Experiences at Breslin last night
For anyone that went to Breslin last night, how was your experience? I went with the Maize Rage and we were obviously cheering when Michigan scored and what not so we were probably irking the fans around us.
I had never been to a road stadium before so I can't compare experiences, but I've never been flipped off, had explicit things said about my family, etc. so much in my life.
What stood out the most was when I left the arena an MSU fan ~60 years old shoved a hat in my face and yelled "fuck Michigan, we're Big Ten Champs, you like that?" For whatever reason I entertained him with a response and said I didn't like it and he said "fuck you, I hope you don't make it back to Ann Arbor."
Weird stuff...It seemed like a mild version of Columbus from the stories I've heard. Did anyone have a similar experience, or was this likely just because I went with the Maize Rage?
Sounds about right.
I live in Lansing and there definitely was a lot of Spartan anger yesterday. I was at a bar in East Lansing that was 99% Sparty fans and they were guffawing and taunting once they got a lead. They were pretty quiet in the first half though. They are not happy that Michigan has gotten more love on a national basis this year and that just feeds their disrespect psychosis.
Sometimes you get your little brother excited when you're playing basketball and let him get the lead. Then you just come back and take it back."
Come on, we were all thinking ti.
Not really, we just got swept by MSU this season and lost out on winning the B10
Thinking what?
I’m not saying it’s right but you should expect that (especially at MSU or OSU). I’ve had great experiences at almost all BIG venues I’ve attended (except OSU). I’ve also had really bad experiences at many of the same venues.
My desire to attend any M road game has almost completely died. When Purdue fans were giving me shit all day 2 years ago in West Lafayette I figured I should hang it up.
West Lafayette was our last straw as well. People screaming in our faces, stopping cars to yell obscenities at us, etc. All we were doing was touring campus before the game in our Michigan gear. It’s a fucking game...
I always make it a point to be courteous and cheerful to opponent fans walking around A2 on game days. My overwhelming impression is that they are treated well and welcomed by Michigan fans.
March 10th, 2019 at 10:12 PM ^
Mostly. I've seen a handful of incidents of awful behavior from Michigan fans over the years that probably are well remembered on our opponents message boards.
Or perhaps this was a sophisticated false flag operation?
That surprises me in West Lafayette. They've been one of the nicest opposing fanbases I've experienced.
I've had extremely bad experiences in EL and OSU. And it's funny, but it is often old guys like those in the OP.
The thing about letting it get to you is that they win if you stop attending road games. That's their goal: make it inhospitable for fans and opposing teams alike.
They've won the last two but we would absolutely drive a dagger through their heart if we won the BTT and defeated them next Sunday. That needs to be the theme of this week - defend our BTT Title/revenge.
I don't know what rah rah may exist at the D1 athlete level but that would absolutely be on my mind - 'we're going to get to Sunday, get revenge, be three time BTT Champions, and absolutely crush sparty's soul. You sons of bitches aren't even capable of doing what we did to you last year, which was a three win sweep.'
state would be despondent.
Last year was a two win sweep, didn't play at Crisler. Don't think we've ever won three against Sparty in a year. Had a chance in 2014 but lost in the BTT final. Would like to return the favor a week from today
I think I'm catching your drift. On the bright side, these shirts seem to be heavily discounted.
They would still have 2/3 and the more important championship. I don't think it would "drive a dagger through their heart." Honestly it's more important for Michigan to win for its own sake - losing all three in a season would be awful.
More important championship? Says who? Clearly both in the dance, but last time I checked winning BTT gets you automatic bid. Winning last night got them nothing!! I think gaining momentum and swagger heading into tourney and winning next week more important. Go for three peat. Now with unbalanced schedules and everyone playing different opponents, winning the BTT on neutral site is pretty big deal to me.
March 10th, 2019 at 11:21 PM ^
Dude, even I think winning the regular season title is preferable to winning the BTT, and my university has won the BTT two years in a row. There's no getting back at them for the regular-season sweep this year, that's just the way it is (well, okay, unless we beat them in the NCAA tournament itself).
"Winning last night got them nothing!!"
Except for that whole championship thing.
All of my Spartan fans hang their laurels on the fact that that they WON the Big Ten last year. They didn't care if I brought up Michigan beat them TWICE, won the Big Ten Tournament, and we were runner-ups in the National Title Game. They didn't give a lick about that. Only the Big Ten Title. So yeah, it does kind of matter.
Of course they do..that's what all fans do..play up your teams successes and knock your rivals...at least in mixed company.
the BTT title is way more meaningful vs. a regular season title.
March 11th, 2019 at 10:16 AM ^
I have a feeling I know why you think that.
That is asinine. Even Michigan State fans don't think that, and Michigan State has won more of them than any other program.
The only programs that actually care about the Big Ten Conference Tournament are the ones that without winning it have no chance to make it into the NCAA Tournament. Please don't lump us in with Rutgers and Illinois.
March 11th, 2019 at 10:22 PM ^
3 whole games
March 11th, 2019 at 10:37 AM ^
I highly doubt they would be despondent. When M lost in the B1G tournament final in 2014 my feeling was that we won the regular season B1G title and that was the greater accomplishment than winning the B1G tournament. I imagine my MSU friends will justify it the same way. Winning the tournament the last two years has been fun but I'd still rather have the regular season banner.
Plus, I honestly don't know if M will beat MSU in a rematch next Sunday, with how the first two games have played out.
Couldn't agree more.
March 10th, 2019 at 10:10 PM ^
I don't think it's too complicated. MSU is an institution with a mediocre reputation and a decade and more of blunders by those in power that led to immense pain for a lot of people, most of them women. The place sold its soul in order to become our equal in sports because that was the perceived route to some sense of parity on the national stage.
Such attainment looks increasingly hollow, but it's what they've got; their sense of self-worth, deeply wounded, resides there and nowhere else. Expect hysterical and deeply resentful behavior out of all proportion to actual events.
To be expected response from a fanbase/university that rightfully so has a well deserved inferiority complex and always will. LBS - little brother syndrome.
Family friend took his 7 year old daughter. They were both cussed at alot. His daughter had half eaten pizza and pop thrown at her, people cheered and said FUCKIN SCUM. ??♂️
Really hope we get to play them sunday. Football season they’ll have zero chance against us.
"Football season they'll have zero chance against us."
And we thank you for that Shea!
All the more reason to never take my kids to that dump of a town.
Bullshit.
Interesting, I was also in the Maize Rage and did not have an experience at all like that. Much milder than Columbus. Occasional taunts and chest beating, but nobody hurled any expletives or really even acknowledged the group I was in. Most were pretty courteous and the biggest difference to me was that nobody really said anything in the concourses. OSU people actively look for fights and will single you out, MSU people just genuinely seemed happy to win and were just cheering for the team.
One exception was an older man screaming at us at the end of the game. When Castleton checks in or scores or whatever the Maize Rage chants "STORM THE CASTLE (repeat)". Because that's his name. Is it clever or really make any sense? No, but it's college. It's just fun. But the old dude took it like it was supposed to be a challenge to MSU and that it was like we were saying "we're going to invade Breslin and conquer MSU." No. It's a cheer for a guy on our team. But anyway the old dude mockingly repeated the chant at the student section from a section away at the end of the game. Outside of that, I thought it was pretty good? Sorry for fans and especially students who got the worst of it last night
Great environment, great fans, great rivalry. Could hear a pin drop in the first half and the MSU fans were chomping at the bit to have anything to cheer about. Crowd was a factor on Michigan's performance starting around 8:30 into the second half.
You must have not been paying attention to what people were yelling in the last 5 minutes or so, or when we were exiting, didn't encounter anyone in the bathroom, and didn't encounter the older men that were waiting outside by the exits that holding their "Big Ten Champions" hats that were waiting for Michigan fans to exit. There was hardly anyone singling people out and looking for fights, but I definitely have a few vivid faces painted in my head, namely a guy in a Cassius Winston jersey that was doing exactly that...I feel like I know who this is and we were sitting pretty close to each other, so this really surprises me.
Also would like to add that their home-crowd advantage was just meh. Breslin is bigger than Crisler and the student section looks impressive on screen, but it really doesn't go that high up and just wraps around a lot. Probably sounds louder on the court, but I thought home games against UNC and OSU were just as loud if not louder than Breslin last night. MSU has a bunch of old fans that sit on their hands too, but the difference is they don't get the best seats at the game like at Crisler
I saw the Class A Michigan high school state basketball championship there about nine years ago and found it to be a very sterile facility. Crisler is a lot nicer.
I thought it was up to par. I think the Crisler renovation is nicer but I thought Breslin was overall pretty solid. The sight lines are good and the concourses are nice and clean. Only thing that's ugly is the rafters which looks like a car crash of steel and cement. I doubt there's much you can do with that area, but just an ugly detail that was overlooked by the constructors
On TV it looked and sounded crazy in the second half. Can’t speak to how it was live, but at about the middle of the second until the end, it looked like a madhouse and we looked pretty rattled by it.
Also would like to add that their home-crowd advantage was just meh. Breslin is bigger than Crisler and the student section looks impressive on screen, but it really doesn't go that high up and just wraps around a lot. Probably sounds louder on the court, but I thought home games against UNC and OSU were just as loud if not louder than Breslin last night. MSU has a bunch of old fans that sit on their hands too, but the difference is they don't get the best seats at the game like at Crisler
It usually is. There’s some lunatics out there but I’ve never actually witnessed any of these preposterous claims of people getting broken beer bottles stabbed into their eyes or whatever people are claiming. Sat in section 5 of Spartan Stadium last year which was probably about 50/50. Had a fucking blast. Everyone was having a good time. No arguments or fights and a good fashioned ass whooping
My experience in general on the road is that people that find trouble . . . tend to look for trouble.
Can’t speak to Breslin (haven’t been there in many years), but I was at Spartan Stadium last season and I wasn’t abused, most of their fans were relatively friendly (granted, I was sitting in the Michigan section, however I did have to ‘mingle’ with a lot of MSU fans during the stadium evacuation). Didn’t really have any overly bad experiences there in 2016 either. However, when I was maybe 10 years old a handful of MSU students harassed the hell out of me and were trying to start a fight. Very brave picking on a little kid. Lol
In Buffalo this weekend for a concert, went to a sports pub to watch the game. Managed to wander into the one, place, with a dozen or so Spartan fans, one of whom was well into “I’ve had the number of beers required to result in Carl Lorthner voice-level control” range. He proceeded to chant ”Rocky IV, Rocky IV” any time Iggy was on screen “Waffle Guy, Waffle Guy” for the ENTIRE split-screen timeframe, and was just all around terrible, and loud, the whole, time. Locals, with no interest in the game one way or the other, started mockingly chanting “airball” under their breath whenever MSU missed a shot (unfortunately not a common enough event in the second half).
Here's my experience at the gym today:
- Relaxing in sauna
- Some dude talks to me. Nice guy
- Learn he's from Columbus
- Told him I believe Urbs will go to USC next year
- Guy tells me he doesn't think Urbs will go to USC because USC is too unethical
- Then he goes on a tangent about how ethical Tressel was too, all unprovoked
- Says he feels sorry for us and hopes we beat them soon
- I could only agree about the last part
I imagine this was one of those gym scenarios where both guys were in towels and there was a lot of eye contact ...
Yes, eye contact was definitely made.
I attended the 1997 football game vs MSU in East Landfill. Stadium was basically all Michigan fans by the fourth quarter. I see no reason to ever go back to that hell hole.
Football is a whole other story. They put a lot of stock in basketball and have a history yada yada yada, but this trading wins with them thing in football needs to die. It needs to be foot on the neck. We can't let them get any momentum back. It was hugely important to win in EL last year. There needs to be a blowout in Tree Town and no signs of life from MSU. Once Mark is gone, they will be dead