Otto’s Army is remaining committed to the men’s basketball team following the announcement of a self-imposed postseason ban for this season.

Sean Fernandez, president of Otto’s Army, said the group is still looking forward to the rest of the season, despite there being no opportunity for a tournament appearance. Otto’s Army took a group of students to the Syracuse (15-8, 6-4 Atlantic Coast) vs. Pittsburgh (16-8, 5-5 ACC) game on Saturday, which ended in an 83-77 loss for the Orange.

“We may have lost the game, but the Orange played hard and we’re happy to keep supporting them regardless of any sanctions, any tournament ban,” Fernandez said. “We’re always going to be supporting the Orange so I think morale is still pretty high.”

Fernandez said that in the wake of the self-imposed ban, it’s “still business as usual” and said it’s an opportunity to support other SU sports like women’s basketball.

“So while the season may end for men’s basketball earlier than we expected, there’s still a great opportunity for us to go out and support the other teams,” he said.

Fernandez added that the group is looking forward to big games still on schedule, such as home games against Duke, Virginia and Pittsburgh.

“We still have a lot of games left and a lot of really good games left … so even though we’ve lost a few tough games lately, we’re still going to keep going and keep cheering for the team,” he said.

Looking ahead, Otto’s Army is scheduled to begin its campout leading up to Saturday’s game against Duke on Monday at 5 p.m. The campout was scheduled to start Sunday night, but was postponed due to a snowstorm.

Published on February 8, 2015 at 9:14 pm

Contact Justin: jmatting@syr.edu | @jmattingly306