Arizona Basketball Traditions at McKale need an upgrade

Student sections all over the nation are updating their traditions during basketball games; it’s time for Arizona Basketball to retrofit their traditions.

Traditions are great! Arizona Football has the pre-game Haka, well they had the Haka, now they have to do research and come up with a new more personal Haka so as not to piss off the Kiwis. The ZonaZoo successfully invokes the ‘hit squad’ on kickoff and the pull a huge square Wildcats flag over the center of the Zoo after halftime.

Related Story: Arizona Football Haka-Gate: New Zealanders and Fans Speak out

It’s all fun stuff and still relevant, but do the Wildcats need more support from their fans in attendance? Yes, they need whatever can be done until the Pac-12 bans all student section antics.

Lately with the basketball team, most of the arena’s they have visited have been half empty and filled with Arizona fans. The players often encounter new traditions to try to rattle the team and help their team win the game.

Saturday night in Berkley the team faced a full crowd, it was a ‘gold out’ (everyone was wearing a gold shirt which was given to them). The Berkley student section is named ‘The Bench‘. The Bench came up with a new tactic to distract our Cats when shooting free-throws which they started in the second half.

It seemed like a science experiment; they printed big black dots on pieces of paper, and when a Wildcat stood at the charity stripe, they started moving the dots in circles. It may have worked; the Wildcats shot 7-11 63.6% in the second half, but it may be adopted as a new tradition.

Then there is the relatively new ASU Curtain of Distraction, which has been proven to work. They have successfully reduced opponents free throw percentage from the 80’s to the 60’s.

You wouldn’t think any other school would stoop lower than the curtain of distraction, but then the Sheridan High School in Thornville, Ohio student section decided to one-up the 942 Crew and birthed a student while the opposition was shooting a free-throw. Both were just classless, and not worthy of the ZonaZoo, but both work.

Not suggesting the ZonaZoo should do anything like that, gotta stay a little bit classy. They did start swaying balloons or leaning to one side with the balloons to help distract their opponents. The ZonaZoo Directors at the time went to visit other student sections across the country to find out what worked for them.

What we are suggesting is that maybe the ZonaZoo should adopt some new fun, imaginative techniques to intimidate and distract their opponents. Something new needs to be invented, so maybe the ZonaZoo Directors can work with the science department to develop a new technique.

Let’s review the current ZonaZoo traditions we all know and love and don’t want to change (confirmed with students):

White Out’s and Stripe Outs (happening this Thursday against the Ducks)

Standing until the other team scores in each half

During the first four minutes of each half, or until the first media timeout, the band and students have several chants.

Every time an opposing player dribbles, the yell is “Boing!”

Every time they pass, the yell is “Pass!”

Every time they try to shoot, the yell is “Brick!”

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When an opposing player fouls an Arizona player, the band and students chant, while pointing at the opposing player, “You! You! You! You! You! You! You! You! You! On you, that’s who!” If the foul occurs during a shot and the player makes the shot, the chant is instead “Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! No no no no! No no no no! No no no no! No no no no! Don’t touch me!”

If the player misses their first shot of a two-shot foul, the band yells “Nice shot, buddy!”

If the player fouls out, the students chant “left, right, left, right, left, right….sit!”

If Arizona is beating an opponent by a comfortable margin late in the game, the band and students will chant “Go start the bus!” repeatedly. If an opponent makes a big play, they will chant “It just doesn’t matter!”

We asked some fans what tradition they like the most and what would they add as a tradition:

• Carlos Morales Standing and stomping and clapping and yelling and screaming and whistling and cheering all positive, pro-Wildcats type stuff until the other team scores. And always done at the beginning of the game and at the start of the second half. This has got to be my personal favorite.
• Kenna Dresback During the intro when coach says “This is Arizona.” I wish the crowd would join in and yell Arizona with the coach.
• Victor Yacullo I would like the arena to be black and have a whispering voice saying over and over and over “honor the process” as it gets louder like a buzz of thousands of voices. Then Silent and a large A goes on the jumbotron. Then lights go on and the big board plays a vignette of Arizona cat history. Ending with Coach Miller saying ” Tradition Never Rests.”

There are idea’s out there, and we haven’t even scratched the surface.

More wildcats: ICYMI: Wildcats enjoyed Game of Zones Warriors edition

What are your ideas? Any Wildcat Physicists out there? How can we get the opposing team to miss their free-throws? Let us know in the comments or by hitting reply on social media to @zonazealots.

BEARDOWN!