Police used pepper spray and tear gas to disburse a riot that developed in the streets of Tucson, Ariz., following the loss of the Arizona Wildcats to the Wisconsin Badgers in an Elite Eight NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament game Saturday night, the Arizona Daily Wildcat reports.
According to the story and accompanying video, University of Arizona students threw smoke bombs and other objects at police during the riot. About 10 or 15 people were arrested and no injuries were reported immediately after the incident, although the paper described one student as being kneed and punched in the torso by a police officer.
Students emerged from bars on Fourth Street and on University Avenue, screaming obscenities about the University of Wisconsin and about police. Although the student newspaper at Arizona published some of these obscenities, they can’t be printed on these pages.
“It is disappointing that a minority of Wildcat fans chose to engage in behavior that does not reflect the culture of the University of Arizona and Tucson communities,” the paper quoted Kendal Washington White, assistant vice president of student affairs and dean of students at Arizona, as saying about the incident.
Other violence after NCAA tournament games
Two years ago in Lexington, Ky., students and other basketball fans overturned cars in a riot after the Final Four games were concluded. Most didn’t engage in destructive behavior, but it only takes a few to make a bad name for a great game and great institutions of higher learning.
And just a few days ago, as Syracuse University’s team lost to the Flyers from the University of Dayton in the Sweet 16, several students set fire to couches in the streets. WDTN 2 News reported that five people were arrested in the melee. The student newspaper posted the following picture to its Twitter account:
Editorial
One of the most famous rivalries in college athletics, that between Michigan and Ohio State, has been studied at great length, including the feeling among Buckeye fans who consider celebratory riots a “tradition” at the school.
A 2003 report by Ohio State claimed that “Ohio State student rioters held belief that victory ‘earned us the right to riot.'”
The NCAA has officially spoken out against the riots: “The postgame riots that have been happening more frequently have long-term ramifications on university-community relations, and they provide the impetus for other people to act out in the future. This is the most pressing problem facing universities,” said then-NCAA President Myles Brand in his opening remarks at the Sportsmanship and Behavior Summit on Feb 20, 2003.
It might be useful to post pictures of the riots. This may discourage students from becoming involved in rioting, since prospective future employers may see the pictures and offer their jobs to people who are not pictured.
Aside from shining a light on students who decide to become involved in riots associated with sporting events and the obligatory statements from university officials condemning the riots, though, I’m not sure what can be done to end the destruction of private and public property. Alcohol is almost always involved, and when idiots or even smart people get drunk, they tend to lose sight of the long-term or permanent consequences their behaviors may have on their lives.