This past Saturday, anyone lucky enough to be in Moody Coliseum witnessed one of the greatest athletic performances of any SMU team in recent memory.
The Mustangs played No. 6 Memphis down to the wire, losing 64-61 in the last minutes of the game. Consider that we came into the contest as 15-point underdogs and that we lost to Memphis by 36 points in an 88-52 embarrassment on ESPN earlier this year, and you will undoubtedly see that the sheer unlikelihood of our hanging on this closely with a team of this caliber is astounding. We led by 11 during the game, made key defensive stops, and had an answer for nearly every big shot they made throughout the game. But how did we end up on the losing side?
It’s easy to lay the blame in a variety of places. Blame the fact that we have only nine scholarship players left on our roster, two of which had to sit out with injuries. Say it was because Jon Killen and Donatas Rackauskas fouled out with significant minutes left, forcing Cam Spencer and Paulius Ritter to play longer down the stretch than they had intended. Point the finger at the referees, who called the entire first half as if they had one-sided glasses on and were only able to see the calls that went in favor of the ranked team. You could lay it on the fact that we missed a few key free throws, we didn’t come down with a big defensive rebound, or that Memphis was simply a superior team.
All of these most certainly had an effect on the final outcome of this game. The point of this article isn’t to analyze any of those points, but to bring to light another one that I believe had just as much influence as anything else.
SMU fans have been bashed all season long for not coming out and supporting the Mustangs, in particular the student section. Last Saturday night that was not the case. A horde of students made it out to the game, rocking their “Bringing Moody Back” shirts and screaming at the top of their lungs to try and help SMU pull off arguably the biggest upset in NCAA basketball this season. The students came out in great numbers, ready and willing to support their friends, their team and their school. One thing they were not ready for was an enemy infiltrating the SMU support base and attacking it from within. The SMU Police Department, a rag-tag collection of Rent-a-Cops and ex-mall security guards, were obviously on the Memphis payroll Saturday night. They came out in full force to put a stop to SMU spirit and pride, and in essence to act as a deciding factor in the reason Memphis came away with a win.
More than 20 SMU students were ejected from the student section during the game for such dastardly offenses as chanting, cheering, and antagonizing the opposing team. One of the more notable ejections came after an SMU student’s hat fell off in celebration and landed on a Memphis statistician, who proceeded to tell an SMU police officer that the student threw the hat at him. The officer then removed the student from the arena no questions asked, without even allowing him to retrieve the lost hat. I should note that after the student was ejected, the Memphis scorekeeper (an approximately 50-year-old man), in an obvious act of maturity and good sportsmanship, ripped the hat up with his hands and threw it in the trash can. I guess that this is acceptable behavior for the SMU police.
Maybe next season all the students should steal hats from opposing fans and destroy them in order to get preferential treatment from our gallant police force.
To put it in plain and simple English so SMUPD will be able to understand what I am trying to say: We came out to help our boys fight for victory over Memphis, and fight down to the last second, but some of us were not allowed to do so.
Our fan support and school pride were stifled by police on a power trip. I know this is a strong statement, but allow me to reinforce it with a direct quote from one of the civil servants sworn to protect and serve us that night at the game. After I posed the question, “Why are you kicking everyone out? We aren’t doing anything wrong; we are just trying to help SMU win,” I received the answer, “Because I am always right, and I always win.” I’ll give you a moment to let that sink in. Unbelievable, right?
I would like to revisit the points I brought up earlier concerning SMU basketball’s obvious downfalls, and I understand that most would say that in the end the odds were just too much for them to overcome, so the ejection of fans is not really a factor. But I ask you this: How much difference could those 20 fans have made? Could they have helped Dez Willingham hit one more three-pointer down the stretch? Could they have made Cam Spencer and Paulius Ritter feel just a little more at ease? Could they have willed Ike Ofoegbu to sink one more lay up, or help Devon Pearson grab one more rebound? Could they have urged Jon Killen and Donatas Rackauskas to do just a little bit more before they were forced to sit down? I answer without hesitance, yes.
For the purposes of clarification, I do not wish to take anything away from the SMU men’s basketball team. I think they all played brilliantly and I have never been more proud of SMU athletics than I was Saturday night. I just wish those 20 fans would have been allowed to stay, to help them get the four points needed to win a game nobody thought SMU could win.
Also, I do not wish to completely humiliate SMU PD, whom I do respect for the duty they serve to our society. I only wish to question the motives behind their actions at the game, and want to know why they chose to detract from our school spirit, rather than add to it. No longer can people bash our teams, or bash our fans. Both parties came out with one thing in mind last Saturday night: to fight for that victory.
We fought Memphis, but the Law won.
About the writer:
Zachary Upcheshaw is a sophomore finance and economics major. He can be reached at [email protected].
