For a brief moment on Monday night, I was embarrassed to be a Penn Stater.

Having travelled four hours to get to Villanova University, I was excited to see Penn State play some good basketball and give 'Nova a run for their money.

I was pretty satisfied with the quality of the game; it was the quality of our fans that disappointed me.

Although our team had a slow start our fans seemed to be supporting them pretty well from the beginning.

Then the referee made a bad call, and the whole Penn State student section started cheering obscenities at him (and I'm sure most of you know what "cheer" I'm referring to).

Villanova's retaliant cheer, "safety school," proves my point: Our reputation at Villanova (and perhaps elsewhere) was ruined.

Cheering obscenities at Rec Hall or Beaver Stadium is rude enough, but to go to another university's arena and do that is totally classless. School spirit should be a positive tool that builds up our program, not an obnoxiously negative one that ruins our reputation.

Our basketball team played a good game and should be proud of the season they have had. I only hope the rudeness of our fans hasn't been a detriment to Penn State's basketball program. By trying to make others look bad, we have made ourselves look even worse.