I've said it before and I'll say it again, the signs of a great student section is the amount of impact they have on the game. Distracting the opposing team and throwing top players off their game should be the ultimate goal. In the Horizon League, nobody does it better than the Wright State.
On Saturday (1/30), the victim was Loyola, a squad that averaged nearly 65 points per game and shot 42% from the field. During the second half, the Ramblers took their offense to the side of the Raider Student Section and came away with a mere 21 points and tallied a 29% field-goal mark.
Maybe WSU tightened up the D or Loyola just lost their first-half fire? Or maybe it was the blown up cartoon heads of Mario, Doug, Marvin the Martian and Arnold? In Rambler guard Courtney Stanley's case it was probably seeing a blown up five-year old picture of himself. What? Where did the Raider Pack get that? Well, I just had to ask.
Charles Grove, one of the Raider diehards, obtained the photo of Stanley off his Facebook account after the two became "Facebook friends", well sort of. Grove set up a fake account on the social media website using a generic e-mail. Once Stanley fell for the wooden Trojan horse trick, Grove had full access to all of Stanley's pics and personal information.
This isn't the first time Grove has pulled these shenanigans. In fact, he does this for every home game. Grove even admitted one time to convincing an opposing player to leave tickets for a female Facebook alias.
One would argue that this doesn't display very good sportsmanship, however in the competitive world of men's college basketball, opposing teams and fans have and will continue to look for that winning edge. You make the call.
Nevertheless, Grove and his Raider Nation clearly have a distinct impact on the game, which is one of the four scored categories in the HLN Student Section Challenge. In the words of Billy Bob, Wright State gets a "TEN"...at least in one section.
Next week the tour hits Valpo. Check back on Sunday afternoon to find out what happens at the ARC.
Stay Crazy, Horizon League.
-Mike
Remaining Challenge Tour Dates Feb. 6: Detroit at Valparaiso Feb. 13: Butler at Cleveland State Feb. 16: Cleveland State at Green Bay Feb. 20: TBA at Detroit (BracketBuster Game) Feb. 27: Detroit at Youngstown State
