COLUMN: USU fans’ common sense may be overrated
I have always thought that USU basketball fans were a good group of people; they bring excitement into the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum and allow for a very nice home court advantage. But, on Saturday night during the Pacific game our fans showed their true form, classless attendees that shouldn’t be let in the doors. I am sad to be a student for the poor choice in actions by a select few.
Now that comment isn’t directed toward everyone but there is a large portion that it will tag. There were those fans who knew to keep their mouth shut and not chant things that can boost a teams morale to come back with 27 seconds to put the score within two and then another three with 2.4 seconds in the game to end it.
The chant of “overrated”, which started with about a minute to go was an act of stupidity and the person(s) who started it should be ashamed to be an Aggie. Now, while I understand this chant was started in the heat of the moment this was a very unwise thing to do. We should have been chanting something else like “defense” to give our team more motivation to hold them, but instead we chose the low road.
On the radio, Al Lewis discussed that the referees were the ones who made some questionable calls and gave Pacific the chance to catch up. Spencer Nelson talked about the loss chalking it up to the team losing the game. Neither of these could be further from the truth. While there may have been some bonehead calls by the refs or some less that perfect plays executed by the team, the fans are what sealed the Aggies’ fate.
The thing that I can’t comprehend is why would people even want to chant something like “overrated” anyway? What is the purpose of this? Do we not want to play good teams? Are we just out for the easy win and total domination? By chanting that stupid chant we lessen what the men have worked so hard for this season. They deserve to play teams that are good and will make them improve their game. Whoever started that moronic roar was making fun of the Aggies as well as the obviously underrated Pacific team.
All chanting aside the thing that really made me upset to be an Aggie was the fact that “fans”, if you even want to call them that, started to throw things at the end of the game. What the hell were they thinking? Those select few who threw objects onto the court should be banned from all athletic events at Utah State and every other venue for the rest of their lives!
There is no need to throw objects at the referees or the opposing team. These actions make everyone lose respect for the Aggie name, and the team as well. Understandably this is why Pacific Coach Bob Thomason said he would never schedule another game against us. I think any coach whose team was treated as poorly as his was would feel the same way. Why would you want to play in an atmosphere that could potentially turn violent and risk injury to your players?
I know that Coach Thomason may never read this but I would like to offer an apology from Aggie fans and myself. I know we all feel the same way. We are sorry that some of the “fans” acted the way that they did; we hope that your comments on never playing here again stemmed from anger at the poor showing by our fans. This is a great rivalry and something that should be continued even though we are leaving the Big West Conference.
By the time the game was over on Saturday night, there was only thing “overrated”, and those were the brains of thousands of students who are supposedly in college developing their minds.
John Zsiray is a Utah Statesman photographer. Comments can be sent to jzsiray@cc.usu.edu.