Korth: NU Basketball loses fan support as Illinois invades Red Zone

Doug Lowery peered from his courtside seat on the western half of the Red Zone student section up to the upper part of Section C-15 Saturday prior to Nebraska men's basketball game against Illinois.

Up next to the rafters in the southwest corner of the Bob Devaney Sports Center there was a large group of young fans all dressed in red.

Since the group appeared to be a bunch of local high school students coming out to support the Huskers, Lowery, a junior political science and history major, and some other Red Zone students tried to get Nebraska basketball event staff to let the kids come down and sit next to the action on the Devaney floor.

The kids danced along to NU's fight song, cheered for the Husker lineups as they were announced and seemed ready to cheer on a Husker squad seeking out only its fourth win in Big Ten history.

But before Lowery and company could convince the event staff to let the kids down the unthinkable happened: right before tip off the students revealed their true identity.

The students whipped off their "Husker" gear and sported their true colors: orange and white.

And suddenly Lowery wasn't so upset about those students having to stay up in the nosebleeds instead of coming down to the half-empty Red Zone.

"That would have been bad," Lowery said.

For the second time this season, around 200 Illinois students made the trip from Champaign to hostile territory to cheer on the Illini as the Orange Crush.

And these students made a long haul on a chartered bus to support their team, according to University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign sophomore Augie Forster.

"We left at about midnight last night and we got here about 10," Forster said. "But we did stop at McDonald's."

But the student section that punk'd the Devaney Center crowd did more than just show up for the game.

They were loud.

Illinois was down by as much as 32 to Nebraska, yet the Crush kept being rowdy. They cheered on the Illini as they tried to attack NU's zone, they rained down a chorus of "you"s to NU players who committed fouls and they even booed the Big Ten officials for calls that went against their squad.

And the Orange Crush's presence really showed the effect this dreary season has had on student attendance for Nebraska basketball games.

The Red Zone was half-empty; it was easily the smallest showing from NU's loyal student section this season.

But why?

Nebraska was playing in a game that was there for the taking. Illinois had lost seven of its last eight, yet there appeared to be just as many, if not more, Illinois students at the Devaney on Saturday.

Now, I'm not knocking on the Red Zoners. They've done a lot of cheering this season, they've stuck through it and been loud for their school even though the Huskers have been under .500.

But now that the season is over and all hope is lost it's apparent that the Nebraska student section has lost its faith.

And there's only one way to keep student's faith over the course of a season: win.

Next season, if NU wants to put butts in the seats of the student section the Huskers will need to get some bigger wins and get more than four in Big Ten play.

Right now when I tell people I cover Nebraska basketball, they always ask if it's hard to come up with ideas for stories other than, "Huskers lose again."

Nebraska fans need an attitude adjustment. The Hendricks Training Complex and Pinnacle Bank Arena should bring in better players for the Huskers and lead to some wins on the hardwood.

But that can only happen if Nebraska basketball fans are passionate about the hoops team that represents their school. Right now, there's a level of apathy toward the Huskers as a result of lots of losing.

And if Husker fans want to go dancing any time soon, they'll need to support a culture change and get a basketball team that hasn't gone dancing since 1998 back to doing the robot come March.

After all, the Illini have now lost eight of their last nine and still got students to travel to Lincoln in February. And that's the kind of dedication Nebraska basketball needs to succeed.

And who knows, maybe once that happens the Red Zone might just invade Assembly Hall.

Robby Korth is a sophomore news editorial major. reach him at robbykorth@

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