F
fifthqbI had a student ticket for the tournament. I really enjoyed the tournament this year and a mostly positive experience. The San Diego game was a good time. It was nice seeing BYU fans throughout vegas for a few days. However, there are a few lasting impressions from the game I thought would be worth stating.
It's not true that BYU fans boo all the calls that come against us. But, 95% of the time that is true. At times the valid foul calls are obvious but are still booed. I believe the reason for this is two fold 1) Lack of general basketball knowledge 2) We can't believe they would call yet another foul on us after screwing us over so badly.
I thought the refs last night were god-awful for the first 6-7 minutes than after that they weren't bad. The problem was that the damage was done with the initial 9-3 foul calls in favor of Gonzaga.
There were several altercations between BYU and Gonzaga fans during the game. The first was with a drink being thrown on Gonzaga fans. It seemed like the drink throw came at the tail end of some sincere attempts to initiate something from Gonzaga fans. The rumors that made it over to the students were that certain anti-mormon comments had crossed the line. Still, the BYU fan did throw the drink first.
The second one was right above the student section in the portal. There appeared to be a Gonzaga fan coming into the BYU sections to try and taunt the fans. Some BYU fans were not ok with this move. They attempted to stop the Gonzaga fan from going any farther and that when the fight started.
Both incidents were not well received by either fan base.
The BYU student section was disappointing. The students on the front row, who had spent all year yelling at other students to do this-or-that actually sat down 9 minutes into the game. I yelled at them to stand up or get out of the student section and I was quickly told to F*** off and flipped off. I told them they were a joke and I'd see them in church on sunday. They didn't like that and said to calm down or else. It was pretty comical, yet a little embarrassing for the fans. They stood the rest of the game and cheered as they could.
The student section was hurt by being separated from the cheerleaders and band as they were on the other side of the arena. The only cheers that had any cohesion to them were the blank yelling and "defense". Our students sat down during Time-Out's and were mocked for it.
The Gonzaga fans managed to embarrass themselves on several occasions. Their students kept chanting "Why So Quiet" during free throws. You think they would be a little smarter than to ask that question during a free throw. For fans that pride themselves on being knowledgeable about the game, this was quite humorous.
BYU fans were incredible outnumbered. I'm not quite sure how that happened, but I was impressed by the number of Gonzaga fans. Their adult sections were much more active in actively cheering during the game than ours were. They were generally louder. However, for complaining about us booing every call they booed their fair share. Many would stand and "thumbs down" everything that was positive for BYU. Some even to our cheerleaders.
Cosmo made spike look silly in a dance off thing. It wasn't even close.
It seemed like Gonzaga was the better team and deserved to win the game. Turnovers were costly and poor shooting doomed us.
However, I could not have been more disappointed in the overall level of class displayed by Gonzaga fans. Prior to the game every where I went in the Casino I was resoundingly booed and many times told to go hell and to "F..." myself. These were not good humored boos. I literally felt like I was walking around a Casino filled with drunk Utah Fans. I cannot stress the fact that this was not an isolated incident. I encountered 3, yes 3, Gonzaga fans prior to the game who were cordial and respectful. It was very common to hear jokes about garments, word of wisdom, missions, honor code, plural marriage, racism etc.
I had much higher expectations for Gonzaga.
At the end of the game the lower part of the student section chanted "Good Game Zaga" which was met with applause and appreciation from the band and some nearby Gonzaga fans. To their credit most of the cheers leaving the arena were in support of Gonzaga and not anything like "BYU sucks". While waiting for the traffic I was told "good game" several times and some even talked for a minute and were nice. It helped to erase some of the stain on their university.
Regretfully a lasting impression of this experience is in my mind. I don't believe I will be able to support the Gonzaga basketball team from this point on. I hope they lose to St. Marys and I hope they lose the first round of the tournament. I have much respect for their coach, players and standards their university proclaims, but the overwhelmingly poor behavior of the fans has left much to be desired.
It's not true that BYU fans boo all the calls that come against us. But, 95% of the time that is true. At times the valid foul calls are obvious but are still booed. I believe the reason for this is two fold 1) Lack of general basketball knowledge 2) We can't believe they would call yet another foul on us after screwing us over so badly.
I thought the refs last night were god-awful for the first 6-7 minutes than after that they weren't bad. The problem was that the damage was done with the initial 9-3 foul calls in favor of Gonzaga.
There were several altercations between BYU and Gonzaga fans during the game. The first was with a drink being thrown on Gonzaga fans. It seemed like the drink throw came at the tail end of some sincere attempts to initiate something from Gonzaga fans. The rumors that made it over to the students were that certain anti-mormon comments had crossed the line. Still, the BYU fan did throw the drink first.
The second one was right above the student section in the portal. There appeared to be a Gonzaga fan coming into the BYU sections to try and taunt the fans. Some BYU fans were not ok with this move. They attempted to stop the Gonzaga fan from going any farther and that when the fight started.
Both incidents were not well received by either fan base.
The BYU student section was disappointing. The students on the front row, who had spent all year yelling at other students to do this-or-that actually sat down 9 minutes into the game. I yelled at them to stand up or get out of the student section and I was quickly told to F*** off and flipped off. I told them they were a joke and I'd see them in church on sunday. They didn't like that and said to calm down or else. It was pretty comical, yet a little embarrassing for the fans. They stood the rest of the game and cheered as they could.
The student section was hurt by being separated from the cheerleaders and band as they were on the other side of the arena. The only cheers that had any cohesion to them were the blank yelling and "defense". Our students sat down during Time-Out's and were mocked for it.
The Gonzaga fans managed to embarrass themselves on several occasions. Their students kept chanting "Why So Quiet" during free throws. You think they would be a little smarter than to ask that question during a free throw. For fans that pride themselves on being knowledgeable about the game, this was quite humorous.
BYU fans were incredible outnumbered. I'm not quite sure how that happened, but I was impressed by the number of Gonzaga fans. Their adult sections were much more active in actively cheering during the game than ours were. They were generally louder. However, for complaining about us booing every call they booed their fair share. Many would stand and "thumbs down" everything that was positive for BYU. Some even to our cheerleaders.
Cosmo made spike look silly in a dance off thing. It wasn't even close.
It seemed like Gonzaga was the better team and deserved to win the game. Turnovers were costly and poor shooting doomed us.
However, I could not have been more disappointed in the overall level of class displayed by Gonzaga fans. Prior to the game every where I went in the Casino I was resoundingly booed and many times told to go hell and to "F..." myself. These were not good humored boos. I literally felt like I was walking around a Casino filled with drunk Utah Fans. I cannot stress the fact that this was not an isolated incident. I encountered 3, yes 3, Gonzaga fans prior to the game who were cordial and respectful. It was very common to hear jokes about garments, word of wisdom, missions, honor code, plural marriage, racism etc.
I had much higher expectations for Gonzaga.
At the end of the game the lower part of the student section chanted "Good Game Zaga" which was met with applause and appreciation from the band and some nearby Gonzaga fans. To their credit most of the cheers leaving the arena were in support of Gonzaga and not anything like "BYU sucks". While waiting for the traffic I was told "good game" several times and some even talked for a minute and were nice. It helped to erase some of the stain on their university.
Regretfully a lasting impression of this experience is in my mind. I don't believe I will be able to support the Gonzaga basketball team from this point on. I hope they lose to St. Marys and I hope they lose the first round of the tournament. I have much respect for their coach, players and standards their university proclaims, but the overwhelmingly poor behavior of the fans has left much to be desired.