept, people: a guy isn’t overrated if he is unequivocally the best player on the court.
End of story.
All the chant got our team was a pretty irked, freakishly talented basketball player dead set on proving the spectators in the crowd wrong.
Now, I’m not a doctor of these things, but I can tell you pretty definitively that any time a crowd can actually lose a game for their team, it’s a pretty impressive feat, but it’s still not the most impressive – or depressing, depending on how you look at it – part of the crowd’s performance at the game, was their inability to tell the difference between the shot clock and the game clock.
That’s right, a group of college students, in other words – college-educated young adults -, who are all ostensibly basketball fans were unable to tell the difference between a yellow number that counts down from 20:00 and a red number that counts down from 35.
Go Pride