Student Section
The section known as the Oakland Zoo is composed of the sections across from the team benches and next to the court. The name comes from Oakland, the neighborhood where Pitt's campus resides. The students in the Zoo wear gold T-shirts with the words "Oakland Zoo" in some way, shape or form across the front. This layout and unity is a large factor in why the Pete is such a tough place to play for opposing teams. In fact, Pitt has lost only three home non-conference game since the Panthers moved into the Pete in 2002.
In 2006, Sports Illustrated surveyed the Big East Conference's basketball players, and the Pete was named the "Toughest Place to Play," with specific players mentioning the Oakland Zoo and the fans' creativity. In 2013, the facility was also ranked as having the second best game time environment in the nation by USA Today. In 2007 and 2010, "The Pete" hosted first and second round games of the NCAA Women's Division I Tournament.
Read more about this topic: Petersen Events Center
Famous quotes containing the words student and/or section:
“The student who secures his coveted leisure and retirement by systematically shirking any labor necessary to man obtains but an ignoble and unprofitable leisure, defrauding himself of the experience which alone can make leisure fruitful.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Personally I think we’re over-specialized. Why it’s getting so we have experts who concentrate only on the lower section of a specimen’s left ear.”
—Martin Berkeley, and Jack Arnold. Prof. Clete Ferguson (John Agar)