Something that has been simmering for a while has finally seemed to boil over: the hatred of Cullen Neal by some Lobo fans. It was revealed Thursday in Coach Neal’s presser – which are always interesting to watch, but this one more so because of the emotions involved – that Cullen has had to change his phone number twice and deactivate his social media accounts because of the harassment and threats that he received this season. That’s ridiculous.

There is a small segment of Lobos fans who have hated Cullen from the get-go, even before they had the chance to see him suit up in the cherry and silver. Why? Well, mostly because he had the gall to be the coach’s son. That’s the only reason he’s on the team, right?

Actually, that is true. He wouldn’t be here if his dad wasn’t the coach. He’d be off playing at Saint Mary’s, a school that has a pretty solid basketball history of its own and where he had signed on to replace Matthew Dellavedova. He also probably wouldn’t be dealing with this nonsense.

His spot on the Lobos wasn’t some sort of gift, either. If he had any other name on the back of his jersey, his commitment to the Lobos would have seemed like a coup for the program. Did you know that he was a top-100 recruit on ESPN (and a top-20 PG)? The Lobos don’t get many of those.

By all accounts, he’s also a great teammate and a model student. He’s certainly supportive on the court, but while he was still on Twitter, it was easy to see the way that he supported his teammates and how he rooted for their success (and talked smack about video games with them). As for being a student, he’s been an MW Scholar-Athlete twice and was just named to the Academic All-District team. That’s pretty impressive, given how busy a college athlete’s schedule tends to be.

Now, Cullen hasn’t really had the type of season that we – and I’m sure he – was looking for. His shot has been uncharacteristically off for most of the season, including at the free throw line, and he has had some games where he has been turnover-prone. And he knows it as well as any of us.

One thing that makes him – and his father, for that matter – so polarizing is that he wears his emotions on his sleeve. When he drills a three in a defender’s face, you can tell he’s ecstatic afterwards. When he gets hammered on a drive and it isn’t called, you can see how mad he is about it. These days, whenever he misses a shot or makes a bad pass, you can see the frustration that he has with himself. Whatever standards or expectations we have for him, it’s clear that his own are even higher. He doesn’t need us to point out that he’s not reaching those expectations.

The craziest thing to me is how personal people take Cullen’s play. Like, just because he gets to wear the Lobo uniform, he owes it to the fans to make certain plays or to act a certain way and when he doesn’t, he’s letting us down. Let’s be clear on this: Cullen doesn’t owe us anything. In fact, none of the players on the team do. Acting like they do is silly at best and delusional at worst.

Cullen still has two more years of eligibility after this season and I hope that this sort of stuff doesn’t drive him away and that he chooses to keep playing for New Mexico. He’s a player with a lot of unique talents who I think will develop into one of the top players in the conference. I don’t care if that might seem optimistic to some. I say that because I’m a fan, and being a fan means that we’re irrational about our team and its players. I’d just rather be irrationally optimistic.

Besides, a synonym of fan is supporter. When you support someone, it’s okay to get frustrated, as you really do want to see them reach their goals and it hurts to see them stumble. But the sort of hatred that leads to harassment and death threats should never come into the equation.

I do know that I’m likely preaching to the choir on this, as I do think that it is a vocal minority who is doing this to him and that Cullen does have a lot of support across the fan base (like this letter to the editor in the Journal). But, if you happen to make it to the game on Saturday, or any other Lobo game this season, maybe the silent majority needs to get loud and show its support for a homegrown player who loves this school and this team as much as anyone.

Go Cullen. Go Lobos.