Todd’s Take: Indiana, Purdue Basketball Student Sections Are Both Great, But Hoosiers Rate Higher For One Reason

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – College basketball is two months away. The sport is busy – recruiting the Class of 2025 is an important phase, for example – but not on the court where it matters most.

The only group of people who abhor a vacuum more than nature are sportswriters. With no games to chew on, and with social media hungry for content, ‘tis the season for lists.

Long-time college basketball writer Andy Katz loves to do lists. In the last week, he’s been dropping his top 10s of college basketball via his affiliated entities.

Indiana and Purdue have figured prominently. Top 10 rivalries? The Hoosiers and Boilermakers chime in at No. 3.

In his top 10 fanbases, Katz rates Purdue fifth and Indiana eighth. Katz has Kentucky, UConn, Kansas and Duke ahead of both. He has Illinois and North Carolina ahead of Indiana. I wouldn’t rate them that way or in that order, but again, one man’s opinion, and he’s been to a lot more venues than I have.

Before I go on, let me stress the obvious. Indiana and Purdue basketball fanbases are both outstanding. Fans are passionate to a degree unknown in most states for basketball, and games at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall and Mackey Arena are happenings. Both fanbases richly deserve their place in anyone’s top 10 college basketball fanbases.

My view is cemented by my last two years of coverage for my previous publication. I covered both schools about equally in men’s basketball. I never took for granted how fortunate I was to live college basketball in two hotbeds of the sport. I have deep respect for both schools.

Bear that in mind as I take issue with Katz’s top 10 student sections. Purdue’s Paint Crew rates second. Duke is the only student section where Purdue is consigned to the backseat.

Indiana isn’t ranked at all in the top 10 student sections. I’ll let that settle in for a moment.

Without doubt, the Paint Crew is a top 10 student section. They give Mackey the electricity it’s famous for.

Indiana’s student section is less organized. There is an official organization – the Crimson Guard, which is part of the Indiana Student Athletic Board – but it’s not a name that has caught on in the general zeitgeist.

That’s not intended as a knock. The bottom line is that the Indiana student section doesn’t need to have a cutesy nickname. Indiana’s students have always brought the passion organically and in great numbers. It’s an atmosphere that transcends a branding exercise.

Related to that, there’s one major factor in my own mind that puts Indiana’s student-produced vibe ahead of Purdue’s.

Allow me to explain. Last January, after Purdue clobbered Michigan 99-67 in a late weeknight game at Mackey, I had retreated out to the floor to work in a bit of isolation away from the tidy media room.

After I finished, I made my way out of the tunnel as janitors cleaned up the area where the Paint Crew sits. They swept the floor, and some paper floated my way. As I picked it up to throw it away, I took a gander.

The paper was the Paint Crew’s guide to that day’s game. There was some brief intel on what Michigan brought to Mackey, but the main part of the paper was devoted to what and when the Paint Crew is supposed to do during a game.

A script.

It is very detailed and an example is included below. There are instructions for what to chant when Purdue is in the tunnel, the first offensive possession, what to do when the shot clock goes down, etc.

Filed under the header, “defense lives here” is the following instruction:

“Help Mackey keep its reputation by yelling ‘Ohhhhhhh’ as loud as you can. Mackey is the loudest place in the country so there’s no point in trying to be cute on defense. Make it so loud that they can’t think. THIS IS WHAT WE DO EVERY SINGLE DRIVE!!”

As I read this, I was impressed by the detail as much as I was depressed by the realization that so much of the experience had the spontaneity squeezed out of it.

It made me view the student-produced noise in a different light on subsequent Mackey visits. When one of the scripted moments came up? Instead of being impressed by the level of syncopation, I viewed it with a jaundiced eye of, “Oh, it’s this part where you’re supposed to sing ‘Living On A Prayer’ really loud.” Another bullet-point on the script to check off.

Now, I don’t want to go too far. The Paint Crew gets appropriately wild and fun and unscripted when it’s called for.

Also, to be fair, the Paint Crew isn’t the only student section to work from a script. Duke’s Cameron Crazies have passed one around for eons, sometimes getting themselves into trouble for going over the line with private details on opposing players or profane chants.

Compared to that? Purdue’s Paint Crew script is G-rated, but even taking my aversion to scripted fare out of it, the script itself rarely changes. I suppose if you’re an opposing player who only goes into Mackey once a year? The script serves its purpose to rattle them, but if you hear it over and over again? It takes on the vibe of an over-played song.

That doesn’t happen at Assembly Hall. Students cheer, they boo, they hurl appreciation and invective when and how they want. Yeah, sometimes it’s just expressed via “Hoo-Hoo-Hoo Hoosiers” chants, but the point is that no script is necessary to dictate the atmosphere.

Purdue fans might counter that Indiana has its own tropes during games. Martha The Mop Lady, the Isiah Thomas pre-game hype speech, the William Tell Overture-fueled “Greatest Timeout In College Basketball” etc.

The difference is, those are part of the entertainment provided to the crowd. A script is a contrived way to steer the crowd from within. That’s fun for some, but if it’s the same thing every time? It becomes robotic, obligatory and begins to lose its feeling.

It’s the main reason that in a battle of titanic student sections, I give the edge to Indiana over its rivals to the north. When it comes to expressing their passion, they follow “Lawrence Of Arabia” rules – nothing is written.