Behind Enemy Lines: Louisville AT Rutgers

7:20 PM - Tuesday, February 22nd

So I'm Rutgers' campus an hour before the game and I have no idea where I'm walking to. So far I'm just following about 20 paces behind a young girl that looks like she's basketball bound...

8:20 PM

Bought a $35 ticket. My seat isn't terrible, but I suspect I'd be better off scalping a ticket next time. If I had any semblance of where I was and who I was giving money to. The RAC is really an old school gym, and its kind of small.

I don't see Pitino or Swopshire, but I see all the other familiar faces.

All the Rutgers fans were patient and polite directing me to my seat. Opted to not wear my UofL gear. Don't think results would have been much different, though.

I got a free Rutgers foam finger. Novelty freebie acquired!

So far so good.

10:00 PM

First half wrap-up:

There was only one point at which this crowd was loud and in support of their team. That was during the opening minute. Since then the only time they've been loud was in groaning when the Rutgers team turned over the ball (this happened often). The fans groaning was almost as loud as their cheering.

I don't understand why Rakeem Buckles is starting for Louisville. Since coming back from his injury, he has contributed negatively to this team. It really seems like the game goes 4-on-5, or even 4-on-6 depending on how many turnovers Buckles contributes. I get Pitino trying to get him back to pre-injury shape, but he has a lot more faith in the young man than I do.

The student section contributes to the majority of the noise generated here in the RAC. And they get it loud quickly. Unfortunately for them, they don't stay consistently engaged. To that point, the entire student section was about as mature and engaged as you would expect of New Jersey fans of a basketball team with a losing record. The opening taunt was to shout "SUCKS!" after each UofL starter's name was announced. The only other taunt they got going was to shout "YOU ARE UGLY" at Chris Smith whenever he went to shoot foul shots. I don't know how or why they settled on him to be their target. He's from NYC. Maybe there's a connection there. The student section itself was about as big as UofL's at home (which speaks to how poorly the Louisville students are regarded), which is about twice as big as Shelby County High School's student section. But, credit where credit is due, whether it was because of the low ceiling or the small capacity of the gym, the student section was able to make a lot of noise on both occasions.

The fans made noise two other times during the game. Once in the second half when Rutgers was making a run. The other time was when Preston Knowles missed a free throw. They actually cheered "Yay!" Not "yeah" or "awesome." "Yay," like a little girl. It made me chuckle.

I hinted at it earlier, but the crowd made more noise groaning or complaining about their team's play than they did cheering or taunting. People were booing in the first half when foul shots were missed. That never bodes well. And the one heckler I heard all night started within the first 6 minutes of gameplay, and 90% of his heckles were against Rutgers. This guy was a real piece of work. The other 10% of his heckles were 1% in the last 5 minutes of gameplay against Pitino ("where's your girlfriend?") and 9% heckles against the Special Olympics youth basketball team that played at halftime ("Dunk it, retard!" / "I thought this was basketball, not kickball!" / "Traveling!" / "Shoot the three!"). I think it might be the most disgusting, most distasteful thing I've ever witnessed at a sporting event: heckling Special Olympics players. He also shouted lewd things at the dance team. Class act. What was comforting was that he was making everyone in attendance grimmace, and I feel confident in saying that not all Rutgers fans were like him. In fact, he stood alone. The Rutgers fans were, for the most part, very tasteful.