UCSB Needs to Revive Tradition - FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

UNLV at the Thunderdome tonight in Santa Barbara stirs memories of Big Monday on ESPN. Larry Johnson, Stacey Augmon, Anderson Hunt, Greg Anthony and the top-ranked Runnin' Rebels would be fighting off a talented Gauchos team, playing in a glorified high school gym packed with rowdy students. This was easily one of the most anticipated regular-season college hoops games of the year.Rebels coach Jerry Tarkanian noted in one of his early books that he always hated playing two teams; Cal State Fullerton because of their athletes (the Titans had Cedric Ceballos and Bruce Bowen together in 1989-1990) and UC Santa Barbara because of the Thunderdome.

What made the made the scene even more of a spectacle was the Gauchos fans throwing tortillas on to the floor following UCSB's first field goal of the game. (A Gaucho fan would have to let us know if it happened if the first Santa Barbara point was a free throw.) The vision of tortillas flying like corn-Frisbees was quite a sight. Almost surreal, as white and yellow corn came cascading down like snowflakes. That always looked like so much fun. This was college basketball and it was awesome.

Santa Barbara, as you can imagine, was always give a technical (a tortilla technical if you will), but hey it was tradition.

In fact, it was probably one of the greatest traditions in college sports. But sadly, that tradition has been ruined. Rumor has it that a fragment of a tortilla got into an ESPN camera, forcing the school to buy a new one. Sure. That seem bogus, like something the school would make up. Why would ESPN complain about this? A timeout to clear the floor of tortillas just seems like an opportunity to sell more ad time. Deep down, ESPN probably loved it because Santa Barbara provided a real college atmosphere. Not like watching a sterile SEC college game in NBA-style basketball arenas. That's garbage. College basketball should be about crappy gyms and students acting like fools.

The school finally buckled because, well, that's what schools do. If a college athletics team's purpose is to support and represent the student body, why not let them have a little fun? Like somebody is going to get hurt by a flying tortilla. Hell, the school probably missed out on great marketing opportunities as it could have made Gaucho Tortillas and sold them at the book store.

Santa Barbara's basketball team has never been the same since the school cracked down on the tortillas, as students were searched entering the building. That also probably cutback on the amount of smuggled hooch brought in to the Thurderdome, too. That is not a coincidence.

Now the UCSB Events Center looks more like the Whisper Gym. A sad shell of its former glory. A bunch of tortilla-free students, pushed back from the floor, unlike the glory days when yellow-shirt clad coeds were standing shoulder-to-shoulder with George Ackles trying to inbound the ball.

The whole thing is a damn shame. Any student who has any since of history should bring in some tortillas for old time sake. Even if you just wave them in the air, that would give a nice nod to history and one of the best rivalries in the Big West.