Hey Braves fans, a few things here from a LONG time ISU fan and current student...
First of all, good game. The 2 times we met up this year are precisely what the War on 74 should be, have been in the past, and hopefully will continue to be in the future. The War is back!!! You guys have a very solid, athletic, smart team who plays good team basketball, is unselfish, moves the ball well and never quits. I can say similar things about our team. This year's series meant something again, and we all know our games are much better & more intense when they have an impact in the standings. Once again we had some trouble guarding the perimeter, and your guards hit their shots. We were able to counter with some solid post play, and that was one of the big differences in the game IMHO.
As for the "classless" chants/cheers, etc., here's my 2 cents on that:
When one of our players gets fouled, the "you, you, you...YOUUUU..." cheer has been going on for 20+ years. (Indy St, UNI, UCONN, North Texas, etc. all do variations of it.) Over the years, the students started saying "SUCK!" after the "you's." A few years ago, some students started adding certain words to the end of that cheer. It went away for awhile, but the last couple home games we've had, those certain words have come back. Tonight was very obvious, and for that, I apologize if you were offended. I am one of the co-creators and current Executive Board members of Red Alert, the ISU student section...and I can promise you that we do NOT condone or advertise that cheer. It's just something that has been part of ISU basketball for a very long time. Even if the cheerleaders dont take part in it, the students will still do it, and it's not easy to govern a couple thousand of us during a game (belive me, we've tried.)
So while I understand the thought and impluse to label that cheer as "classless" and "rude" or whatever, and I dont disagree with that, I just want you to know that cheers like that have been around for a long time and because of that, some students take advantage of the situation and add vulgar words to it. I dont agree with it, but it happens...I'm not making excuses here, but students are students. Cpacmel, DannyCooksey, etc. all were part of the ISU student section at one point and they all were part of the same cheer. They can attest to what I'm trying to explain.
Good game tonight guys. The War on 74 is definately back!