Coach Matt Doherty and a crowded student section cheer on the Mustangs as they play the Memphis Tigers Wednesday evening in Moody Colliseum. (Casey Lee)
In reaction to SMU’s 79-66 loss to Memphis on Wednesday, we picked the headline “Gallant effort falls short” for Thursday’s paper. Those words not only described the Mustangs’ effort against Memphis, but the fans’ effort as well.
Instead of doing a “white out” in Moody Coliseum – like the university promoted last year – the theme Wednesday was “red out.” The first 1,000 fans received free red T-shirts at the door – 500 to students and 500 to non-students.
Here was the problem: Outside of the first 1,000 fans that received t-shirts, not many others were wearing red. People either failed to get the message, or they just didn’t care.
Now, I’m not attacking the idea. I would have loved the sight of a red sea of fans at Moody Coliseum, but there wasn’t enough of a consensus among fans to make it happen. More importantly, there weren’t enough fans (just more than 5,000) to make it happen.
There needs to be more effort to get people in the community excited about major sporting events. When the No. 14 team in the country comes to Dallas, people need to know what color to wear when they show up.
“I loved the crowd. I was hoping there would be more people here…The enthusiasm of the students was outstanding, but you just need to have 8,000 here,” said Memphis head coach John Calipari.
The primary cure is going to be wins, and those will eventually come. But you have to question how a team can get fired up to play a home game when the stadium usually is only about 1/3 full. Which comes first,: the wins or the fans?
That being said, the effort of the student section, especially the Mustang Maniacs, was awesome. They did their part to make sure Memphis was uncomfortable at Moody.
Harrison Kaufman, the junior leader of the Mustang Maniacs, and his posse yelled their hearts out – mostly at Calipari. Each student sitting on the floor level was given a “‘Stangs Sheet,” which directed students what to yell in certain situations.
The sheet included the nicknames of many Memphis players and details about them that their mothers probably don’t even know. It included the latest Facebook status of Memphis player Pierre Henderson-Niles, which instructed fans to “give him hell while he is on the floor.”
Needless to say, the Mustang Maniacs were well coordinated and ready to go on Wednesday.
“I think [the red out] definitely brings a little more excitement,” sophomore Derrick Butler said before the game. “Everybody’s ready to go crazy.”
“I’m really excited. Generally, I don’t come to that many games, but I was told this would be a good turnout,” said junior Francesca Delarama before the game. “[The red out] was a really good idea. It brings students together.”
The idea was there and so were the students, but the community support was missing. It still was a tough atmosphere, but not what it could have been.
“When you get 5,000 to 7,000 people in here, this place is a very tough place to play,” said SMU head coach Matt Doherty.
When (or if) Memphis comes to town next year, hopefully there will be more than 5,000 fans in Moody.
