“Nearly 1,000 students right on top of the court — instead of spread throughout the entire lower bowl of seats — will make for some great intensity and, hopefully, have a positive impact on the game. No doubt, it will be high energy and a lot of fun.”
That’s what Cassie Werner, director of the Mountaineer Maniacs, the student support group at West Virginia University, said in November when it was announced that the lower student section would go from having seats to being standing-room only.
Guess what, WVU—you got what you asked for.
That decision has led to the most-discussed event off the field in West Virginia athletics since Rich Rodriguez left in December of 2007—the behavior of fans in WVU’s past few games, most notably the last two wins over Louisville and Pitt.
Witness the over 1,000 comments left on ESPN’s posting of the Associated Press story which ran in Wednesday’s News-Tribune, which discussed, among other things, that “the profanity flying out of the West Virginia student section was so loud it could be heard on national television.”
WVU’s student body chanted the name of Karen Sypher, who was part of a scandal involving Louisville coach Rick Pitino, repeatedly.
That didn’t strike me as particularly offensive, but that’s just my opinion.
University Vice President for Student Affairs Ken Gray has sent
out at least two e-mails, to my knowledge, telling the students to stop using profanity.
The one before the Pitt game discussed not using, as the AP story called it, “a certain three-word phrase”, which all West Virginia fans know all too well.
Did things change Wednesday night? Not really, but it’s the Pitt-WVU game....did anybody really expect it to?
The Backyard Brawl always carries an extra energy and intensity, but especially in a situation where both teams were ranked, which was the case this time around.
Water bottles were thrown onto the court during the Mountaineers’ 70-51 win over the Panthers, prompting WVU coach Bob Huggins to take the public address microphone and address the student body.
“Hey, don’t throw anything on the floor,” Huggins said. “You’re going to hurt one of the players ... that’s stupid. That is stupid. Hey, if anybody sees somebody throwing stuff on the floor, point ‘em out so we can throw ‘em out of here.”
It appeared to me that Huggins nearly used one of the “magic words” that the student body was criticized for using, which would have been ironic.
A Facebook group has already been started by a WVU alum to disband the Maniacs.
Blaming the students completely is inaccurate, though.
Late in the game, Pitt assistant coach Tom Herrion was struck by an object that appeared to be thrown from behind the Pitt bench—which is not a student seating area.
“I think the fans throwing stuff out on the court was wrong. They wouldn’t want the teams standing above them throwing stuff at them,” Huggins said of the fans’ actions after the game.
“You want them to be enthusiastic and they’ve been terrific. I love them to death, but whoever threw things on the floor is dumb. you just can’t do that. You’re putting people’s safety at risk and it’s not a good thing to do. I get upset. I usually don’t have a water bottle, but when I have one, I haven’t thrown it yet,” Huggins joked.
On Thursday, a “appalled and embarrassed” university president Jim Clemens released a statement saying that “boorish and unruly behavior by our fans will not be tolerated.”
It was also rumored on Friday that WVU intended to halve the number of seats in the student section for Monday’s game against No. 2 Villanova.
That would serve the dual purpose of sending the students a message, and (shhhh) allow the University to get more revenue from the general public for a game between two Top Ten programs that were picked 1-2 in the preseason BIG EAST poll.
But instead, the university will videotape the student section and increase penalties.
“There are probably 15 proposals people are discussing that go from more cameras, more policemen, the amount of students in the lower section and many more,” Clements told the media on Thursday night. “I don’t know that many of us want to limit the number of students at the Coliseum, though.”
Am I condoning this bad behavior? No, but to say that the problem is just a WVU one is a fantasy.
It’s been five years since a couch was burned in celebration of a West Virginia victory (or in disappointment after a loss), and still that stigma hangs over the University’s reputation. It’s what WVU is known for nationally by neutral sports fans.
This problem isn’t going to go away any time soon, either.