>> Tonight we're going to find out what makes this group
of students fun and formidable.
It's time to Boiler up and get your game face on!
[ Music ]
>> Rita Zawisza: Paint Crew, well,
Paint Crew is the sixth man of Mackey Arena, and you can talk
to any visiting coach that comes in here,
and they really are a factor.
There are student body, we have about 5,000 of them here,
and they make noise and they have all kinds of hand gestures,
and they support our team, so we love them.
>> Jarrod Huff: We love our team and we just like to bring it
as hard as we can to every game.
>> Dan Hugar: And we really want to make sure
that we are the best student section in Big Ten basketball
and basketball across the country,
and I really think we are.
We bring it every single game, full intensity,
full volume, it's nuts.
Just even right now, we're chanting,
we're not even in the game yet.
>> I'm here with Chris, official secretary
of the Paint Crew here.
Chris, how are you doing?
>> I'm going great today, senior night, can't be more excited.
>> Good to hear, good to hear.
Now, first off, tell me, what is the Paint Crew.
>> Yeah, the Paint Crew is our student organization,
consisting of over 2,500 students this year.
We are the student section, we are the official sixth man
for Purdue Basketball.
We get loud, we get crazy,
we bring the electricity to Mackey Arena.
Our responsibility as a Paint Crew is,
we make this the toughest place to play in.
The team know we're going to bring it, we know they're going
to bring it, and we build up each other.
It's our responsibility to get this Arena loud,
to get everybody going,
and to get things fired up for our Boilers.
>> All right, now, how does somebody go
about joining the Paint Crew?
>> Yeah, well, to join Paint Crew you have
to be a VIP card holder.
If you're a VIP card holder, we have sign-ups before the season
to camp out and get general admission season tickets.
Once you get those, you have all the benefits
of being in Paint Crew.
You can enter our lotteries, go to our pre-season parties,
post-season parties, road trips, you're on our e-mail address,
you get the scouting reports for the other teams,
and you get to be part of this atmosphere,
this wild atmospheres for great games
against great basketball teams in the Big Ten.
>> That's awesome.
I mean, when you have people that will camp out for 24,
36 hours for a game, you know they're going to come
to the Stadium pumped up and ready to go,
and they obviously care if they're going to camp
out for a game, and it's awesome.
>> We definitely overwhelm the opposite team, so they come
and see this huge student section
that goes all the way up.
I don't think any other school really does something like this,
where everyone camps out that long outside the whole time.
And like we had friends camping
out last night during their shift in the tent, and like,
I don't know if any other fans are as like as dedicated
like this, that will come to the game an hour early just to get
in the lower bowl or upper bowl and still get great seats,
and to have a great game.
>> So why do we come out here to these basketball games?
Why do we camp out?
Why do we sleep when it's 20 degree outside?
I'll tell you why, because we're the best student section
in the nation!
Because we care, because we cheer for Purdue.
Because we're the best!
>> SO as you can see, this crew gives our team a great home
court advantage!
For Boiler Bytes, I'm Anthony Leahy.
