Tieguy sent us his impressions of the game and the Crazies. We're always
interested in hearing from any Crazies who heard cool stuff during the game, so
send it in!
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Well, when I showed up at the stadium today about an hour and a half
before gametime, there were all of 70 students in the student section.
I've never in four years seen anything quite like that before- a
virtually empty Cameron, with players on the floor and shooting. It was,
frankly, pretty pathetic. By game time, though, about 3/4 of the student
section was full, which while not great, is not too bad for a game which
was basically not mentioned in the Chronicle.(1)
Despite the mediocre attendance, I was actually pretty impressed by the
crowd- volume was good, and I think generally more consistently loud and
spirited than most of last year (up until the very end.) Despite good
attendance last year, crowds were flat and lacked energy, even at most ACC
games. That was not the case today- the center of the court was actively
leading cheers (or so it seemed from the baseline) and people picked up
cheers quickly and well. These are good signs for the rest of the year.
Creativity was unfortunately not at a high point (one of my all-time
favorites was "Velcome Austrians" from this game my freshman year) but
there were several good ones that never quite got going- "Go Back Under,"
"Frank's got hemorrhoids,(2)" and "Too Much Fosters(3)" being favorites.
I also heard some good suggestions by freshmen- very important.
Anyway, it was certainly not the Crazies best- attendance was incredibly
weak, even for an exhibition game. But I think there were some good
signs, and once people get to know this team, things will be back to
normal in good old Cameron.
my two cents-
tieguy
(1)In the students' defense- the Chronicle did not even mention the game,
and most students get their info from the Chron. So far this season, the
three pre-season games (including the women's against Russia) have merited
(as far as I can tell) a grand total of one photo and caption _before_
the games. While I appreciate that they have a lot to report on, even a
quarter-pager mentioning the game and attempting to preview the
opponent's strengths and weaknesses can (I believe) make a huge difference in
attendance, and has certainly been a regular occurrence in years past.
(2)An Australian player named Frank fouled out and refused to sit for the
crazies, leading to this (unfortunately poorly followed) cheer.
(3)A fourth player Aussie player fouled out late in the second half. This
would have left them with basically only five players, so the refs
charged the foul to someone else. At least that is what it looked like to
us- it may have been honest confusion. But either way, "too much fosters :)"