Banter between fans and players has been a staple of college basketball throughout the years.
Student sections get rowdy, and sure, things are said that might not be construed as appropriate to say to a guest.
Most of the time it is considered part of the atmosphere, and players take it with a grain of salt.
But Stanford’s Chris Hernandez took exception to comments made by members of the Pit Crew and taunted them by pointing and jawing toward the sea of yellow after the Cardinal’s victory against Oregon Saturday night at Mac Court.
“I just wanted to let them know, because they had been talking all game,” Hernandez said. “That’s just a friendly exchange between the crowd, and I’ve always liked playing here.
“This crowd, besides our own, is the best crowd in the Pac-10.”
However, not all saw it in such a way.
When the teams were congratulating each other after the game, Oregon head coach Ernie Kent had a few choice words for Hernandez.
“The thing I told to Chris was, ‘Chris I’ve never seen that from a Stanford team before,’” Kent, a former assistant at Stanford, said. “He got a little heated up about me saying that, but that’s okay. I felt like that needed to be said and told him that we wouldn’t ever do that at your place, and we haven’t done it.”
Hernandez disagreed with Kent.
“Coach Kent got a little upset about it, but his players have done that to our fans before,” Hernandez said. “But he was upset about (the taunting) for a reason. I think he was upset about the loss as well.”
I don’t know, Chris, I would hope Oregon wasn’t taunting the fans at Stanford when they were pounded earlier in the season. In fact, I hope they haven’t taunted a Stanford crowd since 1986 — the last time a Duck team has won at Stanford.
According to Hernandez, before Saturday’s game started, Oregon fans were making comments about the personal lives of Stanford players and were tossing things at them on the court.
“They were saying some derogatory (comments),” Hernandez said. “If they want to say something about us that’s fine … They said some stuff about people’s girlfriends and researched and said things about some of our family members. Personally, I think that is going a little too far.
“I think the throwing stuff is what separates our fans from theirs.”
While Hernandez may have dug his own grave by inferring that Stanford’s fans are more classy than Oregon’s, I do agree that personal attacks at players is going over the line.
But Kent did bring up some interesting examples of what those classy geniuses at Stanford have come up with in the past.
“You can’t call the Pit Crew out of line,” Kent said. “I’ve been down there and picked up one of their sheets, and they talked about (former Oregon guard) Freddie Jones smoking the wacky tobacky and Ian (Crosswhite), calling him a big, dumb goof.”
Wacky tobacky? A big, dumb goof? I’m glad to see that such a prestigious school has really blossomed creatively.
But getting away from the sarcastic cracks that spawn from my pure jealousy of Stanford, I do think Cardinal players were a little sensitive to the comments.
While I wasn’t close enough to hear the Pit Crew’s remarks, its job is to get in the opposition’s heads and get them out of their game.
And Hernandez: If it weren’t for some questionable “foul” calls resulting in you sinking all 10 of your free-throw attempts, it would have been an ugly 2 of 13 performance for six points.
But I do respect your game.
You work hard and are a very physical point guard. You’re the type of player that everybody hates when they play you, but would love to have on their own team.
And Kent had some wise words that you can hopefully take into consideration.
“Their (crowd) is no different than ours,” Kent said. “I didn’t think (Oregon players were) out of line down at their place, and we heard some stuff out of those stands too.
“That’s a part of the game, to me, that you have to live with.”
And I hope you realize that before you descend upon McArthur Court and the Pit Crew next season.

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