I was really excited about this game, but I'm glad we don't normally play in this arena.

With the front row being the only entrance/exit, there was a constant stream of people walking in and out along the front row. We tried to stand along the front rail, but with the non-stop traffic and the angry students and old folks yelling at us to sit down I decided to come home and listen to the 2nd half.

The supper pit is the best place in the nation!

My daughter and I said the same thing... it was fun for 1 night, but it would truly suck if that were our arena.

I agree, snake pit is overrated..

I have to say...it was loud as hell on the radio.

Musta really been crazy with the bleachers.

It was definitely loud... we had fun, but we were on the front row and constantly, and I mean constantly, had the game interrupted to let people through....fun for a night, but I want my Super Pit back....

Would have been hard to play with robots at the pit. Anyway, the idea was to set an example what the pit should be like for opponents to play in. In its time, the snake pit was a loud, colorful place with great atmosphere. Hard for some to believe, but a mini Cameron.

I sat in the middle of the bleachers. I didn't have as bad an experience as the the rest of the people in this thread. I was on the edge of the Pit Crew folks and the old folks. It was rather entertaining to watch the old folks trying to get the Pit Crew to sit down.
I thought there was a great atmosphere for the game...the band was awesomely loud, and the fans got very loud at some points...especially when Howerton went on his run.
But yeah, I would hate it if every game was played there. But for one night, the Snake Pit seemed really special. When I look back at the 5 years of UNT basketball I've been able to watch, this night will be a memory that will stick out in my mind.

Be nice to the old pit...it had its claws removed when they took out the side court bleachers.. Put those bleachers back, add 3200 people and you have a hell of a venue for 'homer basketball.' The old pit has hosted a lot more nationally ranked teams than the super pit...and we beat some of them, which is more than you can say for the super pit. The old girl just wasn't the same tonight. Sorry you newbies did not get the full 'treatment' from the old pit.

put the other bleachers back in, fill it up, bring in a nationaly ranked top 5 team from theMissouri Valley conference and try to hear as everyone stomps and yells for a solid first half as the press does a number on the visitors. No sitting down in those games and a hell of a headache. The after the game party cured it later on.

I think you may have been standing right next to me. If you were the guy who explained that Howerton was undercut on the defensive end, then I'm sure it was you.

The Snake Pit was fun for one game, VERY LOUD, and even without the missing 2000 seats that used to be in there. It makes you really appreciate what luxury we have now with the SuperPit.

I agree that had this been done right and temporary bleachers brought back in on the floor like it used to be I would be suffering from a headache right now. Very loud for the amount of people in there. The university lost a great chance to make this a special throw back night. And does anyone know why the south floor seats were folded out of the way? There's 200 more people that could have been sitting on the floor right there?

Overall a pretty fun night but my one concern was the negligent decision to intentionally block the north exits, leaving 600 to 800 some odd people left with ONE exit(south) to get out in case of an emergency. I took the 4 year old to the rest room and went to the north exit only to find out from the kids assigned to sit and block the stair case that led down to the north exit that I couldn't go down because that was the way to the referee's dressing room. This is true, it does lead right past the door that goes to the referee's lockerroom, but it also leads to one of the only two exits for that side of the entire building. I told them I didn't want to go to the referee's lockerroom, I needed to go down and outside and around back to the south end to take the 4 year old to the restroom. That was the only restroom available to us that I know of? To which I was told that I would have to go back to the south end through all the people standing and blocking the walkway. With that, I told them if they had a problem with it to go get someone in charge because I was going down to the exit in that stair way, and that's what I did. I thought for about 2 seconds of looking for the fire marshall at that point. You just can't do that with that amount of people in such a small place. If we ever do this again this needs to be addressed. Assign someone in front of the referee's locker room if you have to, but don't block and prevent an entire exit, one of only two that exist, to accomplish this.

Oh, and by the way, for those of you who own season basketball tickets, check out the ones for the New Mexico State game. HOOK' EM HORNS!!!!


Rick

Some pictures that won't make the recap...


The crowd on the non-bench side of the court


I know this picture sucks, but is that Shirley Goldfield that Scrappy is dancing with? Someone who was there that thinks he recognizes her thought it could have been. Anyone who was in attendance recognize the outfit and know whether that was her?

Were you by the group with the wht/green Cat in the Hat hats? If so I was right behind the guy that was screaming at you guys to sit down...ended up ruining my night since I then really had to sit down.

That's me on the rail in the white hat. I was the one with the cow bell. before the game I was heckling the woman directly across the court from me in the Texas Douche sweatshirt. I yelled to her that Austin was about 200 miles south of here.

Scrappy came over and made her put on a Mean Green shirt over her ut one.

Oh, now that is cool.

i was the fat guy in the white/green cat in the hat hat...that was are group of crazed eagles....im also a dam good dancer which everyone got to witness....it was fun once we moved away from the people yelling at us....which sucked cause im an RA and the two guys yelling at us were other hall directors that know my boss...which is why i complied insted of just telling them off!

Yes, I agree about the Snake Pit being good for one night only. It kind of sucked being distracted by 800 people walking in front of me, interrupting the game. Eh, it was a good reminder of why we need the Super Pit.

Johnny Jones on the postgame show was very high on the atmosphere in the old barn. It wouldn't shock me at all if he has 1 game a year there as long as he's our head coach. I mean, obviously this is just my guess, but he seemed really pleased with the experiment.

Actually Rick V. gave scrappy the shirts and told him to go give them to her

Why didn't yall cat in the hat people sit in the pit crew side? A couple of people that came from the other side were complaining that people were yelling at them to sit down. If someone were to yell at me to sit down there would be a problem.

Is that all it takes to get a new Mean Green shirt? Then I'm going to Walgreen's and buying me a $5.99 UT shirt. I'll wear it to the game, get the shirt I really want from Scrappy, and use the leftover UT rag to clean up when my dog pees in the house.

I was three rows behind you and the Crazed eagles wearing the basktball jersey. Sorry you got run off, I had no problem with you guys standing. Although, all the heckling you guys got kind-of got me laughing. Great game!!!

I don't think so. That lady was with Jerry Mohelintzky (or however you spell it). He's a long time fan. Anyway, I think that is his wife.

Sue.


I thought going to the Snake Pit would be fun. But I, like many of you, have really gotten used to the modern "ness" of the Super Pit. I have no desire to ever play there again. I'm wondering abut the reason, the real reason we played there anyway. I think the University got a fat pay check for renting out the Colseium for the robot competition. I think the retro thing was just a cover up. I can't imagine UT being bumped form the Super Drum or A & M vacating Reed to play a game in G. Rollie.

Give me my great seats on row 2. Where no one is more than 4 or 5 seats from an aisle.

I now remember why the Colseium was built in the first place. The Snake Pit sucks.

Well here's the thing.. the signs on the building said the student section was the other side. So students entered and sat on that side.

Wow. There were signs on the pit crew side that said students couldn't sit beyond a certain point which I don't understand either. If that were true then the student section would only have held 300 people or so. Overall, that was some pretty terrible planning.

Yes the side me and flyer and the crazed eagles sat on, the signs at the entrence to the pit said that was the student side...yet when i got in thier i looked over to the other side and it shows student section...i was so confused, i thought i was in the student section!

Drex told me that he read somewhere that JJ liked it so much in there, that he'd like to play a late season game there (maybe against WKU).

Okay....but if you do that...make these changes:

1) No blocking of exits like last night. That is ridiculous, and the fire marshall would have had a "cow" if he had seen that;

2) Make ALL of one side the student side....and ALL of the other side the non-student side;

3) To heck with the chairs on the floor. I realize those are for the floor seat people, RV and his family, and Dr. B. But, if you want to have a Snake Pit effect...you've got to put portable bleachers down there. And yes, the floor seat people would have to give up their floor seats, but a lot of us other fans sacrificed last night. Us season ticket holders had general admission tickets...not reserved seats. (And I understand why). So, if we can sacrifice that, maybe the floor seat folks could be asked to give those up....so that portable bleachers could be put in there.....and give it a real Snake Pit atmosphere.

Otherwise, play ALL REMAINING GAMES AT THE SUPER PIT.

That's my .02.

Yeah I was pretty disappointed when I got there and saw that it looked nothing like the pictures taken from the 50's with the portable bleachers. I agree, I don't want to see another game there unless they do it right next time.

i asked them if students could sit in those fold out chairs becuase our group wanted to be on the floor...they said no, that those were for season ticket holders and doners only....yet only like 25 chairs out of about 70 were full....could have put students thier!

I had no idea they were for season ticket holders... Would have been nice to know that since many of them were empty.

Yes, it was me! I had a feeling it was you because you were taking 100 pictures of Rick V! I came thisclose to making a Sexytime remark.

Many are always empty at the SuperPit games too, but floor seats are usually listed as "sold out". I think they go to big donors who don't actually attend games.

As a kid I attended several games there. Full house all the time. LOUD like a rock concert...next to the speakers.

I really wanted to attend that game Friday but I had to work. It looks like they changed things up there from the 1970's. I can't tell from the photos, but there was the upper level and then there were those wooden bleachers that pull out along the bottom. Close enough to stretch out a foot and trip a player…or have a player dive on you for a lose ball.

fun.

The Snake Pit had its charm in its day. Very glad for the Super Pit!

The wooden pullout bleachers along the sidelines are gone, only the fixed upper bleachers remain. There is a small set of pullouts along one endline but they weren't used last night. The other end has built in storage closet space where the pullouts used to be. Hard to believe that once players like Oscar Robertson and Wes Unseld used to play there with Cincy and Louisville and the like coming to Denton. The program said Oscar Robertson scored his career-high 62 points there once, which still ranks as 13th in NCAA history in single-game scoring!

I loved the noise level at the Snake Pit. It was awesome.

Two major downsides to the Snake Pit:

1.) The entrance/exits to the 2 seating areas really don't allow for people to be standing right behind the railing since there's so much traffic.
2.) I love when people stand, but in the Snake Pit, the sight lines are really bad so that if you're in a bad spot, like in the middle of a crowd of people standing, you lose sight of half the court. I'd almost say make it sitting only since it's so bloody hard to see anything when everyone stands. There's just not enough height between rows.

The marked up floor got us an over and back violation. They need to bring in the floor from the super pit next time. Just too many lines for too many sports.

Both teams actually had several turnovers because of the excessive markings.

Ya, I took my son and we also sat in the middle next to the sitting fans and the standing students. He is only 5 so he was pretty scared at how loud it was. Overall, great experience (except when I had to take my son to the bathroom twice in 5 minutes)...so sorry to all those people I walked in front of carrying my son.

Can't wait until the Super Pit maddness this year!!! GO MEAN GREEN!!