It’s fairly a Sharks story.
Two college-basketball nuts have reeled in huge team spirit for the March Madness-bound Sharks of Long Island University with a sizzling new signature wave — regardless of neither having even attended the college.
“I would say one of the things about our friendship … is an obsession with college basketball,” Cameron Koffman informed The Post of the unwavering dedication he and longtime pal David Pochapin have for LIU.
“And a love for a really, really drawn-out passion side project,” mentioned the Yale University grad, who met Pochapin, a Lehigh University alum, as youngsters at The Bronx’s Riverdale Country School.
The 28-year-old devoted outsiders lately went viral for creating the overhead “Fins up” clap that LIU’s spirit part — a okay a “The Reef” — now does when the group shoots free throws.
The courtside clap is now the hottest expression of faculty hoops fandom in the land — even being adopted by some University of Nebraska fans and main Barstool Sports to crown LIU as “America’s team.”
“It took a few years, but the entire college basketball world is picking up on it,” Pochapin mentioned.
Pochapin — who mentioned he discovered to learn higher when his mother gave him The Post sports activities part as a little bit boy — and Koffman and a handful of buddies are accustomed to “being the loudest five people at a sporting event.”
He mentioned they had been beforehand usually amongst only a handful fans for video games in the health club at the Brooklyn campus of LIU, which additionally has a web site in Brookville on Long Island.
“There was really no one in the building,” the FinTech employee mentioned, significantly throughout the group’s low tide in 2023, once they gained simply three video games.
Given that “anything you said and did was heard and echoed throughout,” it grew to become the excellent storm to lean into the now-iconic chant they created a 12 months later, he mentioned.
“We always were clapping after the free throws,” mentioned Pochapin, who lives in Chelsea in Manhattan.
“So I assume from there, I simply began yelling, ‘Fins up!’ “
Uncharted waters
The males’s dedication all through the group’s ebbs and flows now has tons of fans swimming to the shark tank.
The part was full of over-the-top supporters who made the flooring shake throughout the group’s Northeast Conference title-winning 79-70 victory over Mercyhurst on Tuesday night time, when LIU correctly punched a ticket to the Big Dance, proudly sporting a 14-1 residence document because it headed to the NCAA Division I match.
“That’s what home-court advantage is about — that energy,” mentioned LIU head coach and former Knick Rod Strickland after final week’s sport.
Notable LIU alum and Fox News commentator Brian Kilmeade, who performed soccer at the college, is all in on the hype.
“It’s amazing to think the whole country will understand LIU can play with the big guns on the national stage,” he mentioned, including that it “says a lot about Rod Strickland’s coaching ability.”
Former LIU basketball player-turned-ESPN and MSG broadcaster Alan Hahn can also be diving into the insanity head-first.
“I had my kids doing fins up every time there was a free throw,” mentioned the Suffolk County native, who’s been watching the group’s unbelievable arc religiously this season.
“I think, definitely, the players feel it.”
Senior guard Greg Gordon agreed.
“‘Fins up’ is going to be a thing for this whole tournament,” mentioned the participant, who dropped 24 factors in the NEC championship sport.
“I truly believe it.”
Seas the day
The fin-atical Koffman and Pochapin — who beforehand produced an off-Broadway play called “Celino v. Barnes” about the well-known upstate legal professionals — adopted LIU as their group after a nomadic stretch of looking for an area college to root for.
“We went to Columbia, Iona, Fairfield, Manhattan, Fordham, Wagner,” mentioned Koffman, who works in property administration.
“We went everywhere,” the Williamsburg resident mentioned.
Strickland’s NBA legacy and unhappy state of fan affairs at LIU bought them hooked three years in the past, they mentioned.
Koffman and Pochapin mentioned they made it their facet gig to reel in increasingly more fans, beginning with pulling everybody they knew into the craze.
Now the buddies are the Sharks’ de facto boosters.
They’ve taken freshmen gamers out to a elaborate Italian dinner, and Koffman even made a one-of-a-kind donation to the health club due to a fisherman member of the family.
“My stepdad had this 14-foot shark replica based on one he caught. … And my mom basically was like, ‘If it goes in the house, we’re getting a divorce,’ ” Koffman mentioned.
The nautical nonsense is now proudly displayed in a foyer outdoors of the college’s Brooklyn health club.
The program’s new fan power has additionally quelled riptides between the metropolis and suburban alumni, which arose when LIU merged its two athletic packages, the Brooklyn Blackbirds and its Post campus Pioneers, in 2019.
“This to me really feels like the thing that could really be the unifier,” Hahn mentioned of the tradition shift and on-court success.
“We’ve been needing this.”
You can guess the duo shall be there when the Sharks play throughout March Madness.
“It has been a surreal experience,” Koffman mentioned.
“It’s just fun to see a team that you get so attached to performing at this level and capturing the heart of the nation.”
