About an hour before Saturday’s game against Arizona, I was standing outside of Pauley Pavilion waiting in line to get into the upper sections of Pauley (because it’s both a better view and you don’t have to deal with as many stupid fans as you do in the lower student section) when Arron Afflalo came walking up out of Pauley, headed toward the Acosta Center.
He passed through a throng of students all waiting to enter Pauley as he made his way up the steps to Acosta.
Two people acknowledged him. One halfheartedly clapped.
The rest of our passionate basketball fans were yelling at some Arizona fan to take off his red shirt.
If this were Duke, North Carolina, Indiana, Kentucky or any other schools with half the tradition of UCLA, Afflalo would have been greeted by thunderous applause, especially right before one of the bigger regular-season games.
Instead, I’m left wondering whether most of these fans even recognized Afflalo.
At that moment, I came to a realization that has been forming for a while: UCLA might have the worst fans in the nation.
In just one game (the Arizona game) I had, for example, fans behind me yelling that Mike Roll is dirt, that he shouldn’t be playing any minutes, that he’s nothing but a waste of space. Then he hit two 3s in a row and people started cheering.
See, I complain too. I like to bitch and moan at games, and sometimes I get angry enough to throw things like at last year’s Arizona game (sorry about hitting you in the head with the headband, guy in the section below me). But I usually am angry about something like “Why isn’t Howland running four guards and Alfred Aboya the entire game?” Not about the fact that Mike Roll is playing calmly and under control.
Then there is the Den.
I like the idea of uniform color down in the lower sections. I like the idea of having passionate fans who camp out for games. Those are the things I like.
Then there are the things I don’t like.
In Thursday’s game against Arizona State, the Den started chanting “Josh is better” as Josh Shipp’s brother, Jerren Shipp, attempted two free throws.
To use a Fat Albert put-down, that’s like school on Saturday: no class. Yeah, he missed the two free throws, great job.
If the Bruins are in a position where they need their fans to contribute with classless chants directed at opposing Arizona State players to gain an edge, then the program is in a lot worse shape than I thought.
We are not Duke. We are not North Carolina. We are better. UCLA basketball has 11 national championships and will always be the benchmark for any basketball program. We need fans to act like it.
We don’t need to chant about some guy having illegitimate children. We don’t need to chant that someone is ugly. We don’t need to get in their heads.
The team should be able to win on its own.
Look, I’m not saying don’t be loud. Be loud. Make it hard to hear. Make up some clever chants (I’m not especially clever, and thus have no suggestions).
But stop with this constant vitriolic stupidity.
Stop speeding up the wrong cheers. Don’t see how fast you can do the 8-clap. Instead, see how long you can keep it going by slowing it down and making it loud. See about having some 8-claps that are actually intelligible. 8-claps that are fast double as crap.
Oh, and stop doing the left-right thing when a player fouls out. That is Stanford’s cheer, and we are only biters when it comes to our fight song.
E-mail Woods at dwoods@media.ucla.edu if you think he is a little young to be this crotchety.