PSU @ #25 Portland, Wednesday 12/2/09, 7pm

The best college basketball experience I've ever had was two years ago at a Willamette game against Linfield. We were trying to make a push to get to the conference tourney (only the top four teams go in the NWC), and we needed a win. There's usually 100-200 students in our section, but since it was a Tuesday night at 8:00 p.m., there were 40, tops.

And we brought it. Screaming, yelling, waving printed-out Facebook pictures of Linfield's star player wearing a bra. My friend listening on the radio was convinced we had 200-300 people there. And you know what? Willamette came back from five down in the last minute and won on a layup as time expired.

Four days later, we hosted Lewis & Clark. A bunch of people who'd heard about Tuesday night showed up, and we had around 250 people. The atmosphere was dead. D-E-A-D.

UP's student turnout for the game was impressive, no doubt. But I'd rather have 50 rowdies and win than 500 silent and lose.

$0.02.

Thank you everyone for your thoughts and feedback. The wheels are already in motion on this.

If you have any further ideas/thoughts/comments, please feel free to add them here, or send me a private message.

PilotNut wrote:Thank you everyone for your thoughts and feedback. The wheels are already in motion on this.

If you have any further ideas/thoughts/comments, please feel free to add them here, or send me a private message.

You know where to find me...in the band with the wig.

PPT I always wonder why they make that anouncement at the start of most Portland games I've attended about having good SPORTSMANSHIP and respect for both teams , fans, and the officials lol.J/K

I think I know why now . That still doesn't stop me from "refereeing" the game, especially when "Big Game" Dave was making the calls. He and now his protege's are fair game in my book, they are supposed to be paid professionals

ShipstadPilot11 wrote:Could we have used an athletic 6'3" guard last night to come off the bench and provide a spark when we were looking flat?

Very much so. I hope he is back soon.

It was confirmed that he is still in school and attending classes. So that is good. Hopefully things will get ironed out and he can join the team again very soon.

I do agree with everyone else that the band playing more would be a very good thing. It was also good to hear the "clap your hands" song several times to try to get the crowd going (I sit on the old people side, so the song name is not something I know).

The "Cha Cha Slide" by DJ Casper... I'm assuming that's what you mean...

MesaPilot1 wrote:PPT I always wonder why they make that anouncement at the start of most Portland games I've attended about having good SPORTSMANSHIP and respect for both teams , fans, and the officials lol.J/K

I think I know why now . That still doesn't stop me from "refereeing" the game, especially when "Big Game" Dave was making the calls. He and now his protege's are fair game in my book, they are supposed to be paid professionals

Sometimes I make suggestions to Libbey and pals. Other times I give the other players "advice" on shot selection, not turning it over, fouling, etc. I also gave coaching tips since we used to sit right in front of the bench.

I think you offered an alternative interpretation of a referee's call that one time, too...

Personally, i loved the old "unofficial" PP. Got the crowd going for any game. I remember playing against a mediocre Pepp team and the crowd was pumping. and i'm pretty sure we werent half the team the guys are today.

its too bad that their is no fire in the crowd. everything snowballs when the crowd is good. crowd pumps up team which pumps up crowd etc etc

I think we need to go back to the classic UP student section. Two rows of rowdies yelling all game, three empty rows, and the rest of the studnet section sitting down watching the game and making comments about the true fans.

mattywizz wrote:I think we need to go back to the classic UP student section. Two rows of rowdies yelling all game, three empty rows, and the rest of the studnet section sitting down watching the game and making comments about the true fans.

I mean there is something true to that...I just remember all of the big games (Gonzaga or any ESPN game) coming into the arena and seeing girls with their face painted and a nice sign that hadn't been at any of the games all year in the first row. I noticed that again last night (without the sign) but it wasn't the same people in the front couple of rows that were at the first couple of rows.

Oh well. It is in the past and hopefully moving forward we will grow and get better. I am ready for Idaho so we can put this behind us.