Editorial: WVU students proved fandom Big Monday

The Daily Athenaeum would like to thank the West Virginia University student fans who braved freezing temperatures, lined for hours and acted with class during Monday’s basketball game.

It was a wonderful display of fandom that showed the country that the Pitt game was nothing short of uncharacteristic.

In a statement, West Virginia University had a similar message.

"I want to thank our fans, especially the students, for the way in which they enthusiastically supported our team tonight," University President James P. Clements said after the game in a release. "They packed the Coliseum and were loud and spirited – but respectful. That’s how a sporting event should be."

Had the game been a little closer throughout, it would have been the best crowd of the season.

After such criticism from this newspaper, other teams’ fans and other media outlets across the state and the country, it was a nice way to silence the critics.

We hope we don’t have to bring up fan behavior during games up ever again.

But we want to get something straight.

The DA was not out in any way to ruin the atmosphere in the Coliseum. We reported on a story that every newspaper in the state reported on.

Because it is a mainly a student issue, it is our job to cover it. And, because we are students ourselves, we should cover it better than everyone else.

A few asked why the DA didn’t write an article applauding the fans in Tuesday’s newspaper after many of the articles criticizing them.

With the bad weather and the lack of time dealing with an early deadline, we decided to wait. But, here it is.

Like head coach Bob Huggins, we know how important the students are to a basketball game.

We are not out to get the students. Instead, we are just doing our jobs and will fight for the students when we feel the student body has been wrongly punished.

When the fans threw items onto the floor, we wrote a story. When WVU was about to take away student seats, we wrote a story.

We wrote about the changes for Monday’s game, as well. Our columnists have their own opinions, and they are printed as such.

We didn’t write a front-page story Tuesday or today because there is no story anymore.

The fact is, most students don’t throw things on the court. But all WVU fans are associated with the questionable actions of a few.

It’s unfair if you have done everything right as a fan.

Monday night, the fans did everything right – proving to the WVU administration and the country all the talk after the Pitt game really wasn’t true.

It was exactly what needed to happen.
 

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5 comments

bwilli

Wed Feb 10 2010 14:52

Its rather deterministic to attribute the reticent attitudes of thousands to a DA article.

Dave

Wed Feb 10 2010 12:11

I applaud the DA for recognizing the lack of an incident with fans Monday night, although I still disagree with how the DA covered the story. The students did seem scared to cheer much, because they didn't seem to know what they could or could not say (remember, they got hammered for the 'Karen Sypher' change, even though it contained no profanity).

I do not believe that the DA collectively was out to kill the atmosphere in the student section (although could have been the motive of some individual writers, I don't know), but rather that ended up being a side effect. However I think the DA, or at least some of their writers, ran with the story because they knew they would get a lot of publicity out of it (got mentions in ESPN and AP articles).

I think many of the articles were unfair to WVU students (you mention in this article that "The fact is, most students don’t throw things on the court. But all WVU fans are associated with the questionable actions of a few. It’s unfair if you have done everything right as a fan", but that sense of fairness was largely absent from the DA coverage of the story, when articles, such as the one that called for the suspension of the entire student section, were published). Rather than being forced to defend your actions, in the future it might be wise to be more balanced and consider all sides of the story instead of, for example, being overwhelmingly negative, as was the case this time. The FANS (it wasn't just the students, although that is not the impression you would have gotten from reading some of the articles published) that threw things on the court deserve all the scorn they received, but that scorn should not have been extended to the well behaved fans, which constitute a majority of the Gold and Blue. I would respect the DA staff more if they would merely admit that they weren't entirely fair but learned from the mistake and will try to do better in the future.

Woody Paige's Long Lost Son

Wed Feb 10 2010 09:58

Yeah, you gotta love how the DA gets what they wanted; a subdued and SCARED student section. Looks like Jay Mariotti won't have to look far to find his "Around the Horn" replacement...

Anonymous

Wed Feb 10 2010 07:34

I like how half of this article is the DA defending themselves. If you guys "did your job" then why are you worried about it? Just do what the title says and write about how good the students were.

Anonymous

Tue Feb 9 2010 21:58

Yeah! ESPN even commented on how subdued the students were! Villanova shot better FTs than they have at any other Big East away game! Good for them!
But learn to title your pieces for Christ's sake. "DA is always right", "DA behaved perfectly" would have worked better. Don't defend the DA in an article you claim is about the students.

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