Letters to the Editor

USF’s fan support lacking at best

USF’s men’s basketball team, as many know, upset two top 25 teams in the span of a week, defeating the University of Cincinnati and the University of North Carolina-Charlotte. After the upset of the Bearcats, my roommate and I decided to make the drive up to Memphis to support our Bulls in the Conference USA tournament. It was a crazy idea that we had mentioned before that, at first, wasn’t probable. Then our team won and it was off to Memphis. Leaving at midnight, we arrived in Memphis earlier than expected, proudly wearing our green and gold around town. For the first time in my two years attending this university, our men’s basketball team was being respected. Everyone in Memphis was congratulating us on our upset, except the Cincinnati fans who could hardly bear to look at us. We did get a few expletives from the Bearcats fans around and it was completely worth it.

The game against Memphis did not turn out the way that Bulls fans wanted as the Tigers made three-pointer after three-pointer in the first half, jumping out to a huge lead. The Memphis fans let us have it, as we were only two of, on our count, six students there! Only six students and no visible alumni! There were two games during the day: the University of Louisville vs. the University of Alabama-Birmingham and the Bulls vs. the hometown Memphis Tigers. Now we expected to see a lot of blue, as it is the team color of Memphis, and there was a lot in the bleachers. However, there was almost as much red in the FedEx Forum as blue. These were fans supporting the Cardinals of Louisville. There was even some green in certain sections of the stands! These fans, however, were fans supporting the Blazers of UAB, not fans supporting the Bulls.

It was not fair to Terrence Leather, Brian Swift and Marlon Bryant, the three seniors on our team this year, to not get the support they deserved. These three seniors deserved more from us fans in the regular season and the postseason. The regular season home attendance was weak, compared to other schools in C-USA. Next season we are headed to the Big East. Student attendance has got to increase. My roommate and I are ready, so we ask, where’s your passion, Bulls fans?

Tyler Crane is a sophomore majoring in mass communications.