Michigan State

dallastigers · Mar 31, 2003

Rioting after a basketball loss.

Foxsports.com

EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP)?

Michigan State basketball fans overturned four cars, tipped vending machines and set fires in trash bins after the Spartans lost in the NCAA tournament.

Officers in riot gear dispersed the crowd using tear gas. Eight people were arrested on charges of disorderly conduct, six of them Michigan State students.

The damage occurred between 8 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. Sunday near the university's administration building, where about 2,000 people had gathered.

They had tied up traffic earlier in the evening on Grand River Avenue, which divides the campus and downtown, said Lt. Kevin Daley of the East Lansing Police Department.

The violence followed Michigan State's 85-76 loss to Texas on Sunday in the South Regional final in San Antonio.

University officials said they would discipline the students who were arrested.

"This is just outrageous," Michigan State president Peter McPherson told The State News by phone Sunday night from Texas. "I was just truly disheartened."

Brad Dizik, a freshman from Farmington Hills, said the large number of police officers encouraged students to misbehave.

"They entice us to go even more crazy," Dizik said. "I'm just standing here watching people."

After the Spartans lost to Duke in the 1999 Final Four, 132 people, including 71 Michigan State students, were arrested. Damages to the city and campus totaled more than $250,000.
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Ellis Hugh · Mar 31, 2003

Riot when you win, riot when you lose.

Sounds like these kids just wanted to riot and didn't want t little thing like a team loss spoil their fun.

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