Gaucho fan crosses the line at the Thunderdome

Earlier this season, a fan at the Thunderdome was allowed to do this during a game. His left arm is around the basketball standard. His butt is sticking out past the padding under the basket while an opposing player is shooting a free throw — nothing between him and the players at this point. By Owen Main

Maybe I like to watch fighting. Maybe I like to see people get what they deserve. Maybe I’m just a big fan of idiots getting what’s coming to them.

On Thursday night, Big West basketball got national media attention for all the wrong reasons. In the middle of a key game in one of its biggest and best arenas, a UC Santa Barbara fan ran onto the court toward Hawai’i coach Gib Arnold. Before he could get too close to him, 6′ 8″ Hawai’i star Christian Standhardinger pushed him away.

The fan somehow was allowed to retreat unmolested back into the student section. Eventually the fan, presumed to be a UCSB student, was arrested.

The arrest is good — I’m glad they did SOMETHING about it — but something inside of me wants to see more. A fan who runs onto the field of play and approaches a player or coach in a threatening way needs to be dealt with. In this day and age of “Stand your Ground” laws, part of me wishes a player or coach would have tackled and manhandled the kid. Or that the whole team would have just turned on him to protect their coach. I know it’s not the right thing to do and it would have only caused more issues and badness for everyone involved. Part of me wishes that one of these stupid fans who makes the choice to cross the line and come at a player or coach would just get pummeled.

Things like this, in situations like these, make me happy:

The fan above wasn’t really threatening, but he was being an idiot and probably got what he deserved. The fan at last night’s Santa Barbara game was going out and, at least in body language, looking for a fight. Him getting shot with a taser gun and going down and peeing his pants in front of his fellow students would have been about right for me.

Here’s the video of what happened last night.

  In my fantasy world, the fan would probably sue the University and the judge would laugh in his face and make him pay the University’s legal bills.

An aside to my comments here is that they apply really to the situation in Santa Barbara and ones like it. People will try to make connections, because of time proximity, to what happened at Utah Valley State. The two situations are similar only in that more and better security along with stricter enforcement would have probably helped to prevent something like this. Here’s what happened in Utah, in case you haven’t seen it:  

Let’s come back to the incident in Santa Barbara last night. The Thunderdome is one of the best places to watch a game. The student section is right on-top of the court and can be one of the loudest you’ll find anywhere. On that same court earlier this season, UCSB used a great crowd to help them upset Cal. It’s a real shame this idiot is what people today are getting to know it for.

Here’s hoping the next guy, in whatever arena, gets what’s coming to him.