Cal State Basketball Peripherals: Not Quite There
Cal State San Bernardino is making an effort in some of the areas that make basketball games fun. Thinking specifically of band and cheerleaders here. They have them, and once upon a time that wasn't a given.
But they need to tune up their approach.
It's 15 minutes until the men's game starts. But the cheerleaders have yet to do a thing except bustle about.
Cal State's band has about three people in place ... someone banging away on electric guitar, a drummer, a trombone player. It's like they're jamming in a club or somebody's garage ... instead of playing something contemporary ... with a driving beat.
It's like the Coyotes people have never been to a Division I game ... and don't have a clue.
Humboldt's band, however, is a little more up to speed.
First, give Humboldt's band a big hand for coming all the way down to SoCal, for the game at Pomona last night and the game here.
(At least we had a fairly nice, sunny day for them, most of today.)
I mean, you'd be keen to get out of Arcata for a weekend about now, if you lived there. It's almost rain forest up there in the northwest corner of the state.
Anyway, their band plays what I take to be the school's fight song, they play arena-style songs with driving beats and energy.
They also dress the part. Goofy, like a Stanford. They wear yellow hard hats (the team mascot is "Lumberjacks", remember) and green short pants, and yellow T-shirts with a picture of an ax on the back and the message "Kiss My Axe" written on it.
Cal State could learn from them. And from UCLA or USC, too.
Like, send a fact-finding mission to a game at Pauley Pavilion. Take notes. Try it for size. (Oh, yeah, Cal State PLAYED at Pauley twice this year.) Develop some traditions with fans and cheerleaders and band. Do this, this and this, and get fans used to it, and involved ...