The Ball State Daily News
Imagine what it would be like if our home basketball crowd were as rowdy as Duke’s home crowd. Yeah, that thought is completely outrageous. We are in the heart of basketball country, yet we can’t get very excited about our Cardinals. I’ve been to high school basketball games with more hysteria than a good majority of the crowds at University Arena have had.
I can still recall a few times our crowd has been rowdy. One game sticks out clearly, February 21, 1998. It was the game Bonzi Wells broke the Mid American conference scoring record. The Arena was nutty that game. Amazingly, the crowds have dispersed in size since then. The crowd has been crazy a few times since this occasion, mainly this year against Butler, and during the two overtime games.
As it once was said, “What we’ve got here is failure to communicate.” How hard would it be for us to be a little crazier at the basketball games? What more can the University offer students than free tickets to athletic venues. I’m sure before the free ticket disbursement that many students gave excuses such as, “I can’t afford a ticket.” Now we might here, “I don’t really have the time.” How pathetic!
I’ve seen the Cardinal faithful get crazy before, back in the days of Irving Gym. That place was insane, we had fairly good size crowds that were loud. What happened? Could we blame the lack of interest on locals, students or the decline in the basketball programs enthusiasm?
We can only blame ourselves, we’ve had good basketball teams since the good ‘ol days. The crowd has been lacking the intensity and enthusiasm. For example, last week we heckled a student basketball manager for accidentally tripping a little kid, which was fun, but that was as loud as the crowd was the entire game. Now we have a chance to change things, because we sure don’t get much help from the citizens of Muncie. The students make the place crazy, so it’s up to us.
However, I would like to say thanks to the guys who yell at the games, I’m not sure who you are, but you yell some mighty funny things at times. That’s all I’m asking for, a little noise from the student section.
The men’s basketball team is in an interesting position, they are tied for first place in the MAC with Eastern Michigan, whom the Cardinals stomped on Saturday, and they have a good chance of recapturing the lead in the next week or so. The guys put together a fantastic start to the season, defeating Purdue in Indianapolis, and traveling out to California to pound San Diego State. They reeled off 10 wins in a row before hitting a tailspin of sorts a few weeks ago. But now they’re back, the look is in their eyes again. We should be out in full force Wednesday against Western Michigan at University Arena, tip-off is at 7 p.m.
I challenge all you students, faculty members and locals to turn it up a notch on Wednesday night. Let’s make University Arena known for being a little crazy. I’ve seen many of you at parties and know you have the ability to act like fools without any given notice. So why not act stupid with a purpose? Supporting your Cardinals. It’s simple, just join the nearest bandwagon and get yourself over to the Arena. The regulars will show you how it’s done from there on out; you just follow by example.
So, as the MAC season comes to an end and the Cardinals put forth their best effort to make the NCAA tournament, let’s expect the unexpected, a repeat performance of 1991. A trip to the Sweet 16, and a chance at the national title. Hey, the title of my column expects the unexpected.
Good luck fellas!
Write to Scott at scottswain1@hotmail.com
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