This is a few days late, but since nobody besides me watched, or gave a shit, that UWGB rolled up then 6th ranked Butler the other night, I thought I could write this now and be OK. See, after the win, the UWGB fans stormed the court like they had just won a championship of some sort. To be fair, according to my cursory review of UWGB basketball history, this is only the third ever home win over a ranked opponent, so it was a very big win for the program and everyone should be excited. But I have a number of problems with the storming of the court:
1) Last week the student section appeared to have about 30 people in it. So the majority of the people storming the court are bandwagon jumpers, and shouldn't have the right to act that excited.
2) UWGB is still in second place after the win.
3) It was a regular season game, that was really for nothing other than bragging rights, and seedings, seeing as UWGB has ZERO chance at an at-large bid, and Butler is probably getting one anyway.
4) It wasn't THAT big of an upset.
In my mind there is a series of rules that need to be followed before court storming is appropriate. As Walter says, "This isn't 'Nam. There are rules!!!". If any one of these things happens, a storming is appropriate. I am happy to provide such a list:
1) The win clinches an NCAA birth. Even if you are Duke and you go every year, it is hard to do, and a celebration is warranted. There is nothing cooler than a really small mid-major doing this after their first appearance in 45 years.
2) You are unranked, and the win is against the number one ranked team. Not 6, not 20, but NUMBER ONE.
3) The win is a monumental upset. If you are the last place team and beat a ranked opponent for the first time ever, it is acceptable ONCE. If you are historically terrible and you snap a losing streak to that team that is more than 20 games long, it is acceptable, ONCE.
4) It is a hotly contested conference game, between good rivals, and the game ends on a miraculous buzzer beater. If the sheer emotion of the ending ends in the players in a pile up, the fans are allowed to join in.
5) You win a national title.
That's it. That's the list. The storming of the court in Green Bay earlier in the week was amateur hour.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
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6 comments:
On that topic, I tried to catch the end of the Duke/Clemson game last night. I missed it by a couple minutes, but I did see Clemson fans celebrating on the court. That was what, 10 beating 3? Simply pitiful.
Clemson also had a twenty game losing streak going against Duke going into the game and it was an absolute beat down
Ah, but I'm not sure if I consider Clemson historically terrible. Although I suppose if you were listing all ACC teams, I guess they would be near the bottom. If the losing streak was 20, I'll accept it.
Sports Bottle's just angry that there was an ACC story that didn't involve UNC
I don't care what the streak is, if you're ranked in the top 10 it's not court stormable to beat anyone. It makes a team seem inferior and an ACC team in the top 10 should not appear that way.
The ACC is fairly inferior this year. The bottom of the conference is not good at all. I'll give you Duke and Wake and MAYBE Clemson and Va Tech. Oh, and there is an outside chance that UNC MIGHT be OK.
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