Student Section

[John]

I had the same thought. When I was at school, Dale (Blue and White Kid) and others led an organization called Husky Hardcores. They would do oppo research, create scouting reports for the students ("Player XYZ got dumped at prom in front of his whole high school," for example), and come up with hit-or-miss gimmicks (like shaking keys at football games. Major miss!). They could use something like that again.

On the other hand, the existence of such a body was probably more a product of an already-present enthusiasm, rather than a force for creating enthusiasm.

Dale should be on the Husky of Honor wall.

 

[Storrs South]

was a student 10 years ago - don't recall that - and you certainly don't see any opposing kids in the gampel student sections.

I believe it was the 2012 game, it was 100% at Gampel. I was a student as well. But it is certainly easier for anyone to get into the student section at XL.

 

[gampelcrazies]

was a student 10 years ago - don't recall that - and you certainly don't see any opposing kids in the gampel student sections.

You would see it all the time in the Big East. Games at Syracuse would have UConn fans in the student section.

 

[UChusky916]

Yea they were bad. Several times people sitting near the student section ran over and yelled at them to step it up lol.

I was one of the folks that went down to talk to students... at halftime I gave an earful to the first 3 rows and asked them to step up the cheers/chants.

I asked them why I could hear Providence fans chants from the upper deck over our students during a home game.

I basically got laughed at... they thought I was nuts or drunk. (Maybe a bit of the latter)

One student took me serious and said he knows the chants and would try to lead them, but said "If we do it every possession it gets old".
SERIOUSLY?!

I want to try to give the students the benefit of the doubt since PC game was right after finals and some of the more diehard student fans may have already gone home for Winter break.

However, is disparaging that the band ended up leading half of the chants, and by the time the chant could be heard by others, it was already over.

I'm sure this will come off as an 'old-man-yells-at-clouds' attitude, but when I was a student just over a decade ago, we cheered in big games non-stop. I typically had no voice by the end of the game.
I had to arrive at games 2+ hrs early to get in line in freezing temps for lower bowl seats.
I paid 3x market value of student season tickets because I got screwed by the dumb lottery system.

Is there no current version of the husky hardcores anymore?

Hopefully there's some current students here on this forum that could help start a grassroots effort to galvanize the student fanbase. Because the current state is a really sad showing.

 

[August_West]

I thought the student section was really strong at the Gampel games I was at this year, except for the “let’s go Brandon” chant they broke into at one of them That was just dumb.

 

[Waquoit]

I thought the student section was really strong at the Gampel games I was at this year, except for the “let’s go Brandon” chant they broke into at one of them That was just dumb.

I'm thinking the students-only First Night helped get the students back.

 

[outlaw]

I believe it was the 2012 game, it was 100% at Gampel. I was a student as well. But it is certainly easier for anyone to get into the student section at XL.

fair enough - there are plenty of things I don't remember LOL

 

[XLCenterFan]

Interesting. Did you factor in ranked/unranked opponents into that analysis? I'm genuinely curious because when I was a student there, it seemed like we played better quality opponents at Gampel each year (obviously both had cupcakes built in, but I would think if you are looking for a gambler's advantage you would want to remove those types of games from the comparison).

I simply did wins/loses in Hartford/Gampel. I should maybe look into against the spread records and factor in opponents - that would be much more timely though.

For the most part, we play an equal schedule at both places. This year we have Nova/PC/Butler/Creighton/MQ in Hartford, and SH/X/G-Town/SJU/DePaul at Storrs. Cupcake games were also evenly split. This is usually the case every year.

 

[bolt34]

Going off that, here are the records ATS (against the spread) this year.

Gampel: 3-0
vs. Central CT, -34. Won by 51
vs. LIU, -29. Won by 53
vs. Grambling -26. Won by 29

XL: 0-4
vs. Coppin St. -42. Won by 35
vs. Binghamton. -32. Won by 24
vs. MD-Eastern. -35. Won by 9
vs. Providence. -7.5. Lost by 4.

Obviously hard to make extrapolations off of such a small sample size but something I will continue to keep track of.

 

[phillionaire]

Going off that, here are the records ATS (against the spread) this year.

Gampel: 3-0
vs. Central CT, -34. Won by 51
vs. LIU, -29. Won by 53
vs. Grambling -26. Won by 29

XL: 0-4
vs. Coppin St. -42. Won by 35
vs. Binghamton. -32. Won by 24
vs. MD-Eastern. -35. Won by 9
vs. Providence. -7.5. Lost by 4.

Obviously hard to make extrapolations off of such a small sample size but something I will continue to keep track of.

Fade us in Hartford got it

 

[UConnSwag11]

The student section has been awful for awhile.

It’s a mix of bad play over the years and the students not being the students of 20 years ago (or even 10). They don’t value going to games like they use to.

The university has slowly sucked the life out of the student section as well. Started in 2009 and now it’s manifested. They’ve gotten rid of the student section at the xl center. The students should also start demanding more to have a college experience for them like we did years ago

 

[UConnSwag11]

was a student 10 years ago - don't recall that - and you certainly don't see any opposing kids in the gampel student sections.

I was there and saw the kid

 

[UConnSwag11]

there were providence kids in the student section.... think that says it all.

Bc there is no student section at XL

 

[bolt34]

The university has slowly sucked the life out of the student section as well. Started in 2009 and now it’s manifested. They’ve gotten rid of the student section at the xl center. The students should also start demanding more to have a college experience for them like we did years ago

This x100. Can’t even begin to explain how much XL Center staff was accosting students waiting in line before doors opened in the rain. Taking away signs they had made and stuff like that.

 

[101akul]

I wouldn't judge the student section based on the providence game

From a current students perspective XL games are not a great fan experience, the student section is just horrible for a game watching perspective as your pretty far away from the court especially compared to Gampel, plus only 5 rows have a good view of the court with the band taking most of the left side seats and you cant see over them, if your not in the first couple rows on the right side your watching the game from the Jumbotron. Plus getting to XL from Storrs is also kinda of a hassle between the bus being hit or miss with availability.

Also in general most of the students have not been too many games, Only Juniors and Seniors have been to games, and even for those juniors and seniors who went to the game the outlook on the team has changed significantly. Also so far this season during multiple games people have came down and told us the student section was mic'd so you couldn't say or do certain things.

Specifically for Saturday too the finals schedule was weird so there where a lot of people who still had finals on Saturday or just went home early.

But I do see its not as intense as it was for even the Houston, or Cincinnati games from freshman year, but I think that is more just the significance of the game because the turnout especially to Gampel games has been good so far (both parts are usually filled an hour before gametime) Once the spring semester rolls around I think you'll see much more of the student section you want specifically looking at that Xavier, Hall, Nova stretch (Hopefully Covid allows)