Pitt’s band made sure Weber St. heard its fight song in St. Louis
Anyone with a connection to the Pitt basketball program could be forgiven for wanting to flee the Scottrade Center in St. Louis following Friday night’s ugly 47-43 loss to Wisconsin. The 10th-seeded Panthers followed up a 22-point first half with just 21 in the second and blew several opportunities to take command early while holding the Badgers to just 16 points before halftime. To make matters worse, two Pitt players collided on a potential go-ahead possession in the final seconds.
Yet the Pitt band stuck around the arena for a good long while, because they pulled double duty as the Weber State band in the second game of the night. The band for the 15th-seeded Wildcats was unable to travel the more than 1,300 miles from Ogden, Utah to St. Louis to support the team, so Pitt made sure that the underdogs would not be without a few familiar sounds vs. heavily favored No. 2 seed Xavier. They even went so far as to learn the school’s fight song. They seemed to enjoy themselves, too:
The effort was greatly appreciated by fans and neutrals alike:
It’s worth noting that band substitutions are not especially rare in March. To give just one example, the Kansas band did the same for Drake at the Women’s NIT as recently as Thursday. Nevertheless, it’s a gesture worthy of praise.
Unfortunately for Weber State, the band was unable to play them to the second 15-over-2 upset of the day as Xavier grabbed a comfortable 71-53 win. Perhaps the Pitt band will return for Sunday’s Xavier-Wisconsin tilt to distract both teams.
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Eric Freeman is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
