If we want to keep our reputation as the best fans in college basketball we should ignore almost everything Nathan Carleton had to say in his Feb. 9 column, "Little bags filled with flour: The future of the Crazies."
Nothing Carleton suggests is original or clever. From how many different schools do you think D.J. Strawberry has heard the DARR-YL chant?
The fans at the University of Florida tried that chant and the Gators ended up losing to an inspired Terp team (led by the defense of one D.J. Strawberry) in overtime. We don't want that, now do we?
The little bags of flour that Carleton suggests are just inappropriate. He mentions Herman Veal as a precedent for this behavior. Herman Veal was himself accused of sexual assault. D.J. has done nothing to warrant this kind of behavior from the Crazies, other than be Darryl Strawberry's son. His father was the cocaine addict, and D.J.'s relationship with his father is tenuous at best.
A better precedent would be Juan Dixon, whose parents where drug addicts and died prematurely of AIDS. The Crazies did not target Juan with chants of crack-baby or the like. UVA students did and came under fire from the rest of the ACC.
I agree with Carleton that the Cameron Crazies are at a crossroads. However, the choice is whether we will follow the national trend toward ugliness and poor sportsmanship, or whether we will prove to be the greatest fans in the game and rise above the disturbing nastiness that seems to permeate college basketball.
I think Carleton should ask the real Crazies--the grad students who have been to every game for 6 years or so, or the guys in tent number one--whether they think we should take his suggestions.
Jonathan Wallace
Trinity '06
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