Meet the ‘Fins up’ guys who put LIU hoops fans on the map
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 faculty.
“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,” stated the Yale University grad, who met Pochapin, a Lehigh University alum, as children at The Bronx’s Riverdale Country School.
The 28-year-old devoted outsiders just lately went viral for creating the overhead “Fins up” clap that LIU’s spirit part — aka “The Reef” — now does when the crew shoots free throws.
The courtside clap is now the hottest expression of school 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 stated.
Pochapin — who stated he realized to learn higher when his mother gave him The Post sports activities part as a bit of boy — and Koffman and a handful of buddies are accustomed to “being the loudest five people at a sporting event.”
He stated they had been beforehand usually amongst only a handful of fans for video games in the fitness center 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 stated, significantly throughout the crew’s low tide in 2023, after they gained simply three video games.
Given that “anything you said and did was heard and echoed throughout,” it grew to become the good storm to learn into the now-iconic chant they created a yr later, he stated.
“We were always clapping after the free throws,” stated 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 crew’s ebbs and flows now has tons of fans swimming to the shark tank.
The part was filled with over-the-top supporters who made the ground shake throughout the crew’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 report because it headed to the NCAA Division I event.
“That’s what home-court advantage is about — that energy,” stated 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 stated, including that it “says a lot about Rod Strickland’s coaching ability.”
Former LIU basketball player-turned-ESPN and MSG broadcaster Alan Hahn can be diving into the insanity head-first.
“I had my kids doing fins up every time there was a free throw,” stated the Suffolk County native, who’s been watching the crew’s implausible 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,” stated the participant, who dropped 24 factors in the NEC championship sport.
“I truly believe it.”
be 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 crew after a nomadic stretch of looking for a neighborhood faculty to root for.
“We went to Columbia, Iona, Fairfield, Manhattan, Fordham, Wagner,” stated Koffman, who works in property administration.
“We went everywhere,” the Williamsburg resident stated.
Strickland’s NBA legacy and unhappy state of fan affairs at LIU acquired them hooked three years in the past, they stated.
Koffman and Pochapin stated they made it their facet gig to reel in an increasing number of 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 flowery Italian dinner, and Koffman even made a one-of-a-kind donation to the fitness center 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 stated.
The nautical nonsense is now proudly displayed in a foyer exterior the faculty’s Brooklyn fitness center.
The program’s new fan power has additionally quelled riptides amongst the metropolis and suburban alumni, which rose 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 stated of the tradition shift and on-court success.
“We’ve been needing this.”
You can guess the duo will probably be there when the Sharks play throughout March Madness.
“It has been a surreal experience,” Koffman stated.
“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.”
