USD Basketball Frustrations

I've been mulling over getting a blog for a few months now. It's easy to blog when things are going well. Words move more smoothly across the page and it is much easier to write about things. Now that times are tough, however, I think that I need to put my thoughts on paper. There are a lot of them jingling around my head like bells on a reindeer.

First off is my embarrassment. In my two years at USD, I have missed one game: Cal State Bakersfield. Over those two years we have taken some terrible losses. San Jose State, Stephen F Austin, CS Bakersfield and Marshall name only a few. Never in my two years have I seen anything like Monday night.

I understand the need to make money. In this terrible economy, it is a must to earn the quick dollar when it is available. Yes, Boise State's football team was in town. Yes, they just happen to travel well. Yes, we needed to take advantage of this. No, we did not go about it correctly. I can understand giving Boise State a standard group rate to make things easier for them, but a discount is absolutely unacceptable. By giving Boise State fans a reduced price, you are shorting your own fans who are there for you game in and game out. I've seen several people who go out and buy tickets to every game they can, but we don't give them a discount. We are slapping them in the face and telling them that they are not good enough. Boise State should not have received the discount they did and by no means should have been aloud to sit in and around our student section. This was our fist fuck up, but it gets worse.

The band and cheerleader situation was completely fumbled on the part of the administration. I'm sure that we wanted to be good hosts and welcome in our foes with class and dignity. In doing so we ignored our number one responsibility: the players. The players were clearly shell shocked in warm ups. Devin Ginty said it best when he yelled over the band..."Turn our god damned music up." I'm sure that the administration meant no harm in welcoming in the band and Boise State's beautiful cheerleaders, but they caused a pretty severe psychological disadvantage to our team. There is an element that these players have grown accustomed to when playing at home. Sure there aren't a ton of students who come during Christmas break and the stands tend to be pretty sparse, but they are allowed to listen to their warm up music and feel comfortable with the game at hand. By putting the band and cheerleaders right on top of them, we took that away. The administration, in a nutshell, lost them the game before it even started. The blame is completely on them.

The last point I would like to make is how very disappointed I am in the students at USD. I know that we just got off for break on Friday, but to have only six students in the student section and one who ran off to be Diego is really pathetic. Of the 5,000 undergrad and 2,000 grad that we have at this school, about 50% of you live in or around San Diego. I know that we're three days away from Christmas and many of you have family matters, but this cannot excuse all of you. This is a good basketball team that, with a little help, could really make a push for conference if you just showed up. We have a beautiful arena with a very good team and hell, you get free tickets. There is absolutely no reason for you not to go. Your act of not supporting your teams and being selfish is really tired. We have done many things to get you out there and you continually ignore our attempts. You are a pre Madonna lot with non existent school spirit and, as of today, I am ashamed to associate myself with you. You embarrass not only me, but your school and your players. You should be ashamed.