With thousands of arms outstretched over their heads in the shape of a "V," the crowd stands breathlessly still until the free throw sinks in the basket. A deep, rumbling "Hoo" rolls from the crowd as the arms are jerked down.
On the dawn of the men's basketball team's final home game against Clemson tonight, one must consider the effect student support has had on the team.
"When there's more people cheering for them, the team plays better, and when the team is playing better, the crowd is cheering louder," said first-year Engineering student Brendan Burkart, who has attended the past four games with his entire body painted orange and blue. "The two definitely go hand in hand."
Burkart is a member of the Papa Hoos, a group of seven students who paint their chests and stand courtside in support of the basketball team.
"I think the crowd inspires the players a lot," said first-year Architecture student Alex Garrison, a fellow Papa Hoo. "The team plays completely different at home."
At the Jan. 20 game against Missouri, the atmosphere became more intense and the Papa Hoos decided to bring out the body paint.
"It's a capricious college thing," Garrison said. "We thought it'd get people excited."
Second-year College student Andrew Hayes now sports an orange-and-blue-colored wig at every basketball game and considers himself "part of the new wave," the newfound fan support for Virginia basketball.
"Ever since the George Welsh and Dan Ellis days, there's been a fan base that's just looking for a sport to support," Hayes said. "Football wasn't even watchable this year."
So Hayes and his fellow Wig Men, as they call themselves, turned their loyalty over to the men's basketball team, which just earned a No. 7 ranking in the AP poll after annihilating North Carolina on Sunday in a 20-point win. Hayes attributes much of the difference seen in University Hall to the increased student support.
"We started filling the place," Hayes said of U-Hall's sold-out seating. "It's more competitive to get in, so the people who do get in are more excited. There's an absolute synergy."
Virginia coach Pete Gillen agrees that the students have brought energy to the stadium and have even won the team some points.
"They've been like the sixth man. I mean that sincerely," Gillen said during the ACC men's basketball coaches' conference.
Gillen attributed a big part of Virginia's 13-1 record at home to the talented players on the team but gave the fans their due as well.
"Our fans are worth a bunch of points. They gave Virginia 10 or 12 points once again today," Gillen said after the North Carolina game. "They were berserk. We had people camping out for eight days."
The phenomenon of camping out to earn a seat at the basketball games has returned to the University in the form of Hooville. The campers supposedly line up in the order they arrive, but the hodgepodge waiting list system developed by students only marginally kept order outside the arena.
As campers arrived for the Duke and North Carolina games, students would sign their name to a poster, which would hold a place for 12 people. But when it came time to enter U-Hall for the games, students were caught in a mad rush to the door, some without a clue as to where their group belonged in line.
Duke University, on the other hand, has their system down pat. The Duke Student Government runs Krzyzewskiville, called K-ville for obvious reasons, which is a small tenting community similar to Hooville. Only three Duke home games this year - Maryland, Wake Forest and North Carolina - were listed as "tent games" though. All the others fell under the category of a "wristband game" or merely a "walk-in."
For the tent games, DSG appoints a head line monitor each year, who then chooses a staff of 30 and revises the 10-page tenting policy over the summer. At the start of every school year, the head line monitor holds information sessions for freshmen to explain the tenting policies and publishes the document online at www.dsg.duke.edu.
"Students are very familiar with camping out," Duke Head Line Monitor Norm Bradley said. "They see it on TV even before they get here. It's just so indoctrinated into our culture."
Bradley said the main purpose of his position is "to have an authoritative voice out there, someone to lay down the law."
As campers arrive, Bradley officially registers everyone in the group, which can be as large as 12 people. He records the Social Security numbers of campers and posts the authorized list online.
His staff then does continual checks to make sure someone is occupying the tent at all times, and if the tent is empty, the group is formally "booted" from line. At game time, students swipe their Duke identification card to enter, and only those who have registered with Bradley will be accepted.
Student Council President Joe Bilby said they are looking into creating a system here at the University.
"In the last few weeks, we've been approached by a number of students and the athletic department about Student Council's role," in camping out, Bilby said.
"The name of the game here is trying to satisfy students' needs," said Council Rep. Andy Lilienthal, a first-year College student. "And for the most part, students do want a fair system of waiting in line."
Papa Hoos member Garrison also had a suggestion for how reward the students for their support. Garrison advocated a change in the way student seating inside U-Hall is set up. He suggested that the student seating should wrap around the entire court on the first tier, rather than only the end sections, which reach up to the rafters.
Hayes, one of the Wig Men, said he wishes there was more student seating as well, and that he and his friends resent the fact that the Pep Band takes up part of the student section. They think that a different area should be blocked off for the band.
Hayes also believes that too many seats are reserved for ticket holders, and non-students do not show the same energy.
With two minutes left in the Duke game, "the adult section was sitting down, sipping their mint juleps," Hayes said. The student section started chanting, "'Stand up, stand up,' so they got up for the last two minutes."
Coach Gillen agrees that students trigger the crowd's enthusiasm.
"The students are phenomenal, and they get everyone else going," Gillen said.
That is why Hayes said he believes the arena - and the team - would benefit from an enlarged student seating section, especially now that there is interest.
"My point is that whatever student section is available, we'll fill it," Hayes said.
Gillen plans to keep the students coming back. Whether it's his encouragement of sporting bright orange apparel or his generous donations of doughnuts and buffalo wings to those camping outside, Gillen said the crowd helps win games.
"I tell ya, we've got the best fans in America," Gillen said. "They're as good as anybody"
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