Samme Givens passed the 1,000 point and 1,000 rebound mark in this game becoming on the third Drexel player to do so. He also becomes only the 22nd player in Philadelphia basketball to do so as well. This is not the end for Samme and he is not content until he leads his team to the CAA championship on Monday night!

Congratulations to the 2011-2012 CAA regular season champs, your Drexel Dragons!

BEST FAN SECTION:

“In this city, it has to be Drexel. Others have more participants. None is as enthusiastic as the DAC Pack. It is loud and creative, with fun being the operative word. And the Dac Pack has a really good team to watch.”

Read the full article here: When fans get nasty

Great to see the DAC Pack getting the recognition it deserves. This article also coincides with us being nominated for the Naismith student section of the year award. We are currently in 14th place out 80, and the only mid-major making an appearance in the top 20. Over 25,000 votes have been cast. You can vote daily here:  Niasmith fan section of the year The top 14 move on to the next round! Vote daily!

The DAC Pack has always been known to make the occasional appearance in the news for its whit and charm. When George Mason came to play in front of a packed DAC with an already fired up fan section, we knew it was a recipe for something special in front of a sell out crowd the DAC Pack unveiled a Roll out that read “Hey Andre, Do you prefer American Express or Master Card?”, while holding up credit cards. We then went on to chant “how’s your credit?” during his one lone free throw attempt of the night (which he missed).

For those of you who do not know the story behind Andre and his life of crime, it is an interesting story. Last season Andre was suspended for stealing pillows from the hotel the team was staying at. Fans had their fun making light of the situation. Apparently Andre did not learn his lesson from this incident. Last fall he found a credit card on campus and bought gas and several other items with it. He faced felony charges of larceny and theft for the incident. He was suspend for 10 games because of it.

The DAC Pack has had a history with Andre since day one. The first game he stepped foot in the DAC, he made the mistake of talking back to the fans in the first row if fans. We responded with a deafening “CORNELIOUS, CORNELIOUS” chant.

In the following days of the game, Yahoo sports sports blog “The Dagger” published this beauty about our roll out. Read and enjoy: Rival Fans taunt Andre Cornelious for his Arrest The beauty of all of this. During the week we had been in a twitter feud with the other fan sections in the city about roll outs and why we shouldn’t be allowed to do them. One temple fan asked the @DACPack account: “When’s the last time a DACPack rollout made the news?” The time was perfect on this, having been two days before the article was published.

This was the third time in four years we have played an early morning game on ESPN to tip off the college basketball season. This year, 50 brave souls woke up at 4am to make the bus trip to Lawrencville. Upon arriving we were greated by a shower of boo’s from Drunken Rider students who were sitting across the way from us in what has been dubbed “The Broncs’ Zoo”. We will give them credit, they did pack an entire side of the 1,650 person arena. It only took free tshirts, giveaways, and a national television spot outside to get them there.

The whitty banter started almost immediately between the Gold clad shirts in a see of white. The “Zoo Crew” did a pathetic job of wrangling in the animals. The DAC Pack and other Drexel alum took up almost an entire quarter of the tiny gym (rarely do we get to make fun of the size of a gym, it was a weird change). One thing we noted was the pathetic excuse of a national anthem the Rider students had put together. Does anyone think a beatboxed freestyled version of our country’s anthem is a good idea? Apparently Rider thought it would be on national tv. The DAC Pack immediatiely countered the disrespect with chants of “U-S-A, U-S-A”! It should also be noted the Rider band consisted of a Bass drum, three trumpets, one snare, a cowbell, one trombone, and an accoustic guitar (that wasn’t even plugged in).

The game got off to a slow start, Drexel trailed at one point and the petting zoo showing its ignorance towards actually attending a college game started with a scoreboard chant. Yes, a scoreboard chant in the first five minutes down by five whole points. While the 100 something of us in the stands were drowned out by the see of white noise and disorganized chants, we still managed to make our presence known. ESPN commented towards the end on our our “where R U going?” chants as their fans funneled out with 7:52 left on the game clock. I guess they were smart in the end, because we ended up winning

The end of the game led to the second annual police escort of the DAC Pack out of the visiting team’s arena. We were proud of the DAC Pack presence at this game, and we want to keep it up! The next roadtrip will be to cross city Rival, St. Joes.

Come out on November 5th and see the teams for the first time, as well as some surprises throughout the night. The event will end at Midnight with the revealing of this years DAC Pack t-shirt design on our Facebook.

This year we have two options to accommodate everybody’s various time commitments.

Option 1
We will have a bus heading down on Friday the 4th. Our departure from campus will depend on seeding which will be confirmed on Saturday, February 26th. If Drexel is the 5-seed, we would play at 2:30 PM on Friday, so the bus would leave campus around 6:00 AM to get there for the game. If Drexel is the 6-seed, we would play at 8:30 PM and the bus would leave campus at noon. Whatever the outcome of Friday’s game, we will stay at least one night in Virginia, and if the team keeps winning we will stay as long as they continue to play.

Option 2
If the team wins on Friday, we will have a second bus heading down for Saturday’s game that will then stay as long as the team keeps winning. Again, because of seeding variables the exact departure time is yet to be determined, but will either be an early morning departure or a noon departure. If you pay for this option, and the bus ends up not being necessary due to a first-round loss, you will be given a full refund.

To reserve your spot, please email us at dacpack@gmail.com with the subject line “Richmond Tournament 2011 Signup” and include your…

* Name
* Email address
* Cell phone number
* Emergency contact name/phone number
* Whether you want to be on the Friday bus or the Saturday bus

Payment
To fully confirm your spot, you must pay $20 (cash only). PLEASE bring your money to Wednesday’s game against VCU at 7:00!

40 DAC Packers are all that's needed to take over Delaware's home court

As if there was any doubt, the Delaware student section – the Cockpit – was extremely weak. They had maybe 75 students in their section but only three stood during the game, and the only cheering came from their pep band. Compare that to the 40 of us that took over that arena. (We had nearly double that amount interested in attending, but other campus events prevented them from making the trip). We received multiple text messages during the game from people watching on TV that said we were extremely loud. The team came to play and pulled out the 58-48 win with Chris Fouch scoring 23 points. For the first time in 4 years we completed the season sweep and closed the gap in the overall series.

The Delaware students don't know that they're supposed to stand during the game...

Unfortunately the girls fell in the game 53-44, but the overall series for the season gave Drexel three wins out of the four games this season.

After last season when he tried to correct our pronunciation of his name, we decided to give him much needed definition.

“Delaware!” “(Sucks!)”

Well, just when Blue Hen fans didn’t think they could suck any worse, they go 0-3 on the weekend in their biggest sports. Of course, we played them in men’s and women’s basketball, but the table was set on Friday when they lost the (FCS) National Championship for football by choking away a 19-0 lead to lose 20-19. Normally we could care less about football, but when it results in Delaware fans being depressed, we start to pay attention.

As for the basketball games themselves, Drexel won convincingly in the men’s game by a final score of 68-55. The game was televised and just replayed on TCN, and the DAC Pack was CRAZY! The chanting was overwhelming and at the end of the game you could audibly hear the “Delaware! Sucks!” call-and-response over the commentator. The win brought Drexel within 3 games of evening the all-time series which now stands at 73-70.

On the women’s side, things were a little bit tighter. The girls were bit by the injury bug lately as Marisa, Jackie and Tyler were all sitting out. (Marisa and Jackie are out for the year with ACL injuries). Delaware was without their star (aka only worthwhile) player, the much over-hyped Elena Delle Donne as she battles fatigue. The game was close throughout but Drexel ended up winning again by a final score of 59-56. In the late minutes of the game, Delaware Coach Tina Martin was flipping out at the refs, despite the fact that she had been getting generous calls all game. The DAC Pack was yelling at her to calm down, and we even tweeted her to do it. (She still hasn’t responded though).

DAC Pack Fans of the Game
Normally we will have a Facebook contest to decide which student will be named fan of the game, but this weekend, these guys clearly stood out from the rest as they body painted and were going crazy all game! For their efforts they were rewarded with a bunch of Qdoba coupons, which we’re told were redeemed immediately after the game.

After the guys knocked off #20 Louisville on Tuesday night, we have had a ton of interest from students regarding the Syracuse game on December 22nd. Below is the information we have compiled about the trip. Hopefully all you DAC Packers can attend and let’s get another win against one of the country’s top teams! (Deadline to sign up is Monday 12/20 at noon). The last time we played Syracuse (December 2006) we came away with the 5 point victory!

General Info

• Deadline to sign up through the DAC Pack is Monday, December 20th at noon
• Tickets start at $20 (if we have a group of 100+ they’ll drop to $15 each)
• We are driving up in individual cars, so if you can drive and are willing to take others with you, PLEASE let us know. You will be reimbursed for gas/tolls/etc.
• We’ll be staying in Syracuse overnight to avoid driving home in wintry conditions. The Motel 6 is $55 a night for up to 4 people per room, so it’s less than $15 per person.

Day of Game

• Leave campus around noon (if you’re driving from another location, factor the appropriate time to get there.
• Arrive in Syracuse by 6:00
• Game starts at 7:00 and should be over around 9:00
• After the game we’ll head to the hotel
• Drive back to Philly (or wherever you live) Thursday morning

How to sign up!
If you want to go, please send an email to dacpack@gmail.com with the subject line “Syracuse Roadtrip”. Include the following info…

• Name
• Telephone number
• Email address
• Where you’re leaving from (say “Campus” if near Drexel, or list the City and State if elsewhere)
• Whether you can drive, or need a ride
• If you can drive, how many others can you drive with you? And what kind of car you have.

In the biggest game of the season thus far, in front of a national ESPN audience, Drexel has knocked off unbeaten Big East powerhouse, Louisville by a final score of 52-46! Coming into the game Louisville was ranked #20 in the nation, and had just beaten #19 UNLV.

Just how big was the win? Well after the game was over, “Drexel” became a NATIONAL Trending Topic on Twitter! A few DAC Packers and alums were able to travel down to see the game in person, and we were definitely rewarded. Louisville’s brand new arena seats 22,000 and it was PACKED. But being one of only about 25 fans to walk out of that building happy is a great feeling!

A bunch of people are now asking about the roadtrip to Syracuse next Wednesday 12/22. We’re figuring out a bunch of the details right now, but will post the information as soon as we have it.

You may or may not know about the Drexel message boards, but if you’re really interested, you can sign up for free and post thoughts about this game, any others, etc… There are a bunch of staff, alums and current students that post on there, and they range from diehards to casual fans. Drexel Message Boards

You can check out a bunch of the links below for game details and video…

ESPN Recap
ESPN Video
Inquirer Recap
Soft Pretzel Logic Blog

Also, feel free to snag the image from this post and make it your Facebook profile picture!