West Virginia University will not take student seating away at Monday’s men’s basketball game against Villanova.
Instead, to combat bad student behavior, the University will videotape the student section during games and increase security starting Monday, said WVU Vice President for Student Affairs Ken Gray.
"We’re entering a zero-tolerance phase for all fans," Gray said.
Discussions focused on not just students, but all fans. Gray said if a fan is caught throwing items on the court, he or she could lose season tickets.
"This type of conduct won’t be tolerated here at WVU, and if more sanctions need to be imposed, we will discuss those at the appropriate time," Gray said.
Fans who see any inappropriate behavior or unruly conduct are advised to text "AID" to 94597.
The University released an official statement stating it was "appalled and embarrassed by the fan behavior at the Pitt men’s basketball game."
WVU President James P. Clements said the conversations are not finished and decisions are not final. He said changes to the plan could be added up to Monday in preparation for the Villanova game.
"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 said. "I don’t know that many of us want to limit the number of students at the Coliseum, though."
Students threw items onto the court following a controversial call during Wednesday’s game against Pittsburgh, prompting WVU head coach Bob Huggins to take the microphone and call those actions "stupid."
Later in the game, a Pittsburgh assistant coach was hit with a quarter by a fan. The coach had a noticeable bruise on his face after the game.
Following the game, the incident received national attention including segments on ESPN’s SportsCenter.
"Because of our competitiveness and our national ranking, it’s going to be the first thing on when you turn on SportsCenter talking about WVU and bad fan behavior," Clements said. "We don’t want that."
At Wednesday morning’s basketball practice facility groundbreaking, Clements took time in his speech to commend Huggins for his actions during the game.
He later elaborated on the situation.
"We’ve got to find a way to make this an environment where there’s a lot of energy and have a lot of impact on the game but do it in a classy way," Clements said.
At the groundbreaking, WVU Athletic Director Ed Pastilong said he expected to hear from Big East Conference officials on the matter.
Big East Director of Communications Chuck Sullivan said the behavior was not at the level for conference officials to immediately step in with a punishment, however.
He said normal procedure for the conference is to wait until a university has made a decision on how it would try to correct the behavior and discuss further if a university’s decision was not suitable.
"I don’t know that Pitt has reached out formally, but it could take up to a few days for information gathering to take place,"
Sullivan said.
He added WVU and the Big East would likely have informal conversations about an issue like this and discuss how to resolve it without the conference forced to make a decision.
The Mountaineer Maniacs will send out a form to members asking students how to improve the behaviors.
"The general student is not happy with what’s going on," said Mountaineer Maniacs Director Cassie Werner. "We’re just going to have to decide as a student section and a University that there’s certain behavior that we’re not going to tolerate."
She said the game Monday against Villanova is chance "to show that Mountaineer Nation is much better than this."
WVU’s Student Government Association President Jason Zuccari agreed.
"The number one priority is the safety of our fans, the players and everyone involved," Zuccari said. "As students, we have to step up. We don’t want to cost us a game for the team."
At meetings involving officials from the University and Athletic Department organized by Gray, sources said it was decided to limit the number of students attending the WVU/Villanova basketball game Monday to 1,600. The students at the Pitt basketball game Wednesday totaled 3,300.
Gray said the group talked about a range of options, including decreasing the number of students. There were no talks of completely banning students for a game, he added.
"But as you can see from the final decision that was made, that was not the decision," Gray said.
No student officials, including Student Government Association members or Mountaineer Maniacs, were in attendance at the meeting. Gray said he had a meeting with those students earlier in the week and didn’t feel it necessary to include them in Wednesday’s all-day meeting.
Clements said students have to be involved in the process.
"If you’re talking about affecting the students, you have to have student input," he said. "In order to solve this, it’s going to take a community effort."
Sources said the decision was reversed later with support from top administrators at the University.
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