Fans are the difference

Why do we spend our hard-earned cash, neglect our classes and ignore our nightly responsibilities to become a secondhand participant of IU basketball and have our frame of mind determined by a shooter's touch?\nWe believe our cheering, ref-bashing, clapping, singing and criticizing somehow does influence the game's outcome, and therefore we are in a small way part of the team. But do we really matter?\nDid you watch the game at Penn State Wednesday night? \nIn the Hoosiers' 85-51 humiliation of an awful Nittany Lions squad, IU only took part in the physical aspect of its opponent's beating. Emotionally, the Lions "fans" were equally brutal. In 1996, the Penn State basketball team played its first game in Bryce Jordan Center -- a facility that, according to the PSU athletic Web site, has everything but a "patented Chris Berman nickname."\nI have a nickname: "Empty."\nIn fact, this mother of a basketball arena seats 15,261 people. That leaves plenty of room for every guy to have a buffer zone and still relax his feet on the seat in front. I didn't actually attend this spectacle, but I didn't have to -- the television was my witness. You know it's bad when the first three rows behind the bench are empty. Those spots are usually designated to season ticket holders. \nThe official count at the game was 8,674 screaming -- OK, sleeping -- fans. Were they counting the cheerleaders and snack bar employees? I could hear the television announcers crack their knuckles. I think I heard an IU fan scream, "Let's go A.J." Or maybe he was just talking to the person next to him, or to himself.\nIt's a typical athletics program problem. A bad team leads to poor attendance, and poor attendance leads to weak play. That combination creates a dismal 5-12 Penn State team.\nIn Bloomington, this formula might sound familiar. Perhaps not, since most of you have never been to an IU football game.\nBut in basketball, our pride and joy, this horrific turn of events has not set its course. Assembly Hall is not the toughest place to play basketball. It is not a fancy commercial arena. It's dark, it's simple and it's old. The students have limited seats near the court, and Dick Vitale hasn't given the student section a crafty "Vitalism." \nHowever, IU fans are present and covered in red, and that is most important.\nThe coaches and players are thankful. In the press conference following Wednesday night's game, IU Coach Mike Davis previewed tomorrow's clash with eighth-ranked Illinois.\n"The game Saturday afternoon should be a packed house," Davis said. "Our fans should be all excited about the opportunity to play the best team in the Big Ten."\nSo maybe Hoosier fans do make a difference in the elevation of their players' jump, the quickness of the team defense and the outcome of the game. There will be more than 8,674 paying supporters at Assembly Hall tomorrow. They will be loud, full of energy and wouldn't have it any other way. \nSorry guys, no buffer zone.