I forgot to add this to yesterday’s Reporter’s Notebook, and it’s a must share.
At the game I covered Tuesday night, there were two older women sitting right behind me. I’m guessing they were both in the ballpark of 70 years old. Early in the game, they were aggressive in their comments towards the home team.
“Come on, Andrew! Follow your shot!”
“You have to help from the weak side!”
“Work for smarter shots!”
These were real Hoosier ladies. They knew their hoops.
As the game got away from the home side, they got more frustrated, though. Like a lot of fans I run into, they have a rather one-sided view of the game. The other team fouls. Theirs does not. The other team travels. Theirs does not. And so on.
“Come on, ref, he moved his pivot foot!”
“Hey! Watch the elbows out there!”
“They’re all over him!”
They were fun to listen to.
But my favorite line of the night came at the beginning of the fourth quarter. My team was up by 18 and one of the assistants was doing the standard check of how many timeouts were remaining, who was in foul trouble, and so on with the scorer’s table. The assistant was still standing up when the ball was inbounded and one of the ladies wasn’t having it.
“Sit down, coach!” she yelled at him.
I about pissed myself.
As they game devolved into a bunch of missed threes by the home team and layups for the visitors, they reduced their volume and grumbled to themselves. I hope I get out that way again sometime so I can listen to their commentary.