Who was at the Breslin ?

Submitted by Flocka on
So last night I made my first trip to see Michigan basketball on the road. I sat in the Izzone so you can probably imagine all the stuff I had to put up with. Who else made it to the game ? There was the Michigan student section and then a few scattered wolverine fans throughout. It would be great next year to get 25% Michigan fans, I know it won't happen but why not ? It would absolutely take a large chunk of the home advantage away.

denardogasm

January 26th, 2014 at 3:35 PM ^

I imagine if the tickets were available there would have been that many Michigan fans.  Why would the MSU students sell tickets for their biggest game of the year when they're ranked number 3 in the country?  It just won't happen.

turd ferguson

January 26th, 2014 at 4:27 PM ^

Next year will be interesting.  There's a lot of uncertainty with our roster, but MSU should look very, very different.  Harris will almost definitely declare.  Payne and Appling are gone.  Their recruiting of late has been weak by MSU standards, so they'll be lighter in both star power and depth than we've seen in awhile.  It's way too early to know how our roster will look, but even if we lose one or two guys of the McGary-Robinson-Stauskas-LeVert-Walton-Irvin-Horford-Albrecht core, it'll be the first time in awhile that we enter the MSU games with rosters that look to me like we have a clear advantage.  It'll be interesting to see whether Breslin changes at all if they have a 2012-13 to 2013-14 Indiana kind of drop off.

Michigan basketball could be fun for a long time.

CursedWolverine

January 26th, 2014 at 4:25 PM ^

I love college basketball and work in the area so I have season tickets to the upper deck bleachers for State games (getting to see some top level B1G basketball all year is pretty nice). It is almost worth it for the UM game alone each year so all these top 10 matchups is icing on the cake.

I was lucky enough to be sitting just a few rows from the traveling Maize Rage so I had some allies. Breslin was very loud to start - most notably the shot clock violation in the first few minutes.

One thing you definitely notice from game to game is how much more amped State fans get for this game. It is on a whole other level, so for UM to come out and perform like they did is very impressive. Typically solid plays, like the shot clock violation or a block, become standing ovations. I personally feel it is much tougher for UM to win at the Breslin compared to any other team in the B1G coming to East Lansing.

Overall, very fun experience. I had to endure walking out of the Breslin wearing Maize last year so this made it all worth it. Couch wrote an article about how expectation are so high for State at home is hard for them to play there and you feel it. Every missed layup or mis-play is a huge groan from the crowd. That has to weigh on their players. The fans expect (arguably rightfully) a top 5 performance every time out. It is the cost of high expectations.

Tagg

January 27th, 2014 at 12:09 AM ^

I also attended the game and sat in the nosebleed bleachers on the end furthest from the Michigan bench. Having attended the Minny game earlier this year (recon mission!) I concur with how much more amped the Izzone and Breslin in general was versus Michigan than the Gophers. I would compare it to a game at Michigan Stadium versus ND under the lights to say, Wisconsin. The crowd was very much into the Minny game but nothing like Saturday night but that was expected.

One thing I noticed at both games is the level of crowd interaction was impressive with few fans not engaged in the game. I remember this one older lady, maybe early 80's was getting down with the chants, singing the MSU fight song and just really animated. They showed her on the screen at the Minny game a few times and once Saturday night. It would be great to see Crisler bring some of that in a few weeks!

I had couple fans, likely students who gave me the "fuck Michigan!" and one guy in my section who was a little mouthy at first but a couple MSU fans told him to zip it. The guy I sat next to was a MSU fan and we had a great talk during the game and he was very complimentary towards our basketball team. He experessed disappointment for McGary being hurt and thought highly of the job Beilein has done. No one gave me or my buddy a hard time the entire game and few along with they guy next to me said "great game" or some variation of that after it was all done. 

All in all everything was fine and didn't have any trouble other than a couple knuckleheads but I've had those at Michigan games and they were Michigan fans. Breslin is great enviroment for college basketball which makes getting a W there even better. 

goblueritzy92

January 26th, 2014 at 5:03 PM ^

I was at the game in EL 3 years ago when Stu hit the big 3. That was one of the top games I've ever been to just because it was so great seeing all the dejected MSU fans around me. There were a few that decided they would give unwarranted threats to myself and my brothers, 3 high school Michigan fans.

EDIT: And hey would you look at that. I joined MGoBlog 5 years ago today. I will accept gifts in the form of cash or gift cards.

TRIPP3

January 26th, 2014 at 4:57 PM ^

The game for espn. Great game. It was great watching the sad spartan fans walk by. I had the shot of nicks parents going crazy! Great night !

Lilweezy19

January 26th, 2014 at 5:00 PM ^

I'm currently a sophomore at U of M. 6 of us went to the game and got $40 tickets a piece for upper level student section tickets. There was always the occasional asshole chants directed at us and constant excessive cheering when MSU went on their run in the first half to take the lead. Everyone had the same excuse that we are an average team that would lose by 15+ if they were healthy. At the end of the game we were the only ones trash talking.
After attending the football game and the Michigan at Indiana game last year it feels good to finally be on the winning side on the road.

BraveWolverine730

January 26th, 2014 at 6:16 PM ^

I was in the Maize Rage contigent and I have to say there wasn't anything too bad really. We had one guy yell at us "Do you want to die?", but he ended up getting kicked out. Similarly there was only one guy who tried to fight us. He tried to inefffectively hip check me and when I ignored him, he came around and sucker punched another Rager. Fortunately security got him too. Again, overall losing makes them way less likely to say crap so thanks to the team for shutting them up. 

BraveWolverine730

January 26th, 2014 at 7:58 PM ^

Haha fair enough. I was just comparing it to the atmosphere two years ago (fortunately I wasn't there last year, but I've heard it was way worse from other Ragers) where we lost count of the number of middle fingers we got thrown up at us including people with their small children. Diffrence was mainly it was only a couple idiots this time versus basically every person we passed by.



Another thing that helped was that our bus back to Ann Arbor was just outside the door this year so we just ran there (though we did catch a few snowballs while boarding). A couple years ago it got lost somehow during the game and we were just kinda stranded waiting outside in East Lansing for half an hour which was...not fun.