I used to have seats in the nosebleed sections of the upper UD Arena. For years I’d look down at those great seats in the 100s and 200s and wonder if I’d ever make it close enough to the court to read the names on the backs of the jerseys. Ten years ago I lucked out and slid down to the lower Arena and felt like a million bucks – about the cost of a lower arena ticket anymore after all the intangibles are tossed in.

Speaking from experience, witnessing a game in the lower Arena is a different evening altogether. Unlike the 300 and 400 sections where fans sit in near-darkness and fumble for Cokes, the lower Arena is brightly lit to showcase the prime-time seats and old fogies who plan on passing them on to their next of kin. The Geritol crowd has been much livelier in recent years however and deserve to be recognized as great fans too – fans that once sat in their chairs reading Modern Maturity during timeouts. The students in the lower Arena are an integral part of the UD Arena experience too. With a rejuvenation in the basketball program due to this year’s fast start, many students are voicing their school spirit like never before. Unfortunately, it’s gotten to the point where school spirit has ceased and tasteless behavior has flourished in one of the most hallowed buildings of college basketball.

While the UD students have been spirited – but all too often obnoxious – this season, they were at their complete worst during the last home game against Coastal Carolina University. I know this because all those years of wishing for lower Arena seats finally paid off as I now find myself sitting in the section directly behind the visitor bench. Inevitably, whatever the opposing coach hears, you can bet everyone in my section hears it too. With the student section just a few feet away, it makes for an easy kill.

In what should have been a great atmosphere all around as former UD assistant Pete Strickland returned to Dayton with his own team, it quickly deteriorated into a barrage of put-downs, insults, and personal attacks. It would be shocking enough were it a stranger, but to behave so shabbily in the direction of a former Flyer leaves myself and many others embarrassed and extremely apologetic. The typical derogatory remarks of “you suck coach” and “Strickland sucks” numbered in the dozens. We already know the fans love to chant “You Suck” when the pep band plays the unofficial basketball march, so that came as no surprise. Beyond these incidents however were more four-letter words and tasteless declaratives that served no other purpose than to humiliate and spark a riot. I have a definite problem with this and my guess is visiting teams leave Dayton less-impressed than what could have been.

A similar experience occurred during the Kentucky game at the Firstar Center. With 1:30 remaining and Dayton up by just six points, several UD students began chanting “undefeated!” as if the game had been signed, sealed, and delivered. I and another person took the initiative and yelled “shut the hell up it’s not over!” in an attempt to extinguish the nonsense. As it turned out, the Flyers won – but barely. The students are an important part of the UD basketball experience. They lead the cheers, never sit down, and have been catalysts for the Red Scare and the 6th Man. But as much as they do to help the Flyers, they take away by acting like adolescent teenyboppers instead of young adults holding a fair degree of class and reservation. The Dayton Flyers need the students to be loud and vocal, but there are better ways to do it than this.

Fans sitting on the opposite end of the court or in the upper Arena may never hear this stuff originating from the student section. As UD fans, we can turn our heads and shrug our shoulders, but I’m not certain guests will do the same – especially when they used to be family.