Abusive College Fans

One of the best things about college basketball (besides March Madness) is the passion of the fans and the school rivalries that are created by years and years of playing the same school twice. But recently fans are going overboard in their exuberance. Where in my day I went with the blatant insults ("I fuckin hate you Garrity!," students now use Facebook to gather embarrassing information and/or pictures to really get under a player's skin.
Sports Illustrated ran a great article full of examples, here are a few:

Oregon fans, spurned by Kevin Love, who is from Oregon and whose father went to Oregon, somehow got Love's phone number, and left death threats on his voice mail. During the game the fans taunted Love's family so much that his grandmother was reduced to tears.



A year after breaking Tyler Hansbrough's nose with an elbow, Duke forward Gerald Henderson saw his face on thousands of wanted posters on his next visit to North Carolina. Look closely at the signs (click to enlarge) to see what Henderson is wanted for.



Duke is a frequent target when they hit the road and Duke guard Greg Paulus is the latest in a long line (Christian Laettner, JJ Redick) of whiny little Duke bitches whom fans pick on. Virginia Tech fans chanted "Teabag Paulus" as an allusion to this dunk by Deron Washington over Paulus.





But maybe the worst of these incidents was when UAB played Memphis earlier this year (and almost won). Fans taunted Memphis forward Robert Dozier who had been accused of slapping his girlfriend. This misspelled sign was only part of the fan reaction that almost caused a Pistons-esque brawl, (Pierre Niles slapped a fan).



And as if the sign weren't enough take a closer look at the chick right next to the sign guy. She is wearing a shirt that says "I Dated Dozier," and has makeup giving the appearance of a black eye, and Dozier is a few feet away staring at them.



Perhaps the most cruel example mentioned in the article happened 20 years ago. Steve Kerr was taunted by Arizona State fans with chants of "PLO!" In 1984, Kerr's father was killed by terrorists in Beiruit.

Here are a few more signs that I found humorous, in good spirit and generally enjoyable:



It's ok to pick on coaches, especially when like Mark Mangino, the coach is 500 lbs.



And a creative Memphis fan manages to take a swipe at our boy Bruce Pearl (who will be featured on Real Sports on HBO on March 10th), and take Pat Summitt down too.



One below the belt shot at a coach was famous around SU during my time there. Someone once held up a sign that said "Mike Jarvis Beats His Wife." I don't believe there were then or have ever been domestic abuse allegations against Jarvis. But Billy still references this to me whenever we see Jarvis. I think he did an SU game earlier this year and Billy texted me "I wonder how his wife is doing." The point is, Dome security immediately confiscated that sign and arena security in these other places should probably be a little more proactive in squashing this inappropriate over-the-top taunting.