On a chilly Sunday evening, roughly two dozen Oregon students filed into the EMU Fishbowl to listen. A sign-up sheet was passed around; no notes were written; no attendance was taken. The entire purpose of the meeting revolved around brainstorming and reintroduction. The student in the gray and yellow long-sleeved shirt spoke as the rest of the crowd listened.
The Pit Crew is preparing to be heard.
Last year, we left the Pit Crew – Oregon’s feisty and abrasive men’s basketball student section – in such a manner as Europeans would leave the insane and mentally ill half a millennium ago: (figuratively) piled in a boat, cast to sea, gone wherever God took them. The insane and mentally ill, at least, were sympathetic figures, enduring a form of punishment for the sins of humanity; the faceless Pit Crew became the face of everything wrong with college sports fandom, seemingly overnight – but, it must be said, through its own doing. With recent examples of boorish behavior at Autzen Stadium circulating through the area newspapers, the Pit Crew’s “good” name has been attached with every intention to condemn.
Before I go further, do I really need to expound on last season any more? Can I just say that the Pit Crew behaved badly and against its purpose? Thank you.
Daniel Cogan is the student in the long-sleeved shirt I mentioned previously. He’s also the Pit Crew president, a job title that does not imply control so much as organization and facilitation. He is more liaison than executive. His intent is to accumulate the information to manage the Pit Crew effectively, but occasionally he must stand before the largest student organization on campus and say a few words.
His message? To avoid a repeat of last year. To reinforce the need to support the Oregon men’s basketball team. To re-brand the activities of the student section in the spirit of disruption the Pit Crew was founded upon: a credo based on high volume, pointed insults, and the willingness to leave it all on the court with the team. Fred Washington of Stanford, Nate Robinson of Washington, and others may offer testimony.
Cogan also hit on the most important fact, and the one that can easily turn the tide of student fan behavior: Oregon might not do well this season.
Fourth place in the Pacific-10 Conference seems like irrational exuberance. Head coach Ernie Kent has no plans to redshirt any of the six new freshmen on the team, and why would he, given the fluidity within the lineup that’s expected? Replacing the dynamic wing play of Bryce Taylor and Malik Hairston, along with the savvy post play of Maarty Leunen is difficult enough, but thProxy-Connection: keep-alive
Cache-ConProxy-Connection: keep-alive
Cache-Control: max-age=0
ol: max-age=0
role of point guard must be divided up among junior Tajuan Porter, sophomore Kamyron Brown, junior transfer Ben Voogd and freshman Garrett Sim. Kent has all but handed the job to Porter on a silver platter, but we’ll see how that ends up.
How will the Ducks replace what they lost? In many ways, they can’t. Taylor, Hairston, Leunen, Mitch Platt and Ray Schafer effectively ushered out a moderately successful era of Oregon basketball that included two NCAA tournament appearances and a visit to the Elite Eight.
I am a big fan of the following axiom: “Good programs rebuild; great ones reload.” To find a great program, head to Tobacco Road and look at North Carolina and Duke. Bill Self just led another, Kansas, to a national championship last season. Closer to home, UCLA shows no signs of slowing down as a championship contender, even after losing players to the NBA draft. You get the idea.
Oregon is not Duke. Or North Carolina. Or UCLA. Or even a school like UCONN, which attracts top talent but has not had the easiest time reloading.
And basketball is not football. Sacrilegious as it may be to say, Dennis Dixon and Jonathan Stewart can be replaced much more easily than one-third of the whole team.
The Ducks play in the EA Sports Maui Invitational in November. They also take on non-conference opponents such as Utah, Kansas State, Saint Mary’s and San Diego. And the Pac-10, for all the talent it lost, remains a brutal basketball conference and a contender for the coveted, nonexistent “Best Conference in the Nation” title. To the average fan, this season could be grating by the start of winter term.
Had I the opportunity to speak to Oregon’s newcomers to the team face to face, I would have a simple message for them: Do your thing and take your lumps. The Pit Crew, if it wants to put fear in the hearts of the opposition ever again, should consider taking heed.
[email protected]