Visitors get no pity at The Pit
By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Columnist
When Brigham Young, San Diego State and the rest bolted the Western Athletic Conference two years ago, the University of Hawai'i mourned their departure.
That the mutineers took New Mexico with them was cause for considerable celebration.
For it marked, or so UH basketball teams thought at the time, an end to having to play in The Pit.
It meant no longer having to step into the belly of the beast that is one of college basketball's most daunting home courts. It meant no longer trudging past the sign that warns: "Welcome to the Pit — a mile high and louder than . . ." and knowing it was truth in advertising.
But as the Wahine prepare for their Women's National Invitation Tournament semifinal tomorrow in Albuquerque, they're due for another Pit stop.
Officially, it is University Arena, an 18,018-seat, off-campus facility. To the Lobos, it is the been for the majority of 35 seasons the best home court advantage a team could ask for. For visitors, it is The Pit, though usually preceded by a string of invective.
A seemingly harmless building on a wind-swept mesa beneath the Sandia mountains and overlooking the Rio Grande Valley, the terror comes when visitors step inside. There, on the court, 40 rows below ground level but still nearly a mile above sea level, visitors come to understand what it must have been like to have been the underdog in the Christians vs. lions scenario.
It is where the Lobos Ü men and women Ü have won more than 80 percent of their home games as what surely seems like all of Albuquerque yells itself hoarse. Nearly 10 million people have passed through the turnstiles.
"From what I remember going there as a freshman, it is loud and the fans are right on top of you, screaming," recalls Crystal Lee.
The UNM women, perennially among the nation's leaders in attendance, average 8,089 per game this season, including 16,895 for one game. The school record for a women's game is 18,018.
On such nights, to stand at floor level when the Lobos are on a roll is to hear a roar the force of which might be approximated by Niagara Falls.
Legend has it that Jerry West was there to scout a player for the Lakers many years ago and, for most of the game, sat with his fingers stuck in his ears.
Naive visiting teams have sought to replicate the decibel level by blasting the speaker system at home during practice. Rarely have they come close.
Others have brought oxygen tanks though that, too, hasn't corrected the competitive imbalance.
The wise know to teach their players hand signals to communicate.
The Pit is where Jim Valvano dashed around the court after North Carolina State won the 1983 NCAA title, upsetting Houston. Lobo fans like to remind opponents it might have been the last time a visitor was happy about playing there.
