An Open Letter to the Pit Crew

Dear Pit Crew,

You root for the University of Oregon, the fastest rising athletic department in the country. The football team, who just played for the national championship, plays at Autzen Stadium. Autzen is known for being intensely loud from the opening kick to the final snap. The Autzen crowd is passionate, excited, and insane bordering on dangerous. It's one of the most hostile environments in sports, and I'm sure you, or at least some of you, are part of that experience. You were just given a tremendous gift in Matthew Knight Arena, a basketball palace that has the potential to be just as intimidating as Autzen.

So why do you suck so bad?

Our men's basketball team is not very talented. Try as they might, they're going to need help to win some conference games this season. And that starts with a hostile playing environment. What they don't need is a Pit Crew who sits down and mopes when a game gets out of hand, or a Pit Crew who is yelling an unintelligible chant during EJ Singler's free throws in the last minute of a close game. This team needs you to be on your feet screaming your faces off every time they're on defense, and to be on your feet cheering loudly and proudly for every basket made, every offensive rebound hustled for, and every charge taken. And that's it. This team doesn't need you to boo every call that goes against us. Even in the Pac-10, 90% of calls made by the refs are the right one, even if it's the other team going to the free throw line. Save the animosity for when the refs actually blow one, which they will. If you can't tell the difference between a good call and a bad call, stay home and watch some games on TV. And if you're just going to games to be with your friends and wear your Beadazzled Ducks T-shirt, stop wasting everyone's time. There are plenty of students who actually want to be a part of a rowdy student section that can't get tickets because you're texting a booty call from the second row with three minutes left in the game.

Much of this might feel like work. It is. It's tough being one of the best student sections in the country. The Cameron Crazies lose sleep, voice, and feeling in their extremities, but they work their asses off to help their team win. If you don't want to work that hard at a basketball game, that's totally fine and I understand. But don't come to games, and definitely don't sit on the sideline sections. The Pit Crew should be one of the loudest, most raucous atmospheres in the country, especially with the arena Uncle Phil has just bestowed upon us. It's time to step your game up.