I was terribly disappointed by the actions of many Rick’s Rowdies at the Nov. 23 double-header basketball game.
I understand Rowdies wanting to get the good seats before the game down near the floor in the student section. But the behavior of far too many Rowdies that night who were there waiting through the women’s game was absolutely inexcusable.
How can you not bother to support a fellow State team if you’re going to be at the game? Almost every single one of the Rowdies that were sitting around us seemed to be doing their best to play the quiet game. Almost none of them cheered or showed any excitement at all and none of them would stand up.
How can you be a so-called basketball fan when you tell Fanatics at a women’s game to sit down and be quiet when they’re trying to cheer on the Lady Dawgs? How can you act like women’s basketball is a sport not worthy of being played in the Hump?
Why should people who are at a women’s basketball game to cheer on the girls feel like outcasts because its obviously beneath the Rowdies to bother to root for the girls’ success?
How can you practically force people out of the lower student section after the women’s game just because they’re wearing a maroon Fanatics shirt instead of a white Rowdies shirt?
And even if Baylor (currently No. 3 in the nation) was hot that night and our girls were struggling, should you be yelling truly disrespectful things at our girls? Shouldn’t that be reserved for the other team?
Please understand that I love the men’s team, too. I’m as big of a fan of Lawrence Roberts or Shane Power as anybody and I love to watch the Bulldogs play.
As a matter of fact, on Jan. 12, Fanning’s Fanatics hosted a meeting (advertised and open to all students) in the Dawg House and afterwards watched the Tennessee-MSU game on the projector. We were on the edges of our seats at the end (like most MSU fans who saw the game probably were), hoping that the Dawgs could pull it out in those last seven seconds.
If you prefer to watch men play basketball because they can dunk or because it has a slightly faster pace, then that’s fine. There’s nothing wrong with preferring one sport over another.
The men had a lot of success last season and I hope they go even further this season. But the ladies’ 12-2 record is just about as good as the men’s 14-3 record. Coach Fanning gets a lot out of her players, just like Coach Stansbury does. Are they not also worthy of support?
I especially have little sympathy for Rowdies complaining about not being able to get season tickets when they hardly support their fellow Bulldog basketball team even when they’re at the game.
Clifton Rybick is a junior music education major.