[Go U Northwestern] “Go! U Northwestern! Break right through that line. With our colors flying, We will cheer you all the time. U! Rah! Rah!”
The Northwestern Wildcats basketball team is looking to make a March Madness run for the second straight year. The team currently has a 13-4 record and is tied for third in the Big Ten. One of the main causes of all those wins? A spectacular home court advantage. Despite playing in Welsh-Ryan Arena, the second smallest arena in the conference, the Wildcats are 9-1 at home. And the bulk of that home crowd is students.
DYLAN FRIEDLAND: I think that Northwestern Wildside is the best student section in the Big 10. I think that we are the loudest. I think we’re the most fierce, the most aggressive student section. And I think that plays a huge part in it.
That’s Dylan Friedland, social media co-chair of Northwestern Wildside, Northwestern’s official student section. He’s responsible for coming up with promotions and posting about Northwestern sporting events on social media. His posts are designed to get students to show up and fill Welsh-Ryan Arena to the brim. He says there’s a few reasons that a packed student section is so key for basketball games.
FRIEDLAND: Well, I think students showing up to games is important for a couple of reasons. One, it just makes the games more fun for the students that aren’t showing up. More full Students section means that it’s louder means that a crowd is more engaged and religious makes it more fun to be up. But at the same point, it also makes it a tougher environment to play in for opposing teams. If you have a large enough student section that’s really loud, you’re going to be distracting the other team and at the same time, they’re really going to be hyping up our own. So that whenever the Northwestern student section is full and loud and just going crazy, that our team always performs better.
Vir Patel, Wildside’s programming chair, is the point man for much of what regular students see set up at games. This setup includes preparing informational sheets of paper, setting up merch giveaways, and more. On a typical gameday, Patel arrives at the arena nearly two hours before tipoff in order to help set things up.
VIR PATEL: Usually get there about two hours before tipoff, the first half an hour is cutting up those half sheets that you find at your seats…working with the ops chair to make sure that we have the giveaway itself.
[natural sound: basketball dribbling]
It may seem like Patel arrives way too early, but that time is extremely valuable. Gates open 90 minutes before tipoff, and many students go straight for the Wildside giveaway after entering. Especially if it’s a shirt or other article of clothing, the giveaways increase both attendance and energy.
PATEL: What the giveaways do is they provide just another incentive for people to go…they also help just get the most excited people there even earlier…Seeing people in similar shirts, I think it provides this like, cool, intimidating atmosphere that there’s so many people like in the same colors, the same general setup.
Aside from the monochrome effect, the early giveaways have another result. As Friedland explains, the early arrival from students also serves to intimidate opponents.
FRIEDLAND: You have students that are running in to get that giveaway first, which then leads to students really packing that student section early. So what that does then is, it leads to the student section is full earlier, which can almost create an intimidating environment for the other team just when they’re warming up, because they see wow, these fans are really into it. They’re really part of this team. They’re really engaged. It intimidates them a little bit.
That intimidation has contributed to several Northwestern victories, including over then-#1 Purdue. Patel, who was in the front row for that upset, says the Northwestern players were both aware of and sought to increase the intimidation.
PATEL: Any time there was a big shot, that entire bench was telling the student section to get loud. And I think that is something special: they know we’re there and that they have enough wherewithal, enough respect, to tell us to get loud. I think that’s something that’s absolutely awesome.
[nat sound: crowd cheering]
Aside from the obvious — louder the crowd, happier the team— there’s another, less known aspect of the high support.
FRIEDLAND: Because at the same time, the players are students as well, that’s what people I think forget about a lot. So it’s them knowing that their fellow students are there cheering them on as well that we have to play a role in some sort.
Patel also thinks that playing in front of fellow students could increase the team’s motivation.
PATEL: When you have the students there, maybe it creates an expectation that there’s someone to impress…not having the student section, if you watch that game, it was extremely quiet. Maybe it just doesn’t create the atmosphere that there’s a game to be played, that there’s something to play for.
“That game” Patel is referring to was a stunning 75-73 loss to Chicago State at home. It was the Wildcats’ third loss in Welsh-Ryan Arena since last January 19, and it also came during winter break. Patel absolutely believes the fact that the lone home loss of this season came without students in the stands is no coincidence.
PATEL: When the students are there and the stadium is rocking, I think the belief is there in everyone, between the players, the students, and any of the alumni that are there. Just having the students there brings a level of excitement and a level of nerves. Some nerves are good nerves, and I think it’s just built up into a crescendo that is usually a very entertaining, nervous game.
Friedland says that enthusiasm and excitement flow both ways.
FRIEDLAND: In the past, we’ve had to be a little bit more creative and how we were going to get some students to show out some of these games. But this year has been pretty simple. You don’t really have to do a ton of marketing in order to get people to come because we know that people want to be there. We know that people are going to want to come.
When an enthusiastic student section combines with a motivated team, the results tend to be exceptional. This was the scene during pregame against Michigan State, an 88-74 win.
https://x.com/WNURSports/status/1744158224687788160?s=20
After the game, the official twitter of Northwestern men’s basketball thanked the students for “bringing the energy”. That energy fed into the team, which then fed right back into the student section.
PATEL: I think it really just helps build up that atmosphere, that this is a place you want to be and then it’s a place that the opponents don’t want to be. Just seeing an entire full up student section on both ends of the floor and every time you go down in either direction you’re going to be staring at a wall of students who are making noise and making it hard to play and hard to even think at points.
There’s only seven home games remaining in the year, but all seven are expected to be packed to the rafters. If the team is able to win all of them, it will mark Northwestern’s best home record since 1983. While the team once again looks to gain a spot in March Madness, the students will continue to do what they’ve always done. Make Northwestern’s opponents take a walk on the Wildside.
[nat sound: Wildcat growl (the one that they play at the games)]
For WNUR News, I’m Brendan Preisman.
