Basketball pride is Pirate pride

Pirates, the moment you all have been waiting for has finally arrived: basketball season. The gathering of friends before the game to prepare, the bus ride to the Prudential Center, the actual time spent laughing, cheering (maybe crying, depending on how the game is going) in the stands, the celebrations or group condolence sessions afterward…it’s all what makes us Pirates.

People from all over the country hear the name “Seton Hall” and associate it with basketball. If we are going to be known for anything, being a leader in the Big East is definitely better than, let’s say for example, being known for being a “duffel bag school.” The basketball season is what brings our Seton Hall community together. Students, faculty, staff, alumni alike. Let’s embrace the tradition: all of us.

When talking to alumni, the one memory they always love to reminisce about is going to basketball games. It is probably what most of us are going to remember after we graduate. Not who won or lost, per se, but the time spent with our fellow Pirates cheering on our University.

Remember when we beat Villanova last year? We’ll probably forget that moment when (or if) something big happens this year, but that was such an exciting moment for everyone at Seton Hall, even if you weren’t physically at the game. Those moments bring together the diplomacy student and the biology student, the arts student and the business student.

You don’t have to be on the team or even be a huge sports fan to root for your team. This is our school, the place we all chose to belong to for four years (give or take) and this is our time, as fans, to support that choice. To cheer on the one school we chose from the 10 others we were accepted into.

There is no reason to be “too cool” to go to the games. It seems highly unlikely that anyone can go to even one game and not get carried away in the excitement of it all. There’s almost no way to be bored when you’re with a group of friends, cheering, chanting and jumping out of your seats. Even for the bookworm, concert-going hipsters: support your Pirates. Be proud to be one of them.