A few hundred Maryland students carried on the ridiculous tradition of setting fires and acting obnoxious following a big victory. Why is destroying property seen as an appropriate way of celebrating to these idiots?

One man, who had a T-shirt wrapped around his face and identified himself only as “John,” said he wanted to “Keep the tradition,” by joining in the melee. But it was his girlfriend, who identified herself as “Suzie,” who encouraged him to “Start a few fires” and “Knock some s— over.”

“They can’t f—ing go on our campus,” one student screamed. As police retreated toward the much larger crowd at Knox Road, students belted out the lyrics to the song “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Good-bye,” and chanted “We can’t hear you.”

These students also screamed profanities directed at J. J. Redick, the star of the Duke men’s team. Ummm … he wasn’t playing, people. His team lost in the Sweet 16 and he is now preparing to make millions of dollars in the NBA. Let it go.

Incidents such as this one are embarrassing and give a bad name to the university. I know our campus is not unique in these types of “celebrations”, but I continue to naively hope that our students would be above such nonsense.

I am reminded of a men’s basketball game I attended during my senior year. We were playing Florida State and some of the guys in my section were being obnoxious to the FSU family members who were seated on the court. They even taunted the little kids who came to see their big brothers play and threw ice at anyone within shot. I finally told the jerks to stop and instead focus their energy on cheering for our team (or at least limit their taunts to the opposing players) and I was met with a tirade of profane words and gestures. I leaned over the railing after the game to apologize to the FSU bench and tell them that those guys didn’t represent true Terp spirit. I hope I was right! When all is said and done, it’s just a game!