You Could Pretty Much Convince Pittsburgh's Student Section To Do Anything

The Pittsburgh Panthers usually get mentioned on any "toughest home arena" list when it comes to college basketball. You'd imagine that given that, their students would be a creative cheering section capable of independent thought.

You imagined wrong.

The Oakland Zoo apparently has to spoon-feed its fanbase everything from what to wear to what to say even all the way down to how to do a Let's Go [TEAM] cheer.

Some of their suggestions for the Syracuse game include...

Wear a bathrobe to the game. Syracuse starting guard Michael Carter-Williams was caught trying to steal a bathrobe and gloves from Lord & Taylor in December. When we had general meetings asking about this idea, students thought this was a fun idea. So wear a snuggie, a bathrobe, or even a blanket if you have to. Have some fun with it too. Shower caps, pajama pants, whatever you want to spice it up. (Bathrobes also function as a pillow in line, FYI)

It IS a fun idea. You know who else thought it was a fun idea? Villanova and Louisville. So don't pat yourselves on the back just yet. Also, a snuggie or blanket are different than a bathrobe, not sure if you guys knew that.

Folks always mention we need more animals in the Zoo. So we’ll be printing up some blown up "big heads" of animals (instead of random celebrities). We encourage students going to the game to find some pictures of animals, and make a poster out of using a site like www.blockposters.com (super easy to use to print out on normal printer paper). Go nuts, and make a ridiculously sized elephant or giraffe. Have some fun with it. We’ve seen some animal hats and other props, so you can have those too.

That sounds...unrelated?

If you weren’t at DePaul, we have a 5th cheer on offense. It’s "Lets Go" *clap clap* "Pitts-burgh" *clap clap*. If you have any suggestions for more chants, let us know!

I don't know what pains me more. That they need to instruct people about this cheer or that they JUST FIGURED IT OUT. Wait until they discover The Wave.

Also, I liked this...

We’ve had folks asking about tenting on Friday night, and the athletic department told us they’d "rather have students just come at 5 am".

Pitt Basketball: Get Excited...But Not Too Excited.