View from the Student Section

Hello, Hoyas fans! A lot of you probably watched today's game on Fox Sports 2, or some questionable streaming service, or maybe even in person, but to me, nothing beats my view from the front row of the student section.

No matter how full or empty it is, I try to make it to the front to cheer on my Hoyas, and maybe get on the scoreboard a couple of times by making a complete fool out of myself. I'm hoping this piece (and hopefully future pieces) will serve either as a nostalgic reminder or as an informative perspective on what the student section is like.

So on to today's game. It was quite the pleasant surprise to see the Hoyas jump out to a substantial lead in the first half. From up front, this team looks good. Having had only one year of Hoyas basketball experience, and with that year having been last year, it's good to see that the Hoyas can actually score.

I was already getting a little worried about D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera, but seeing him post a line today of 12 points, 6 rebounds, and 7 assists made me remember why he was Big East Preseason Player of the Year. After posting his second double-double in a row, Joshua Smith will hopefully become the double-double machine we all want him to become. The student section tried to start cheering for him, but considering his name is only 2 syllables, it made for quite the awkward and lackluster chant.

Speaking of the student section, I have to say that while more students made it out to this game than Tuesday night's midweek spectacular against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, the students who made it to the Phone Booth today were pretty quiet. I counted multiple occasions on which I was delivering a one-man "DE-FENSE" chant.

I did try to bring some inside jokes from Casual's comment section, however, by occasionally complimenting the performance of Mikael Hopkins with a Russian-accented shout of "Very good, Comrade." But it was still surprisingly quiet around me. The camera operators for Fox Sports 2 didn't even bother to point their cameras in our general direction, so I guess that might be a sign that we might need a bit more energy at some of these early-season games. I did my usual dancing shtick, but not as many people joined in as usual.

The only time at which there was a real palpable enthusiasm came during the Chick-Fil-A promotion (which Robert Morris ruined by failing to miss two consecutive free throws.) But the crowd was probably just lulled by the wide margin the Hoyas put up and the fact that the game was pretty much in hand early in the second half. That's a good sign on the court, but we'll definitely need it louder and more enthusiastic to provide a home-court advantage against tougher opponents **cough** KANSAS! **cough**

Regardless, I'm confident that so long as this team can avoid foul trouble and turnovers, it has the offensive firepower and depth to put up a good performance this year. It may have even beaten a tournament team today, depending on how well Robert Morris does in the NEC. I'm confident that the student section will get progressively louder the better the team gets, but I know I'll do my very best to keep it loud no matter what.