Pac-10 shouldn't cross line until its student fans do

Ernie Kent, the Oregon coach, made an appeal this week to the students who inhabit Mac Court to knock off the "Gary Coleman" chants and pictorials that have inevitably greeted the arrival of Washington's mighty mite, Nate Robinson.

I hope they don't listen to him.

"There's just something about it that fires me up," said Robinson, on the eve of tonight's game.

Robinson understands what separates college basketball from the NBA, or a bridge tournament.

"That's part of basketball," he said. "Without fans, it wouldn't be the same. It wouldn't be any fun."

I know it isn't easy for Robinson to be ridiculed for his lack of height, but he's had his say against the Ducks from well above the rim. Like last year's dunk to punctuate the Huskies' victory in Seattle.

The Oregon fans talked about bringing Coleman to the game to replace the life-size cutouts, but couldn't.

Obviously there are concerns about security in any arena. About fan deportment and player reaction, if not retaliation.

But before the Pac-10 becomes too politically correct, let's remember that apathy has been of more concern to the league than aggressive behavior.

Nobody cared about where Washington's students were seated in either the new or the old Edmundson Pavilion until the Huskies got under your skin being good.

Washington is now one of the league's hot spots. Mac Court always has been.

I was there the night in 1976 when the Washington players dug into a couple of paper sacks before the game, donned Groucho Marx noses and glasses and stared down the Ducks, who had been staring them down, at half court.

It was purely audacious. Right there in the toughest arena in America, when the Ducks had Ronnie Lee, Greg Ballard and, ah, yes, Ernie Kent.

Of course, the Huskies won the game and lived to tell about it, UW coach Marv Harshman putting on a set of glasses himself in a madcap dressing room after the game.

The Huskies had countered the intimidation of Mac Court with a creativity that would give them the last laugh if only they could win the game. As much as the incident was booed by the home fans, they seemed to understand that, for once, they'd been had.

Certainly, there have been issues of inappropriate crowd behavior in the Pac-10.

Oregon students crossed the line between creativity and cruelty when they chanted at Henry Bibby, the USC coach, that "your son hates you" referring to his estranged relationship with his son, Mike Bibby.

Most recently at Edmundson Pavilion, veteran WSU coach Dick Bennett surprised observers when he gave a finger to the UW students sitting behind his bench. Bennett later apologized for the gesture, although it is pretty easy to conclude that something inappropriate had happened. Bennett's track record is that good.

Kent used the Bennett incident to say that Washington allowing students to sit behind the team's bench was "an embarrassment for the Pac-10 waiting to happen."

The Pac-10 athletic directors met this week to talk about the situation, but did nothing more than talk about it.

It is clear the Huskies won't separate benches and students until the Pac-10 tells them to.

"As long as our students exhibit good sportsmanship — and the safety of visitors is protected — I don't think that there is a thing in the world wrong with the way it is set up now," said Huskies athletic director Todd Turner.

Turner has vast ACC and SEC experience, including way too many times at Duke's Cameron Indoor with, as he says, "the knees of students in my back."

"There were times when I felt threatened, but that's changed at Duke," he said. "They've worked hard to develop a more positive atmosphere."

Turner said UW coach Lorenzo Romar has talked to the students.

"We've urged them to be loud and creative in their support," he said. "I like the fact they've urged the other fans in the building to 'stand up.' I've never heard that before, and I think it helps us."

When Romar played at UW, the benches were in front of the general public, not the students. Bob Bender, who played and coached at Duke, wanted students involved.

There are places in the league where the bands are so close that Romar said he can't be heard during a timeout. Does that call for league legislation?

"That's just the way it is on the road," Romar said.

And the way it ought to be.

Blaine Newnham: 206-464-2364 or bnewnham@seattletimes.com