Throughout this week I have been avidly watching my favorite NBA team (the Nuggets!!) as they faced off against the Sacramento Kings, the New Orleans Hornets, and finally the San Antonio Spurs. Each game attracted a certain amount, as well as a certain kind of fans. As I watched their performances one question crept across my mind, do the fans really make that big of a difference?

Tuesday night the Nuggets faced the Sacramento Kings at home, I had the luxury of attending the game and witnessing the entire experience. At home, in front of an enthusiastic crowd the Nuggets beat the Kings 110-83. The game’s highlights included two plays that made the top ten highlights and one play by Kenneth Faried, assisted by Ruuuudy Fernandez that may arguably be the best dunk of the NBA season. This exciting performance compared to their performance against the New Orleans Hornets at the Hive Friday night seemed to be night and day. Although the Nuggets rallied in the fourth quarter to defeat the Hornets, they trailed for the majority of the game. They even allowed the Hornets 30 points in the first half when the overall point average for the Hornets this season is around 87 total points.  This poor performance may have been contributed to the lack luster crowd that occupied the Hive Friday night. I was only able to watch the game on TV, but even from my living room I could see the empty seats and feel the quietness that filled the arena. Even though the Nuggets were fortunate enough to not have raging fans in their faces, the lack of enthused fans seemed to have made an even worse impact on their performance than a game in which the opposing crowd is overwhelming.

The next night, the Nuggets experienced just that against the San Antonio Spurs at the AT&T Center. Although the Spurs fans were almost overpowering, the Nuggets performance against the Spurs was much more impressive. Even with an improved 3-point shooting percentage as a team, and Danilo Gallinari’s career high 31 points, the Nuggets fell to the San Antonio Spurs. However, disregarding the loss, the Nuggets played much better in an arena filled with raging fans as opposed to an arena with no fans, and even better than that with an arena filled with their own enthusiastic fans! Although there may have been other factors contributing to the Nuggets’ performances this week, I believe the energy of a crowd can alter the outcome of a game.

From my own personal experience, I remember one weekend this past season in which my family flew out to watch me and my team play. First of all, my family made up the majority of our fans both nights (which is a little sad in and of itself), and second of all my family was generally the only group of people cheering for us. Although they were better than our normal fans during our first game, we still lost to the other team. However, the second night my family decided to step up their own game by leading cheers and making signs for our entire team. This was the night that we ended up beating one of the better teams in our conference. My family’s enthusiasm inspired not only other spectators, but it also inspired our team. Their energy made up for our own once we started getting tired and it helped us push through to gain a win. This experience by itself makes me believe that the fans really do play an important role in every sporting event.

So, next time you’re at a sporting event, remember that your role is just as important, if not more important, than the players’ roles!

-Danica

This past week I had the opportunity to sit down with one of our espor customers Kip Ioane, head coach of the men’s Willamette University basketball team. I asked him a series of questions pertaining to the boy’s season this year. As I was listening to Coach Ioane talk about his team I began to see eerie similarities between his boys and the girls on my volleyball team. He talked about how it is often the mental game that gets in the way of the results their team is looking for. Mentality was a hot topic on my team as well. We struggled with maintaining a sense of confidence not only in ourselves but also in our team. This common theme among these two D3 teams makes me wonder if it is a common theme across all D3 teams. In my opinion it is attitude that separates a D1 player from a D3 player. Division 1 players know they are good and it is their attitude that makes them great. The real question is how do they develop such a confident attitude?

Even though I felt I was one of the more confident players on my team, I am still nowhere near the level of D1 players. There seems to never be even a sliver of doubt in the minds of a Division 1 player. They always know that they will perform. At the beginning of the season I sprained my ankle and was out for several weeks. Although it was hard being unable to contribute to my team on the court, watching my team play for those weeks has made me a better player. I was able to see the affect doubt had on the overall play of the entire team. Doubt would be the only thing the girls were thinking about when it came to game time, and it would be written all over their faces. The second we found ourselves in a bit of any kind of slump you could literally see the already shaky confidence disappear, overtaking the team with insecurities. Watching this made me realize how important confidence really is, and how contagious it can be. It made me realize that confidence is the only thing that separates our team from the top team in conference and the bottom team in conference. Confidence is difficult to come by; it is what separates the good players from the great players. Is confidence what separates Division 1 teams from Division 3 teams?

-Danica