Pit Crew at it again

Seth Kolloen over at Enjoy the Enjoyment pointed out this story from the Oregonian about UO officials apologizing for their students' behavior last weekend in the game against UCLA. The focus of the students ire was UCLA freshman Kevin Love, who is from the state of Oregon. According to Kolloen, the students "shouted derogatory comments about Kevin Love's sexuality, his family, and Brian Wilson's drug abuse (Love's related to the Beach Boys)." In the piece from the Oregonian coach Ernie Kent sounds as if he was surprised by his students' behavior. Maybe Kent should have read this article from the UO STUDENT newspaper that was written prior to the game. Did Kent also miss his teams game against UW last year when fans held up pictures of Ryan Appleby's bloody face on it? I guess Kent also overlooked this piece about the Pit Crew's behavior back in 2002. At least one UO student has taken notice and he's embarrassed just to be associated with such behavior.

The students are part of what make college basketball great and one of the few remaining aspects of the sport that keep it separate from its professional counterpart. Giving the opposing team a tough time has always been a key part of the students' role at events and it always will be. But too often students cross the line with little done to discourage it. The Pit prides itself on being one of the "most creative" student sections around the country. When did questioning someone's sexuality or celebrating an assault become creative? It will be interesting to see Appleby's reception when UW visits Eugene next month. It's hard to imagine that it could get any worse than what Love and his family went through last weekend.

As for the Love situation, maybe the Duck fans should have focused their negativity towards Kent. After all, he's the one who couldn't pull in the biggest recruit in state history and one who's dad was a Duck himself. The elder Love has been openly critical of Kent's recruiting of his son, saying that Kent "shot himself in the foot" during the process.