College kids are rude? Well I never!

There’s a big giant story in today’s Daily News by two writers I really like and respect (that’d be Dick Jerardi and Dana O’Neil) about the acrimony between St. Joe’s and Villanova basketball fans and how “bad” it’s gotten in recent years. Last night some SJU kids invaded Jay Wright’s radio show.

So, apparently, now the rollouts are meaner, the fans are obscene and some people yelled something nasty at Villanova coach Jay Wright’s wife. Of course, “It’s never people directly attacking her,” Wright says. And now fans deride the opponent rather than cheer on their school.

And then, there’s this:

Last summer, former St. Joe’s superstar Jameer Nelson worked tirelessly with Villanova sophomore Kyle Lowry at the Wildcats’ gym. More than once, Nelson had to go on the campus and rouse Lowry out of bed. Every time he did he got the look.

“Lots of people saw me on campus,” Nelson said. “They looked at me like, ‘What are you doing here?’ I’m helping one of their guys out, that’s what I was doing.”

Yes, and NBA superstar is on a campus of a school he never went to and people are like What are you doing here? How dare they question the great Jameer!

In my other life, I cover Ivy League basketball for a website. (I know. Who knew?) And so I’m at a lot of games, albeit most of them without any players on scholarship. And fans now in general seem to be ruder. This used to bother me. Now I don’t really care. While St. Joe’s-Nova is a very good, fun rivalry — the “Holy War,” natch — the students at these games aren’t meaner to the opposing team than they are to other schools.

Or not. The “rollouts are worse” sentiment seems to be pretty silly since the most infamous rollout of all time, “What’s the Difference between Chris Ford and a dead baby? A dead baby doesn’t suck.” was a long time ago. Ditto the “HA HA HA FUCK YOU” one at a Penn game in ‘82. Or, that sign at the Spectrum, “Patrick Ewing can’t read this.”

But, then again, wondering why Jameer was in a place he was at? How dare you, Villanova fans.

The Dogs of War [DN]
Of Biblical Proportions [Snowballs for Santa]