It’s no secret that it’s always tough to be a basketball team at a football school, and at Virginia Tech he rule stands. So when the Hokie men’s basketball team dropped nine out of their last thirteen games, students didn’t take it too well. It’s the dirty little half secret that a lot of Tech students don’t want to admit, but the support has never fully been there. You hear a lot of chitter chatter around campus such as: “We support our basketball team, they’re just not that good, blah blah blah blah.”
SHUT UP.
I realize that basketball is (kind of) more of a niche sport than football, and that the games aren’t as big of a deal as games in Lane Stadium are, none of that gives you an excuse to be ignorant about the team. They need your support even though their games aren’t a social event, and are actually focused around the sport.
Students pride themselves on being great fans, known for packing a house and being loud. Why, then, do you stop going to games? Why do you leave early? Are you really that complacent as student fans that the games don’t even matter any more?
I was at the Georgia Tech game. My girlfriends parents got tickets, so I was sitting on the side opposite of the student section, or what used to be called the student section. I was looking at sections of 4, 6 sometimes even 8 seats in a row that were empty. Some of them were in the front row!
All I’ve been hearing this entire year is BS whining:
“Fire Greenberg, he can’t get it done anymore.”
“All this team does is underachieve.”
“All this team does is lose when it matters.”
“Why should we even go to games when they don’t matter?”
First of all, I realize “everyone has an opinion” and all that jazz…but you can not drop this back on the coach just yet. Saying to fire Greenberg is just a cop out. He’s a damn good coach, a much better one than to be used as a scapegoat for a season that, while it has had a lot of ups and downs, has been competitive. Greenberg plays 4 true freshman heavy minutes, and had to replace most of their offense/notorious black holes in Malcolm “Ballsohard” Delaney and Jeff “The Big Doughnut” Allen.
People, freshman make mistakes. Freshman don’t always play up to the standards of the fans. Even Anthony Davis and Austin Rivers make mistakes. Want to know why? BECAUSE THEY’RE FRESHMAN!! THEY ARE 18 FREAKING YEARS OLD!!!
So students, before you freak out that the team has more losses than the football team(which I think is one reason that basketball fluctuates in popularity with the students, they’re used to only 2-3 losses a season), please think.
Stop hating, because this team isn’t as bad as you say. Maybe I’m being too positive, but I’m absolutely sick of people leaving at halftime, or simply just not showing up.
We beat Georgia Tech on a buzzer beater in overtime. It was awesome. ¾ of the entire coliseum was losing its mind. The other ¼? The student section, whose 200 people were cheering, but most of the others left early or simply just didn’t show up.
If you’re one of those people, do the team a favor. Give your ticket to someone who cares. Stop signing up for the ticket lottery and then not go. Don’t buy season tickets just so you can see Carolina and Duke.
In summary, stop making the students look as bad as you do, because some of us care about the team, whether they are 20-12 or 12-20.
Going For Three 