Before I get ahead of myself, let me update you on the Carolina vs. State game. As you'll recall, I had courtside seats. My client ended up sitting somewhere else and giving me an extra ticket, so I took my daddy. We had the best time. Here is how close we were (and this is from my horrible-picture-taking Blackberry):
Y'all, I could see every elbow thrown, smell every drop of sweat and hear every bad word said. It was AWESOME. One time, Harrison went flying and I almost caught him. Good thing I didn't because I probably wouldn't have given him back. Play on boys, Harrison will be over here with me. Roy, calm down! You need to give the bench players more experience. Harrison will be fine over here.
We ended up winning by 12. It was an extremely ugly and physical game. Not a pretty win, but a good, solid road win for us. I wish I could have those seats in the Dean Dome. Sigh.
Anyway, while I was at State, I noticed some glaring differences between State fans and Carolina fans. Take this with a grain of salt, if you want, as I'm a life long Carolina fan, but my mama taught me not to lie.
1) State fans are mean. I've experienced their meanness at football tailgates, so I wasn't entirely shocked, but I anticipated they would be a little more apathetic to their less-than-mediocre basketball team. Boy, was I wrong. I heard the f-word more in a two hour time span at the RBC Center than I've heard in the past five years of my life. For real.
2) State fans don't make sense. I think this goes along with the #1 - I think they say strange things to be mean regardless of if they want to make sense. Here are two classic examples.
a.) Every time Zeller touched the ball, one State fan felt the need to yell "America!" When one of his fellow State cohorts finally asked him what this "America" was in reference to, State fan #1 responded, "Because Zeller's from a foreign country." Right.
b.) At the end of the game, when we were up eleven, I heard this. "That's pure class right there. Look at Carolina. That's pure class playing defense when you're up 11." Last time I checked, you aren't really supposed to just stop playing defense. Not to mention, State was fouling. If it's close enough for you to foul, it's close enough for us to play defense.
3) State fans don't like to wear pretty clothes to games. Now, don't get me wrong, I have some very close State friends who are very fashionable. But even these pretty, fashionable girls wear t-shirts to games. I can't remember the last time I wore a t-shirt to a game. As you know, I'm a big believer in the football dress, but I usually tune it down for basketball with a crisp, Carolina blue button down and dark-wash jeans. I guess t-shirts aren't bad, I'm just not used to that.
I left the RBC Center prouder than ever to be a Carolina fan. I'm sure some State fans would argue they are more hardcore about sports with their t-shirts, bad words and shotgunning abilities, but I'll take a football dress (or even a button down for goodness sakes), quiet cheering and wine and cheese any day of the week. Go Heels!
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