Michigan Wolverines guard Nik Stauskas is the overwhelming favorite to win the Big Ten Player of the Year Award. We also have him in the first round of our 2014 NBA Mock Draft.
The Ontario native has been harassed by opposing Big Ten fans with the “U-S-A! U-S-A!” a couple times this season. When the Indiana Hoosiers fans did it to Nik Stauskas earlier this year, it made Olbermann’s top three “worst persons in the sports world.” Why?
Because IU has Colombian born Hanner Mosquera-Perea on their roster. So the Hoosier fans were indirectly saying something offensive about a member of their own team. Tonight, members of the Orange Krush, the Illinois Fighting Illini student section, engaged in the exact same act of stupidity directed at Nik Stauskas.
The Canadian star responded by draining a deep, first half buzzer-beating 3-pointer. Then Nik Stauskas looked over at the fans who were just taunting him with a serious stare down that said, “hey, how do you like that??” without saying a word.
I live tweeted it from press row when it happened, and here’s the video courtesy of Big Ten Network.
HEY IDIOTS taunting opposing players with the “U-S-A U-S-A” chant, you’re indirectly insulting the foreign born players on your own team
— Paul M. Banks (@PaulMBanks) March 5, 2014
Stauskas drains a long 3 right before half, giving a facial and staredown to that section of @Illini_OKrush #Deserving #Fitting
— Paul M. Banks (@PaulMBanks) March 5, 2014
I asked Nik Stauskas about the sequence in the post game media session.
“They were chanting USA, and so I got the ball back and I hit it, and then I just kind of stared at them,” Stauskus said.
Did it bother him?
“I think it’s funny, it’s happened a couple times this season,” he said metaphorically brushing the dirt off his shoulder.
Nik Stauskas isn’t the first opposing player that the Orange Krush has used this dumb, jingoistic jeer against. They used the same bit on Italian born Amedeo Della Valle of Ohio State a couple weeks ago.
Now is not the time for Illini fans to be trash talking Michigan. The Wolverines blew the Illini out of the building 84-53. UM is also eight games ahead of Illinois in the Big Ten standings, and the win allowed them to celebrate an outright Big Ten Championship right on Illinois’ homecourt.
And of course, USA shouldn’t be smack-talking Canadians anyway after what happened in Sochi; in both men’s and women’s hockey.
So what these Illini fans did to Nik Stauskas was wrong on all kinds of levels. By the way, Nik Stauskas finished with a game high 24 points on a blistering 8-11 shooting, including 7-9 from three.
Paul M. Banks owns The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. An MBA and Fulbright scholar, he’s also a frequent analyst on news talk radio; with regular segments on ESPN,NBC, CBS and Fox. A former NBC Chicago and Washington Times writer, he’s also been featured on the History Channel. President Obama follows him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)