By the decree of the athletic department’s new student ticket policy, I have been forced to miss the last home series for men’s basketball after failing to use a couple tickets that I accidentally forgot to return to the database. I would have gone, no questions asked. As a proud, shirt-wearing member of the Pit Crew, I can’t say that I’ve ever had a terrible experience in Mac Court – except when the team loses.
Which, this year, has been occurring at an unprecedented rate. With Saturday’s 104-85 loss to Washington in Seattle, the Ducks are 0-13 in Pacific-10 Conference play and, it would seem, a stone-cold lock to emulate Oregon State’s catastrophic 0-18 performance from last season. It bears mentioning, of course, that the Beavers’ ignominious season was the worst since the conference added the Arizona schools to create an official Pac-10. “Bad” doesn’t quite justify the agony that comes with watching this season’s incarnation of the Oregon men.
Student tickets for the Bay Area home series this week were released Sunday at 8 p.m. I got mine, and I plan to attend both games. I intend to help the Ducks win by stretching my vocal cords as much as I can. But I need the help of everyone reading this column, on two fronts.
First, the ASUO has recently summoned the audacity to mention a possible proposal that would force students to buy their own tickets to athletic events. That’s right: No more free games. Or, at the very least, a reduction in the number of available student tickets. Sen. Tina Snodgrass was quoted in Friday’s Emerald as saying, “(The) basketball team’s not looking so hot this year. Maybe there will be less interest for next year.”
That quote is laughable, and I find it amusing that Snodgrass, a student-athlete herself (women’s tennis), would bring it up to support this argument. What do sports fans hold dear, if not the possibility of a next season? Though the Ducks sure don’t look like a Final Four team this year (and I can’t possibly understate this enough), who’s to say that next year Oregon won’t have a conference contender? And why is the ASUO attempting to mess with student tickets when groups like OSPIRG … ah, but this is a sports column. No more of that.
Clearly, the men’s basketball team needs help. An intangible amount of that must come from the Pit Crew and its thousand-plus chorus of voices. I intend to answer the call for help. Fellow Pit Crew members, join me, but first understand that we must go above and beyond the call.
We must do something drastic.
Burn a 10-foot-tall effigy of Mike Montgomery outside McArthur Court. Organize an impromptu benefit concert outside the visiting team’s hotel at 4 a.m. Overturn its charter bus. Stage a traffic stop on the way to the arena. Find 1,000 Sam the Eagle masks and scare Stanford players. Make fun of the fact that Johnny Dawkins went to Duke – as a Duke supporter, this should be the easiest thing of all.
Do something. And make sure it draws attention. Ideally from the media, not from the Eugene Police Department or the FBI.
I was in the Pit for Oregon’s home embarrassment – er, game – against UCLA on Jan. 4. In that game, green-dyed baby powder was passed around to members of Section 10 in an attempt to emulate the LeBron James/Kevin Garnett pre-game routine. On cue, several members threw it up, creating an unusual green cloud. Someone actually threw the baby powder out, onto the court, causing a delay. This was noted in game recaps from all the major newspapers, though no one knew what the substance was. This should serve as our template.
Granted, Pit Crew President Daniel Cogan has to answer for any and all forms of debauchery that occur within the boundaries of Section 10, just as he did for the baby powder. Cogan should not be made to bear the brunt of any punishment for the actions of some Pit Crew members that cross ethical lines and break state and federal laws. We owe him that courtesy.
But for those who believe in deranged idiocy (or classless idiocy for the younger folks), the message is made clear. The Pit Crew needs to make news again, and it needs to deflect some of the media attention from the men’s basketball team. The only thing more trying than poor play is answering for it repeatedly, after every instance, and that is what Oregon State suffered through last year and Oregon is suffering through this year.
The goal of the Pit Crew is to be loud, disruptive and supportive, and the men’s basketball team needs all three. Given the current state of the team, as it enters the last gasps of the 2008-09 season, it is abundantly clear that it needs something more.
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