Mississippi State basketball fans provided an electric atmosphere during Tuesday’s game against the Kentucky Wildcats. Throughout most of the game, ESPN commentators complimented the team’s effort against the No. 2 team and the record crowd for making the environment as dynamic and rousing as possible.
Then, as overtime wound to its final seconds and it was clear the game would not end with the Bulldogs on top, everything changed. A few fans threw objects onto the court, one of them nearly hitting a referee.
The line was crossed. It’s one thing to be rowdy in the stands; it’s another to potentially hurt someone on the court. As much emotion as fans invest into basketball, it’s only a game, and it’s certainly not worth potentially injuring a person over.
Sure, some will point to the seemingly-biased officiating. Yes, it is true that the referees made some questionable calls, most notably several ticky fouls on Jarvis Varnado which caused him to foul out and an obvious John Wall goaltend in overtime that was not called. In the final eight minutes of the game, 10 fouls were called on the Bulldogs and zero on the Wildcats.
Others will point out Kentucky players taunted the student section when they scored. While this was inappropriate, it does not justify the tasteless reaction of some fans.
The Kentucky players’ behavior was most likely in response to Kentucky center DeMarcus Cousins’s cell phone number being passed around throughout the fanbase. Allegedly hundreds of MSU fans sent him threatening messages, some including racial slurs and other offensive language. Again, calling or messaging a player on the other team is bad enough, but using offensive and racist language is way past the line.
As Mississippians, we are already burdened by stereotypes people from the rest of the country have about our state. It often seems like we have to work twice as hard to disprove such notions. However, when we as a fanbase take such unsophisticated actions, we only confirm those notions in people’s minds.
In addition, the area outside of the student entrance was trashed. After all of the students had entered, the area was covered in cups and liquor bottles. Our fans should have more respect for our campus and our arena than that.
Four unfortunate things happened Tuesday night. The MSU fans should not have acted inexcusably. The referees should not have called the game so poorly. Kentucky players should not have taunted and egged on the crowd. And ESPN should not have demonized the entire fanbase over the actions of a few.
However, as students, three of those were completely beyond our control. All we can do is control how we act and come across to the nation. We have many great traditions in our basketball program. Classlessness should not be one of them.
If you threw an object onto the court or sent a racist or threatening message to Cousins, you should be ashamed of yourself. Not only did you embarrass your university and entire fanbase to the entire country, you confirmed many unfortunate (and often false) stereotypes about Mississippians.
Stay classy, Bulldog fans.
The Reflector editorial board is made up of opinion editor Harry Nelson, news editor April Windham, assistant news editor Julia Pendley, sports editor Bob Carskadon, entertainment editor Hannah Rogers, photo editor Ariel Nachtigal, copy editors Amy Addington and David Breland, online editor Adam Kazery, graphic designer Carl Carbonell, managing editor Aubra Whitten and editor in chief Kyle Wrather.