'Laptop' Cheer Lacks Class

The cheer began just one minute 47 seconds into the game when the University of Connecticut’s A.J. Price stepped to the foul line for his first free throw of the afternoon.

“Where’s my laptop?” Georgetown students taunted in unison. They did not let up during any one of Price’s game-high 11 free-throw attempts.

The students were, of course, alluding to Price’s August 2005 arrest for the theft of four laptop computers on the UConn campus. Price, who was one of two players charged with the crime, ended up being suspended for the 2005-06 season and receiving 18 months of probation and 400 hours of community service.

Now, everywhere the Huskies play, students give him the same harsh treatment.

Of course, Price does not deserve a free pass for his actions — he committed a stupid crime and deserved every ounce of punishment he received — but this board wonders if maybe Georgetown’s student section should scale back its taunting.

As Washington Post blogger Dan Steinberg pointed out in his widely read D.C. Sports Bog Saturday, Hoya Blue’s cheer sheet listed “A Hoya keeps it classy” as one of the eight rules for “Cheering Like a Hoya.”

Georgetown fans need to make a decision. They can either take part in “Where’s My Laptop?” cheers like the student section at almost any other university would, or they can hold themselves to a higher standard. But if we are going to claim to be “classy,” it’s time for cheers like the one we heard on Saturday to go.