Panther fans at Thursday night’s men’s basketball game against Ohio Valley Conference favorite, Murray State, might have noticed a change from last season in Lantz Arena.

With Eastern men’s and women’s basketball teams playing a combined total of six games at home this season – only two of those games were played while classes were in session – Panther fans might not have had the chance to notice the difference.

This season, the Eastern Pep Band has moved down from the balcony in the southeast corner of Lantz Arena to courtside, a move that the pep band, the basketball players and the athletic department thinks is a good move for everyone – except for Eastern opponents.

“It’s so much louder when they’re down on the floor,” Eastern senior center Jan Thompson said. “The atmosphere totally changes. It makes a much tougher place for opponents to play in when they are down on the court.”

In the 2000-01 season the pep band was located courtside at the northeast corner of Lantz, opposite of Eastern’s bench. That season the Panthers were perfect, 13-0, at home on their way to winning the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament Championship and making a trip to the NCAA Tournament.

But last year, the pep band was moved to the balcony for the sake of more seating.

“What we wanted to do was maximize the number of seats on the floor available to the students as possible,” Director of Athletics Rich McDuffie said.

However, the band ran into a few problems in their new location.

“We talked with the athletic department last year,” Eastern Pep Band director Joe Allen said. “First of all, we couldn’t see our sheet music very well and we didn’t feel we were part of the experience of a college basketball game.”

This year the athletic department decided to move the pep band back to courtside, this time opposite of the visiting bench.

“The feedback we were getting from the pep band members and director is that they were feeling isolated,” McDuffie said. “Now it takes noise away from our bench and adds noise to the other bench.”

The pep band members were not the only ones that thought they should be playing on the floor.

“I thought they should be down on the floor simply because they add so much to the game from a noise level and a spirit level,” cheer team advisor Andy White said. “I’ve always been a big fan of our band. They start so many cheers and when they moved them up to the balcony they kind of took them out of the game.”

Last year the Men’s team had an excellent record in Lantz with 10 wins and three losses. The women’s squad was 4-8 on their home court. Hopefully, this season having the band on the court will help both teams improve their home records.

“It adds to (the noise),” Thompson said. “If its louder down on the floor it makes us play better. For as many members as they got, they do a really good job of playing loud and getting us going.”