Big Time Program – YES

Big Time Fans – Sometimes…

By Mat Gruidl & Chris Woodruff (Members of Dawg Pound)

Our Salukis hold the fourth-longest home winning streak in the country for a couple of reasons.

One is, obviously, having one of the top up-and-coming programs in the country. Another is having one of the most intimidating crowds in all of men’s college basketball.

The only problem is that our fans are only intimidating in spurts. We need to be able to keep that intensity for the entire game.

This last four game home stretch is very important for our chances at an at-large berth into the Big Dance. We could finish with a better record in the conference than last year and win the conference championship outright, which is very important due to our lack of marquee preseason wins. This year, there was no Indiana, Iowa State or nail biter with Illinois to help our RPI.

There’s nothing we can do as fans to help show the NCAA Tournament selection committee that we are one of the best 65 teams in the nation. All we can do is help our Dawgs win the rest of our home games by doing some simple things before and during the games to keep the energy at a high level throughout each and every game.

Number 1:ALL STUDENTS WEAR MAROON (PREFERABLY SIU) SHIRTS TO THE GAME IF YOU PLAN ON SITTING IN THE ENDZONE SECTIONS OF THE ARENA.

This is the most important point and the main reason for this article! If you watch any NCAA Men’s Basketball game on TV, you will see that the entire student section is wearing the same color, and usually the same shirt.

It would be hard to make the same shirt thing happen, but we all HAVE to wear maroon. That is fundamental in the college basketball fan rulebook. I know 90% of the students must have a maroon SIU t-shirt, so WEAR IT.

If you don’t have one, go buy one. You can get them at bookstores for as little as $10. That’s not expensive at all, considering we don’t even have to pay for tickets to the games.

Number 2:SECTIONS NEED TO STAY STANDING DURING TIMEOUTS, ESPECIALLY 30 SECOND TIMEOUTS

During the game, the fans are going crazy and being loud. As soon as the timeout occurs, it’s like a funeral in the student sections. We need to stay up on our feet and cheer so the energy will keep flowing when the game resumes.

These simple things almost seem like they should be common knowledge. We as students show great energy and cause a spark that rallies the team when they need it, but we need to keep that going for an entire game. If we do these two simple tasks, there is no doubt that we can turn the nation’s fourth-longest home winning streak into the nation’s longest. GO DAWGS