Students disappoint in somewhat impressive Griz hoops win
Because this game was a comlpete blowout (72-47 Griz), let's start with the students' perfomance tonight. It was God awful. Really. The south student section (why the student section is split up into two halves is beyond me) sat the entire game and made zero noise. None. Wonder why the game was so close in the first half (29-27 Griz)? It's probably because the Lights were going at the end completely devoid of any activity.
The second half, the Lights were going at the north end (bleacher side) of the student section. I'm not sure how they could've possibly been rattled because we didn't make much noise. Maybe they were just intimidated by anyone that stood. If that's really all it takes, this shouldn't be too difficult. Case in point: when the Lights were going at a dead student section they were -2; when they were going at a somewhat active student section they were -23.
I want to get this across. The north end was standing the entire game but made almost no noise. Things finally got going when a few rowdy kids walked in with five minutes left and the Griz already up twenty. When we start playing better teams, the students cannot wait til the end of the game to make noise. We also can't wait til we face the good teams to be loud the entire game. Teams practice before they play anyone and we should get this cheering thing down before we play half-decent teams.
Oh, yeah, and almost no one wore the student shirts. I saw less than 50. The marketing department gives out a thousand student shirts and more than half the students show up in ridiculous looking non-Griz attire. You know when you try and look good by wearing Abercrombie and Fitch or Hurley to a sporting event? Yeah, it doesn't look good at all. It's like trying to wear fancy fake athletic shoes to go work out. You're trying to look stylish but the look is doing the exact opposite of what's intended. You know, at most other schools students have to pay for the shirts and they still all wear them. Unbelievable.
Onward with game-relevant material. Martin looked amazing. He drained shot after shot and finished with 13 points. The Griz were led by Hasquet, who was his usual self. His line: 19 points, 8 boards and 4 assists. Tonight the reboarding looked solid, especially from players coming off the bench. Both Qvale and Sharp finished with 10 boards while neither could've played more than 15-20 minutes. Qvale also finished with 8 points on 4 of 6 shooting. Other scoring notes: Drew had 12 and Cam had 13.
While the numbers don't really show it, Zach Graves also impressed tonight. He's easily one of our most athletic players. When he gets in, he puts forth more effort than anyone, as evidenced by his 3 steals (leading the team) in 13 minutes. He finished with 4 points and 1 assist on 2 of 3 shooting.
Back to the crowd thing: besides the students, there was no one there. The official attendance:3,334. Come on. Seriously? We can get behind a football team that plays down to every opponent and has players who terrorize the town but we can't draw 7k for hoops? I'm not saying people should follow basketball more than anything else or that people should abandon our football team. I'm saying anyone who calls themself a Griz fan should actually be a Griz fan, not a Griz football fan.
Edit: the directions were off. The south side is the chair side, the north side has bleachers. Thanks Mr. Gregory McDonald, who apparently hates Griz basketball.
