Raider fans enjoy long overdue celebration
by Bill Kintner
DAYTON, Ohio – It is a beautiful Selection Sunday and the temperature outside is around 60 degrees, but for the 1,200 or so fans that gathered at the Nutter Center, there is no place that they would rather be than supporting their beloved Riders.
It has been 14 years since Wright State was last in the NCAA Tournament. The Raider fans have a lot of pent up excitement, and today it showed as they gathered for a seeding party/pep rally on the floor on the Nutter Center on the campus of Wright State University.
Wright State put together a nice event. They put it in the enclosed end of the seating bowl and dropped a big curtain to enclose it They lowered the scoreboard to about 10 feet off the ground and then put the Selection Show on the big score board screen.
Wright State Athletic Director Mike Cusack, who has been in his job since Wright State won the Division II National Championship, was all smiles today. In his years here he has seen incredible highs and low lows.
When the season started, he didn’t anticipate the team winning as many games or doing as well as they did.
“I thought we would be .500 or a little higher. The momentum just started rolling down hill,” said Cusack.
As Cusack basked in the moment, the pep band played, the cheerleaders cheered and the dance team danced. There were contests for the students to play, a lucky student won a big screen TV, and finally at a few minutes before six, the team was introduced as they descended from the concourse down the stairs to the floor. The biggest cheers were reserved for Coach Brad Brownell and star player DaShaun Wood.
The crowd was very diverse. It ranged from students to older fans that have been cheering since the Raiders played in Division II. One thing they all have in common is a hunger for Raider success.
“I think it is important to come out and support this team, this is a very big weekend. I also think we have a good chance of winning this game,” said Brad Bertke, a junior from Ft. Larimie, Ohio.
He felt this team starting to come together in Baton Rouge, where the Raiders went 2-1 in a December tournament.
“I think when we went to LSU, they (WSU) won the last two games there and you could tell they started to jell there,” said Bertke.
Kevin Kuener a senior from Minster, Ohio came out for much the same reasons as Bertke.
“So much of our success is because of the fans, it is important to be here for our team,” explained Kuener.
Both Kuener and Bertke are going to try to get tickets and watch the Raiders play in their first round game.
Paul and Donna Bohannon are Wright State grads, but they just started going to games this year, although they have followed the Raiders in the past. They came out because of how excited they are with the success of the team. There may be just a bit of guilt there, too, since they were on vacation for the last two Raider games, although they did catch the Horizon League Championship game on ESPN.
“We’ve been following the team this year and they have been doing really well, and we wanted to come out and support them,” said Paul Bohannan.
They plan on trying to make it to see Wright State play in the first round.
As it got close to six o’clock, everyone took their seats and CBS came on the big scoreboard. When Wright State flashed up on the screen as a 14 seed playing No. 3 seed Pitt, the place erupted in loud cheers. The players jumped up and down hugging each other, while the fans clapped and high-fived each other.
The cheering went on for almost a minute and CBS came off the scoreboard. The fans were treated to images of the team and other fans cheering.
After a few minutes Brad Brownell came up and addressed everyone. He thanked everyone for their support and said they would get to work immediately on preparing for their first round game with Pitt. He also predicted there would be a case of Raider flu going around on Thursday that would probably keep a lot of people away from work.
“In the tournament you are certainly going to play somebody good, we certainly have a good team and we will be ready to go,” said Brownell.
Brownell mentioned that they have a lot of tape of tournament teams, including Pitt and they will try to get some more. They will analyze the tape they have and try to get a game plan together as quickly as possible. He said they will be here most of the night and up early working on that. Then a couple of assistants will get with the administrators to figure out the best travel situation to get everyone up there.
Brownell pointed out that the excitement of people here in Dayton is greater than other places he has coached since it has been awhile since Wright State has played in the NCAA Tournament.
“The genuine excitement of people this year has been incredible. You can really see it on people’s faces. A couple of people who have stopped me and talked to me, when you let them talk a couple of people have come to tears they are so happy and so proud,” explained Brownell. “That has been neat for me to watch that and see the genuine excitement.”
Since Brownell has been to plenty of NCAA Tournaments, he rally enjoyed just watching how excited his players got when Wright State appeared on the big screen.
When player Drew Burleson saw the big crowd today and all the excitement, he knew that all the hard work he and the other players put in was worth it.
“This is like a dream come true. When the coach told us the feeling of having your name announced on Selection Sunday is like nothing else we would experience and there really isn’t anything like it,” said Burleson. “It has been crazy around here. Everyone is excited about what is going on around here and there is a big buzz on campus about Wright State basketball right now.”
There may be a few more dreams come true on Thursday in Buffalo, but for right now, it is time for Raider fans to enjoy the joy of still playing ball into the middle of March.
