Red Scare Does It Again

How many college students do you know that will willingly wake up at 6:30 a.m. on a Saturday? Add in a four hour drive to the “beautiful” city of Pittsburgh. Add in painting your arms and face in slimy, blue acrylic paint (that may or may not be safe for skin for an extended period) in a parking garage with a crippling wind chill that will make you wonder if your hands are blue because of the paint or because you’re shirtless in a parking garage in Pittsburgh in January. Take three “blue men” a man in a pilot costume, two somewhat normally dressed Dayton Flyers fans, and a man in a Clifford costume, and you get the seven wild superfans of Dayton basketball that are members of the “RED SCARE”, the completely noncommunist representation of student support for Dayton athletics, that made the trip to Duquesne University last Saturday.

If anyone walked into UD Arena with their bodies painted blue, sporting flags, and a Clifford costume, some UD students would be in jail for assault. By no means am I highlighting an aggressive attitude by Dayton Flyers basketball fans, but when you sell 1,000 student tickets for a random Tuesday night game, they want to make sure their presence is felt.

For Duquesne fans on this frigid January afternoon, it was like Christmas Eve dinner at the Griswold’s, disastrous.

Freshman phenom for the Flyers, 6’10 forward Daron Holmes II had 18, Freshman guard Kobe Elvis (yes he has the best name in college basketball. Yes, he is #24) had 16 on 6-8 from the field and a perfect 4-4 behind the arc.

The 72-52 rout by the Flyers was, unfortunately for Duquesne fans, not the worst part of the day.

Almost every student section has its own social media pages that promote games, giveaways, etc. to encourage students to attend games and events. For Duquesne, their student section is known as “The Red & Blue Crew” and had all the opportunities for an atmosphere that rivaled any in the young barn of UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse. The game promotion was there. This Tweet by “The Red & Blue Crew” showed great promise.

Unfortunately for the Dukes, the “white-out” theme turned into a “dress like the seat” theme.

This tweet from a Twitter user known as Parlay Pyle, gained some traction, and the legend of the “White Out the Coop” was born. If you didn’t think it could get worse, check out this tweet from The Red & Blue Crew in response to Parlay Pyle.

Yikes.

From the recorded attendance of 3,012, and despite the fact that the Flyers and the Dukes sport the same colors, anyone inside "The Coop" could say that the vast majority of that 3,012, hailed the Flyers. A text from a student manager for the Flyers shared that the presence from the one-time Yinzers was felt by the players and staff.

At the end of the day, I have the utmost respect for Duquense and its program. They built a brand new arena, and their program is starting to grow. CPMC Cooper Fieldhouse is gorgeous and I would love to see that place fill up. It has the potential to be an incredibly tough place to play.

But, it's no UD Arena.

Lastly, the biggest thanks need to be expressed to the University of Dayton Athletic Director, Neil Sullivan. Sullivan was generous enough to give us the opportunity to attend the game, and to supply our seats so we could make the biggest impact possible. Mr. Sullivan, if somehow you are reading this, Chaifetz Arena is only 5.5 hours away. We have paint on standby.