Tomorrow night is the second home men's basketball game of the season and since many of the upperclassmen will be fulfilling obligations on Prospect Avenue, residential colleges, it's your chance to show what a good crowd is all about. We need the practice before the whole country has the chance to see what Princeton hoops fans are all about next week on ESPN2 when the Tigers face No. 5 Kansas.
So, since I have the chance, I'm going to give my top five ways to make watching men's hoops a more exciting experience.
1) Get out of Jadwin Gym - I know this one's a little unrealistic, but the last game Princeton played against Rider before last week was in 1946. It was the year after University Gym burnt down and the year before Dillon Gym opened. Since there was nowhere else to put a basketball game, the two teams faced off in Baker Rink.
I'm sure it was a better atmosphere than playing in the airplane hangar they call Jadwin Gym.
2) Get rid of the ads - Except for the Super Bowl, one of the benefits of going to a live sporting event that everyone agrees on is the lack of ads.
Except if you go to a Princeton game.
Every stoppage of a basketball or hockey game when there could be music or cheering is instead filled with pleas to join the Princeton Athletics Corporate team, buy an Infiniti or do your banking with Fleet.
It's bad enough that a college team has huge corporate banners hanging above the visiting bleachers, but we don't need to be attacked by advertising timeout after timeout.
In order for the games to be an exciting place to be, the people have to be excited. The chance to attend the Varsity Club luncheon or put a banner above the Princeton bench is not getting students excited.
3) Wear orange - I wrote about this last year. It's not very hard, and I figure athletics will probably help at some point in the near future by handing out t-shirts, but bright, fluorescent orange is one of the few things that really makes the student section look unified.
4) "Sit down, you suck" - One of the few cheers that Princeton fans have consistently been successful at starting, finishing and making sound good in my four years was pretty much ignored during the game against Rider.
For those who have never experienced the cheer, as the opposing coach pulls one of his players from the game the student section crescendos with an "oh" of anticipation until the player assumes his seat on the bench - when he is instantly reminded of why he was taken out of the game in the first place.
Some opposing players will try to be sneaky and wait until a Princeton player is shooting to rest his legs - in these situations wait until the shot is gone and then yell — it still works.
Some people have said that the cheer is juvenile and as Princeton students we should be able to do better.
This is probably true.
It's also some of the most fun you'll have. There's a sense of spirit and togetherness you won't feel in lecture, precept or any other Princeton activity.
We do enough work, have some fun for a few hours.
5) Start a cheer of your own - So, you agree with the fact that "sit down, you suck" isn't a very good cheer.
Start your own.
On Jan. 7, 1998, during men's basketball dismantling of Brown, 67-45, there was a chant that started up with about a minute remaining on the clock.
"Let's get naked!" chanted the crowd.
Yes, it was the night of the final Nude Olympics.
I don't expect that cheer to start up again, but let's get something going tomorrow and especially next Wednesday. I want to be proud to be a Princeton hoops fan.
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