IU students chant "Stand up old people"

[Da Coach]

The student section at last night's Indiana game coordinated some new chants. One of them was directed at the opposite side of the arena, comprised mostly of alumni and community fans, who are slightly older than the student population. The chant "stand up old people" was used several times during the game, and was considered offensive by some. The athletic director (Rick Greenspan, formerly from ISU) has taken steps to get the students to refrain fro using that chant.

http://www.idsnews.com/basketblog/

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070111/COLUMNISTS01/701110430

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/sports/16434972.htm

IMO- If we are going to live in a politically correct world where someone is offended by usage of numerous terms that should not be offensive. Then this kind of chant should be stopped, too. How would people react if the chant was "stand up ***" (insert your own replacement term for any minority or segment of our population). This was clearly intended to be a derogutory insult, and I applaud the AD for taking action.
Anyone have an opinion?

[Da Coach]

There is a lively discussion about this on the Indiana message board--

http://indiana.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=726&tid=87084500&mid=87084500&sid=942&style=2

And, of course, here is the backlash--

http://indiana.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=726&tid=87086065&mid=87086065&sid=942&style=2

[MacabreMob]

I think the AD should write out a guideline on 'how to be a good fan' and 'things to do while watching a game'.

It should enompass curtailing chants like those from the student section as well as steering quiet fans into behavior that is more exciting.

[BUBraves06]

Although the atmosphere was pretty good last night, the one thing that bothered me at our game was that with a tie game and less then a minute left people were still sitting.

[Da Coach]

This post takes the cake! Here is a student who thinks because his parents paid $20,000+ a year for their kids education, that he deserves better seats at the basketball games because that's more than some of the blue-hairs donate!

http://indiana.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=726&tid=87087959&mid=87087959&sid=942&style=2

By the way, I sent one kid to IU, and only out-of-state students pay $20,000, the instate kids pay far less than that. But using this kids logic, I deserve courtside seats!

[That Guy]

I was at the IU game last night, and when they started doing the chant, it was when Purdue was shooting free throws into the end zone filled with "older patrons". I have to admit, I laughed. Although, I can see where some people would be upset by the chant, but I was sitting in a section of oldear season ticket holders, and the chant seemed to get a chuckle out of them too. I actually thank the chant worked, as the people sitting in that endzone, and the rest of the arena for that matter, was on their feet for much of the rest of the game.

However, this might have just been due to the fact that the Hoosiers were up by over 30...

I want to say thank you to BUbraves06 and our friends for calling me and giving me updates for the BU game last night. Man I wish I could've made that one too!

[Da Coach]

Although the atmosphere was pretty good last night, the one thing that bothered me at our game was that with a tie game and less then a minute left people were still sitting.

I wanted to stand, but I was the only one in my section, so I slouched down a bit. But the crowd did stand quite a bit. Maybe they got tired near the end.

The older fans are just never going to react like the students. But overall, I think our crowds are pretty good compared to most big-time basketball programs.

[Da Coach]

By the way, there is apparently bad blood between Kelvin Sampson and Matt Painter. Apparently there was some yelling during the game between the 2 coaches. Here is an article about it--

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070111/COLUMNISTS01/701110429/-1/ZONES04

Their post-game handshake was less than cordial.
They have battled over some recent Indiana high school recruits, but the biggest issue has been the Eric Gordon recruitment.
Matt Painter is close to Bruce Weber, having spent years as an assistant under Weber, and after Gordon spurned his committment to Illinois and switched to Indiana at the urging of Sampson, Matt Painter made some rather critical public remarks directed at Sampson.

[thefish7]

I think that chant is pretty far out of line. The only thing I'll say on this potentially sort of explosive topic is... If I stand up during the game, I don't like it when people who are sitting are offended by that or by my yelling. Someone behind me was whining at the last game I went to saying something like, "blech, I guess he'll sit down sometime."

My sense of respect kept me from turning around and saying something to the effect of, "if you want to go to the theatre, make sure you don't show up at a D-1 basketball game next time." I guess it's fine if you don't want to stand up and make noise and cheer and all of those things that a "crowd" is supposed to do, that's fine... but don't get upset because some of the rest of us are doing that stuff.

[real fan]

I sit in section 4 of the lower bowl and just about all of us stand, looking across at section 3 and 2 you only see a select amount of people standing, I think age plays a factor but I think it has a lot to do with how much you really want to help your team win, some people go to just be seen as you see them leaving before the game is even over.

[Grassman]

I have 4 season tix. The lady in the seat next to my last seat remarked. " They will get new seats next year, because of the "fans" in front of them standing and yelling."
These people are probably in there 40's.
My Gosh, why do these people go to basketball games?
I too, would stand the whole game, but for the people behind me, who by the way NEVER stood last night. But then they wore Saluki sweatshirts and did not have much to cheer for.
Stand cheer, be loud, I will support you! That is what sports are about.

[BI_Brave_alum]

Although the atmosphere was pretty good last night, the one thing that bothered me at our game was that with a tie game and less then a minute left people were still sitting.

with less than two mins or so, the radio announcers, snell and stowell? were shocked that people in the stands were leaving. what did you guys that were there think about that??

[houstontxbrave]

Although the atmosphere was pretty good last night, the one thing that bothered me at our game was that with a tie game and less then a minute left people were still sitting.

with less than two mins or so, the radio announcers, snell and stowell? were shocked that people in the stands were leaving. what did you guys that were there think about that??

Score be damned, socializing is over let get out of here to beat that nasty Bradley traffic.

[BI_Brave_alum]

Although the atmosphere was pretty good last night, the one thing that bothered me at our game was that with a tie game and less then a minute left people were still sitting.

with less than two mins or so, the radio announcers, snell and stowell? were shocked that people in the stands were leaving. what did you guys that were there think about that??

Score be damned, socializing is over let get out of here to beat that nasty Bradley traffic.

yeah that 10 min drive to get out of downtown is a rough one!

[That Guy]

you think that's bad. I live in Southern Indiana, right across the river from Louisville, KY, and while I'm home over break I went to the U of L - UK game. U of L fans are notorious for leaveing early, and just yelling at the officials for EVERYTHING. During the course of this game, arguably the biggest game of the season, fans were getting up and leaving at the 8 MINUTE TIMEOUT! It was absolutely rediculous...