Because the freakin' security won't let you, that's why!!!

Only a few (about 70) people managed to break through the security line that was immediately set up to prevent the floor flooding from happening. It was total B.S.

I was in row 11 on an off row, meaning that there isn't direct access to the floor from my row. Somebody was nice enough to make a sign that said "Storm the Court" so a lot of the students got that silly little notion into their heads.

As the game was winding down, hundreds of students started filling up the aisles to burst onto the court. Very few of them made it. I was not one of the lucky ones.

To make matters worse, the students that were closest to the gate refused to break through the line, in typical Utahn, pacifist, following authority like sheep to a slaughter style!!! The larger group who was dying to get out onto the floor was screaming, "Go! Go! Go!" and "Move! Move! Move!" But the no balls, no spirit students up front refused to budge.

Those who were brave enough to try to break the line by jumping the rail were immediately converged upon by security and hauled out of the building!!

Talk about a complete lack of school spirit!! The flippin' administration at this University squelches it!! They say, "sit in the stands like good little sheep and clap loudly, but don't ever, ever, ever think about storming the court you little insignificant bastards!!"

But the worst part came at the end when Andre was giving his speech and he said, "Thanks for storming the court." Can you believe that??

Ridiculous.

I will never, ever, ever give any money to the Alumni Association or Crimson Club as long as I live, or until they do something about this total B.S.

I've seen several court stormings in person and on TV. At none of them did I see the event staff form a wall to prevent it from happening. When Utah State beat us at the first of the year, the ENTIRE student section flooded onto the floor and ABSOLUTELY NO effort was made to stop them!

There is such an elitist attitude surrounding the University. It feels like "we're too civilized to storm a court like a wild gang of vandals."

I attended school at East High, which is just down the street. I distinctly remember our principal at an assembly admonishing us to never "boo" an opponent. Because that is just something that we do not do at East High. We're too civilized to boo.

We're too civilized to flood the floor.

Out.

:I was furious also when I got to the bottom of the isle and (1) the people in front wouldn't budge so anyone could get through and (2) the ushers and police or security were so hostile. I saw one poor kid hauled off by a security guy. I don't know why they have to be that way. Utah Boy your points are well taken. How can they the school or Crimson Club or who ever the powers to be, ask the fans to get into the game, support the team, etc. and then back off like a yo yo. It would have been different if this was a hostile group, but the only hostility I saw was from the ushers. It doesn't happen all the time either, storming the floor. I don't think I'll ever forget the look on that ushers face. He could have done his job without the hostility. The only consolation I have(I've waited for months to be on that floor for Andre and the team) is that there was at least a token of people there, enough to let Andre know that we tried. It was worth it, even though some of us(most of us) didn't make it down. It was better than nothing.
One question: Who do you complain to about this situation. Is there any chance of getting it changed or relaxed for special times?
 

No message.

Legal Question: If the game is over, do they have the *right* to stop us from storming the court/field??? (NM)

They are well within their rights to keep you off the floor/field.

The basketball floor I think is a pretty lame thing to try and protect, it's not going to sustain much damage. The football field is another story, those who maintain it cringe when people go out on it, it makes the job far harder...they don't even allow tour groups on it, if someone puts one foot on it the tour guide reminds them to stay off the field. (So I'm asking nicely, stay off the field =8-)

That being said, I'm all for storming the basketball court, they shouldn't stop you (And they weren't planning on it until right before the buzzer sounded..they were going to let it happen..something changed their minds)...the complaint I'd lodge if I were you is the physical nature in which they attempted to keep people off the floor, I know one usher started pushing people before anyone even touched him, and that is beyond what they can do.

: They are well within their rights to keep you off the floor/field.

: The basketball floor I think is a pretty lame thing to try and
: protect, it's not going to sustain much damage. The football
: field is another story, those who maintain it cringe when people
: go out on it, it makes the job far harder

I think the finish on the floor can be damaged by all those people in "street shoes", but I'm sure the officials are more concerned about protecting the players and officials. Any university administration is also going to be worried about injuries to the players and the surging fans (and likely held liable, too, sadly). That said, it can be just as harmful to hold back a crowd surge as to just let it happen. What if the people in the back insisted on pushing, while those in the front, due to fear, or strong-arm restraint by the ushers, resisted?

As others have mentioned, the real reason it didn't work completely is not enough people in front were willing to break for it, to occupy the ushers/security people and allow the masses to flood. The building is not well designed for it (perhaps intentionally), and the win, though great and emotional, lacked the kind of drama and emotion that the USU upset of Utah must have had. Perhaps that kind of emotion is necessary for people to overcome their inhibitions. Lets face it, the Utes are so good, people expect tthem to win!

I think the ushers were only doing their job. I doubt you'll find any sympathy from the JMHC people or the Univ admin.

As I said, before, kudos to the fans, anyway for making it a proper send-off for 'Dre. If you told me beforehand that it was going to be asuch a blow-out I would not have expected the kind of enthusiasm over each Ute basket that was evident via the TV coverage, and I might have thought people could be filing out early rather than staying for the postgame net cutting.

Utahboy, if you're going to write a letter to the Chrony you might keep in mind the ushers were only doing their job. I doubt you'll find any sympathy from the JMHC people or the Univ admin. You could write it in the form of saying, "Thanks Andre, I really wanted to flood the floor as you wanted", work in a shot at the kill-joys, but also acknowledge your fellow fans for making a party of it.
 
 

It was really great to see the ones that made it to the floor. I came from row42.
got down there in time but by the time the people in front of me got to the floor they were stopping us. One usher even called the police on one guy. I felt bad for him. Looked around for another opening but couldn't get over the people in front of me. Anyway I'm proud of all of you that made it. I was just too late for the element of surprise and got stopped. Did you hear Andre thanking you for storminig the floor. It was worth it. I wished we could have had a bigger group get onto the floor before the ushers got on to it but it was great anyway. All that mattered was that Andre knew that we all cared about him enough to take risk.

I did it, all the way from row 41 in section VV. We had it all planned out. We headed to portal 23 around 2:00 left, and as the clock started to tick closer to zero, we bolted down the stairs, and through the ushers, who tried to make a "Harold Lusk-type hand tackle", which of course didn't stop the competition. It was fun to jump around with the other fans who made it down. I say ushers almost tackling fans left and right to keep them from getting onto the floor. I wish that more of you could have done it too.

IdealUte

...At the end, I watched the initial rush hit the floor, then the Usher-Nazis shut it down. I watched one poor fan in a white sweatshirt run around the pile three times while this self-important security geek chased him and finally caught him. Still, the after game ceremonies were great. I love watching the team cut down the net, because they finally show some personality. These are the best of times for the Utes, and why being a Ute fan is great and getting better. Thanks, Coach Majerus....

Dear Athletice Department,

What do you have against school spirit? The students at the U have not been the most supportive over the last 10 years and I have blamed most of it on them. Now I am beginning to wonder. You seem to want to take all the fun out of the game.

Why didn't you let the students storm the court after the game? This was our last home WAC game in history. This is the 1st and only time we went undefeated in WAC play. We had just won the regular season WAC title. It was Senior Day for one of the BEST players we have ever had play at Utah. Couldn't you have let your hair down for just one day and let the students on the court?

Saturday was a great day. However, you had to ruin the post game fun by strong arming the students. If you want school spirit - let the students have some harmless fun. Let them feel part of the team!!

A concerned Ute fan.

It sounds like many many people fully embraced the idea we promoted. Since I felt like a hypocrite in that I was telling everybody to get to the floor, and didn't have the money for a weekend SLC fly in and out, I felt obligated to help out with some sort of advertising.

By phone, I was able to contact 13 out of 15 fraternities/sororities, and every person I talked to seemed enthusiastic to the flood the floor idea, and that they would pass it on. Although one frat member sort of knocked me off a little off balance when he dutifully asked, are we still supposed to do it if the Utes lose, I thought about it for a moment and replied, uh, no. The sorority girls seemed even warmer to the idea. From what I found on the www.utah.edu site, I send e-mail to about 50 undergraduates, and about half a dozen of what appeared to be dormitory assistants of some sort. I posted a somewhat small but to the point display advertisement in Thursdays Chronicle. Thanks to Ancient One for picking up the cash from Western Union and taking it up to the University Union for me (Chrony only accepts payment of ad's in person). It was nice hearing about the discussion of the flood the floor idea on KFAN a couple days ago.

Do you think my campaign hurt (gave the anti-floor flooders time to thwart attempt) or helped (as I talked to the Greeks Thursday night and Friday, I could tell the idea had been accepted, and was in fact being spread).

For those that tried, successful or not, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE EFFORT. Many of you sound disappointed/frustrated, at least you tried. From your comments, it sounds like the numbers attempting were significant.

What I was planning to do to get on the floor, and maybe it would be easier said than done, was with about 1:00 left (if you go to soon before then the ushers have time to react) was go over to a side opposite the student section, where the old timers sit, get in an empty seat if one could be found, otherwise, scrunch down in the area for the brief moments, go over the railing, and lower myself down from the top of the cement wall. I felt if I was apprehended by some overzealous policeman I would be freeing up a spot for somebody else to make it through successfully. If the usher at the top of the isle tried to stop me, I'd do what I did at the western regional, make like Omar Bacon avoiding some hapless defender.

A few days ago, I was going to mention that I'd get down there even if I was in a wheelchair, and chuckled at that end when I saw someone wheel onto the court.

It's just the stuffy nature on campus and the ushers job to be fun-haters. I say the new mascot should be the U of U Fun-haters.

MalamUTE (saluting your efforts Ultimate)

Your efforts didnt hurt. I caught the end of the Stanford game on FX and couldnt believe their floor flooding. I admit that I didnt like the idea initially, but it was because I had a feeling that it wouldnt work very well. When we beat BYU in football at home in '94, I was a freshman. Everybody ran on to the field and a security guy tried to tackle me, but luckily I got passed after throwing out a few obscenities. If you can sell the idea to everybody, it would work better because 10 guards couldnt stop thousands of people, like they tried to do after that f'ball game. Last night, Stanford had so many people that it would have been impossible to stop them and thats what we needed. I thought it looked great on CBS because they had cameras right there, but from my seat in sec F, it looked a little weak. It was effective anyway and it was great for Andre

I home-videotaped everything and Andre was pretty much humble about everything. He thanked his parents, coaches and fans. It was shorter than last years. the fans stayed on the court and I noticed after watching the tape last night that a lot of flowers were thrown. You could tell that Andre wanted to get it overwith.

Well, I cant say that I tried to flood. We're just not a floor-flooding school. We dont have that many students at these games to make it work like Stanford did last night. I am always amazed at how many non-students are in the student sections. i saw lot of elderly people in secs D E and with us in F. Section A is also full of older people, so we actually dont have that many college-aged students at these games.

Ultimate, you are truly an exemplary Ute fan and should be commended for all of you efforts.

Though I live in SLC, I was unable to attend to game because I'm on call this weekend. But watching the game on TV was great and I was truly proud as I saw the fans rush the floor. I'm sad to hear of UtahBoy's experiences.....it sounds like a lot more people could have made it down if the administration would have been more reasonable. I think that we should all communicate this to Dr. Hill and others. Perhaps Chris should write a letter similar to his post to the chrony (you may have to edit it for content :-) ). Anyways, kudos to all of you who made it to the floor. I was near tears with pride as I watched the celebration on CBS and even as I listened after the game on AM 570.

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