Look at the fans on the left of the goal

Is it too much to ask to distract the free throw shooter???

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How hard is it to shift those student seats to the left so they fill from aisle to aisle behind the visiting goal in the second half? When they do their renovation, that would be a simple fix.

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Simple fix anyway. Shift the people in those seats to section 133 which are sideline seats, and move some student seats from 133 to 127.

I wish they would make the retractable bottom rows student seating all the way around from 109 to 127, but that’s unlikely. Lot of people paying good money to sit down there.

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I noticed in the design for the new arena at Bama you shared the other day, that they plan to do just that…students on both ends and fully down the side opposite the benches (with still a couple of rows of the high dollar courtside floor seating). That’s probably going to be the blueprint for most new college arenas in the future.

One thing about it, you wouldn’t need be 7 or 8 rows to drastically improve the atmosphere in person and on TV. The seats above would still be fairly close.

Wish we could do the same, too, but agree it would be a mess trying to move people that have been in the same seats for almost 30 years now and were basically in the same area in Barnhill.

Which is why I specified the retractable rows. IIRC that’s 7 or 8 rows.

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Some schools drop the folding student bleachers down a couple of feet so the armchair seats behind them don’t have to stand all game when the students in front of them never sit down. Make those just behind the students super deluxe seating, move all of the fat cats back 7-8 rows into them, put one row of courtside folding chair seating in front of the students to “hold them back a little”, and make the whole side across from the benches and scorer’s table that kind of seating. Put the TV broadcast table right in the middle of that on the sideline and let her rip. THAT would be an incredible home court advantage for the Hogs when they renovate.

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I say send every season ticket holder a mandatory questioner asking if they are a sitter, stander or a complainer about people standing. This should determine where your tickets are located…lol

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The student section is at the Hog end of the court second half

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Yup. Which is why I want students behind the goals at BOTH ends.

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Surely our sitting fans old and young alike are smart enough to figure out new seats. More students on the floor is decades overdue. Hopefully HY realizes and makes the change.

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I have been told foul shooting is consistent no matter what you do beyond moving the rim.

Dean Smith discouraged all that waving behind the rim, said it was unsportsmanlike. Like Clay said, it probably does not affect the shot anyway. When I joined in
the booing of the other team when
they hit the field at my first Pine Bluff HS football game, my Dad angrily said you root hard for your team but don’t disrespect or boo your opponent (not only unsportsmanlike but also stupid, he said, it fuels the other team), and if I booed again, we were out of there. But that has all gone by the wayside now. Everywhere.

Pretty funny, Duke crowd was so bad years ago that they embarrassed themselves on TV so the school
asked them to cool it the next game. So on
free throws their fans were absolutely still and quiet, with one fan in jest merely holding up a sign that said “Please Miss”.

Well…last night Auburn 8-17 from the line for 47%

So we should ask everyone to sit down and be quiet while the other team shoots free-throws?

While we are at it maybe we should clap when the other team scores.

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From Scottie: In the second half, Auburn forward Walker Kessler badly misfired on three consecutive free throws as yells reached fever pitch and students repeatedly pounded on the seat backs in front of them. The five rows of tables designated for media members trembled.

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Later, with six minutes to play in regulation, Tigers guard KD Johnson came up with a steal on a Williams turnover and drew a foul on Arkansas’ Stanley Umude. Two free throws would have lifted the Auburn lead to three. His trip to the line was met with greater vigor and passion from the Razorback faithful.

Johnson missed both free throws. When Kessler again stepped to the stripe in overtime, he went 0 of 2 again in the earsplitting noise.

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Kessler and Johnson are not the greatest free throw shooters. Both between 60-70% this season. Kessler was without a doubt rattled after the first miss. Can’t convince me otherwise. I literally could not believe how loud it was during every free throw after halftime, especially late.

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UNC has had a well-earned reputation over the years for being a wine and cheese crowd, especially in the early Dean Dome years when they were pretty much mangling everyone. They’d show up but not make much noise. It seems to have gotten better now that UNC seems to have to work at it a little more.

Yes, UNC did have a reputation for being a wine and cheese crowd. A Florida State player, Sam Cassell, gave the crowd that name for being so quiet. When they moved the students down to the prime seats behind the basket, which previously had been reserved for fat cat boosters, that changed. They did that when primarily only students could show up for a game on a snow day, they let them move down, and it resulted in a great game atmosphere. I think students had seats like that from the get-go at Bud Walton. But there has been another impetus for the change from the wine and cheese days (not that the Dean Dome is Bud Walton, but it is really something else for a Duke game). Dean Smith not only disapproved of waving arms behind the basket, in his era UNC would not even approve any t-shirts that denigrated another team. It was all support the Tar Heels but show respect for your opponent. That was considered sportsmanlike and classy. Not so much anymore, it’s no holds barred by comparison.

By the way, I hate it when UNC fans yell “air ball”. I think it is a stupid chant to begin with (but maybe it’s because as a rec player I shot many of them :smile:). But primarily it is because Duke students invented that chant when a UNC player, Chick Yonakor, shot one in Cameron, and it was so long ago UNC students don’t have a clue that it was a Duke chant. Not that they are alone in being clueless. One fan years ago in the Dean Dome kept shouting garbage in our ears , and near the end of the game I had had enough, and I said “ Dean Smith would be ashamed of you”, and he answered “Who’s he?”.

Oh, please, I am not saying that. It’s a different era. But could fans be a LITTLE more sportsmanlike while supporting their team. Sure. But what I really hate are some fans booing their own coach and/or players, or yelling at them, saying things that make no sense whatsoever, because they have never played a game of basketball in their lives. I have played basketball for 50 years. Nevertheless, as opposed to some know-it-all fans who know practically nothing, I at least know I don’t know everything.