OUR TAKE: Start standing up, making noise, and defending our home court
When a team sees Eastern Nazarene College on their schedule, they need to dread the entire bus ride here.
They need to hear our students in their heads louder than the music that’s pumping through their headphones.
They need to plan all week for an environment in which they can’t even hear the point guard calling plays.
They need to mark ENC on their schedule knowing it’s going to be one of their toughest games of the season.
Don’t get us wrong. The support that the students have shown the men’s basketball team this season is great. More people are traveling to away games than ever before.
The environment this year has been better than in any year any of us on the editorial board can remember.
The Nichols game on Jan. 29 is the perfect example of what every game should be like.
In the 89-83 overtime victory, everyone stood up and was energized for the final minutes of regulation and the entire overtime.
This is the type of environment that there should be at every basketball game. We need to do a better job of defending our home court — the Lahue PE Center.
When the opposing team dribbles the ball down the court, we need to chant “Defense!,” we need to scream when the point guard is calling a play, we need to show that we like the way one of our players is playing. We need to show why it’s our home court.
A number of students traveled to Gordon College on Feb. 2 for the basketball games. For a majority of the second half, their students stood up and were cheering loudly and making noise. They were trying to make our players uncomfortable.
Some players get rattled when there is that much noise. Others simply go about as if the crowd isn’t there. No matter the case, it’s our job to try to make the other team uncomfortable.
Now, realize what we’re saying: This does not mean we should be disrespectful of the players on the opposing team, nor should we constantly shout at the referees.
There’s another important distinction to make here. This doesn’t only apply to men’s basketball games or when ENC is playing teams at the top of the conference. No matter the sport, no matter the opposing team, and no matter whether the team is 13-0 or 1-12, we still need to defend home court.
The men’s basketball team has a big game against Curry College tonight at 7 p.m. in the Lahue PE Center. The Lions beat Curry 85-72 on the road Jan. 17. Curry is the top team in the Commonwealth Coast Conference and they are out for revenge.
We — the fans, ENC students — need to do our job tonight. We need to be as loud as we can be and make Curry as uncomfortable as we can possibly make them.