USC fans suck...

First time at a USC-UCLA basketball game yesterday for the Pac-10 tournament semi-finals at Staples Center. Have to say, USC fans are TERRIBLE compared to UCLA fans. I first noticed this trend at a USC-UCLA baseball game a couple of weeks back, where their fans were fired up for the game, which was even more impressive since the game was at Dedeaux Field, the Trojans home field. Anyway, at a "neutral" Staples Center, USC fans were outnumbered 65-30, with the last 5 probably being Wazzu or Stanford fans for the following game. But even with the modest number of fans, it was hard to tell we were even there. UCLA fans, I'll give it up to you guys, you were into the game. Even in the first half, where USC dominated, you still did the eight-clap and UCLA spellout while the band played Sons of Westwood and the other song you stole from Cal. Meanwhile, we Trojan fans sat on our hands, cheering once for big plays while our band refused to play Fight On. It sucked.


SoCal Spellout


We Are SC!

Now I'm no spirit leader, but a response to the Bruin eight-clap would have been more SoCal spellouts or a We Are SC chant, even though that's supposed to be reserved for when we're leading at the end of games, but in an environment like last night, in a neutral arena, we needed to be heard. Every time UCLA fans finished their eight-clap, USC fans should have been right there with a Socal spellout or We Are SC chants. Instead, our lame ass response is to add "sucks" whenever the Bruin fans yelled UCLA. Pretty embarrassing. I think we did the SoCal spellout twice all night. Brutal. Screw saving "We are SC" for the end of games, if the team needs a rallying cry, that's it! The band yells "Go SC" all game long, and "U-S-C" is too short, but "We are SC" is perfect. That's what the SC faithful should have done instead of saying "sucks" after Bruin fans said UCLA. I hate Trojan fans...

It's not completely our fault though, as the USC band needs to play Fight On more often. I think they played it three times all game, once when the team came onto the court before the game, once when they came back from halftime, and when there were a few minutes left in the game. Weak sauce. I think the Bruin band played the Cal fight song several times, especially during their key 15-2 run to start the second half, The Trojan band response to our eight point lead in the first half? "All Right Now"? WEAK. If the band can play Fight On over 30 times during a football game, why can't we hear it more than 3 times during a basketball game? And what happened to playing Conquest? It's our freaking battle cry, and we don't get it before basketball games? That's the best part of the pregame routine in football, yet its nowhere to be heard in basketball? What the heck?

While I hate UCLA in general, I do like their fans. They care about ALL of their sports teams, not just the successful ones. They show up to baseball, basketball, football, volleyball in decent numbers compared to SC fans, who are truly bandwagoners. At least most are. I don't really consider myself a bandwagon fan, even though I did start enjoying USC when the football team won the national championship in 2003. Which, coincidently, was my freshman year here. Now while I haven't been to a whole lot of other USC sporting events, I do root for USC when I get a chance to. Freshman year, I went to the USC-Arizona basketball game when Desmon Farmar scored 40 as the Trojans upset a top-10 Wildcat team. I was there the following game when SC lost to lowly Arizona State, but I was there, even though it was quite a trek to get to the Sports Arena. My sophomore year, I went to two road football games. The first was a close one, where the Trojans rallied from a 11 point halftime deficient to win 31-28 against Stanford. The second was another close one, a 29-24 win over UCLA for a trip to the Orange Bowl, where USC won their second national championship in football. When I was in Hawaii for Winter Break, I went to the Rainbow Classic championship, where USC fell to Hawaii 81-78 under interim coach Jim Saia. I also went to a volleyball game between Hawaii and USC that year, though skipped out on basketball cause I lived sooo far away from the Sports Arena that year. Junior year, I went to the epic Rose Bowl game between USC and Texas. Senior year, I was there for the 13-9 debacle against UCLA at the Rose Bowl, as well as going to a handful of basketball games at the Galen Center. And this year, I traveled to Berkeley for the weekender game against Cal, and have gone to several basketball games and my first USC baseball game. This is on top of being at 30 consecutive home football games during my 5 years at USC. So me a bandwagoner? Hardly...