The Sports Arena has become a place where most opponents do not leave without a loss. The basketball arena is always packed in support of driving the team to a victory. The Panthers are 46-11 at home, a winning percentage of 80.7, ever since Ron Hunter’s start as head coach for men’s basketball.
Hunter thanked the fans and the student body for the support of this year’s basketball season. He believes that the Sports Arena has the best home court advantage in the Sun Belt Conference.
“We have the best environment in the Sun Belt. I don’t care what anyone says. Although the Sports Arena cannot hold thousands of people like other big universities due to the size… it’s always full for game time,” Hunter said.
The student section of the Sports Arena is one of the most entertaining parts of the event when Ryan Harrow embarrasses defenders with vicious crossovers or R.J Hunter hitting ridiculous shots.
The student section knows just as much about the opposing players as Coach Hunter and his staff does. Just ask UL-Lafayette’s Shawn Long who had a mug shot on the Internet after being arrested for entry on or remaining in places or on land after being forbidden.
The leaders of the student section printed a blowout image of his mug shot and mocked him the whole game. Not to say that Georgia State supports these gestures, but teams know what they’re getting into when they come to the Sports Arena.
The 2014-15 season has been unlike any other season at Georgia State. This team has received so much media attention nationwide and has been put under the microscope with the rest of the best talented college programs in the country.
High profile guys like Harrow, R.J. Hunter and Kevin Ware have brought Georgia State on a panel that the program has had to get used to. In the four years Ron Hunter has been here he has completely turned this program around.
The 2013-14 season was cut short in a heartbreaking overtime loss in the Sun Belt Championship (82-81). Since then this team has received multiple awards in the off-season and into the pre-season.
Hunter received Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year for last season and was named the pre-season conference
Player of the Year for this year. Ware finally returned to the basketball court following his gruesome injury during the championship run at Louisville in 2013.
Every coach in the conference unanimously picked the Panthers to win the Sun Belt. So going into the season the pressure was on for Georgia State, because people knew the expectations that were on the line every game.
Even as perfect as fans and students expected this season to unrealistically be, there were ups and downs throughout the season like any team has. There were times when the Panthers did not play defense that well enough for Coach Hunter. If anyone knows him, he is known to be a defensive-minded coach before anything.
There would be stretches in the season where they would have “lulls” as he would call it.
“We’ve been winning games but we weren’t consistent. When we got into January, the biggest thing I’ve been disappointed with is our consistency. Every loss that we’ve had this year, we’ve hit that lull. Whether it’s two minutes or four minutes, it’s a lull that really gets us,” Hunter said.
The time is near that this team, students and fans have been waiting for all season. The chance for Georgia State to earn redemption in the Sun Belt Tournament.
“This team has been playing for the tournament since November,” Hunter said.
It’s time for the team to aggregate all of the things they have enhanced on this year. All of the media frenzies, praise and expectations are now here to live up to. There may never be a team at a mid-major level with this combination of talent again. The Panthers will try to make it count.
Tourney time is here. ‘Unfinished Business’ has been the motto of the 2014-15 season. For Georgia State, it’s time to take care of business.
The Sun Belt Tournament takes place in New Orleans, Louisiana from March 12 – 15.
