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A few extra security guards and police officers will monitor the McKale Center crowd today after fans chanted a spate of obscene cheers the past month and one fan threw a water bottle at a USC player on Thursday.

"But we're not going overboard," said Suzy Mason, the UA's associate athletic director for event operations. "We all feel this is one isolated incident. It hadn't happened in 13 years since I've been here."

There have been other incidents. After one Arizona Wildcats fan spit on a Washington assistant coach this season, the opposing team's tunnel was moved from near Zona Zoo to the other end of the court.

And then there's the favorite practice at McKale Center — taunting officials.

"Those people that are berating the officials aren't doing anything to support Arizona basketball and the cause," Mason said. "All they're doing is antagonizing."

But those were actions of individuals.

Dealing with large groups of people, united for a common cause, creates its own unique challenge — social responsibility is hard to enforce on a mass level.

It is an obstacle by no means unique to Arizona.

Warren St. John is the author of "Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer," a book that examines hard-core fan behavior through the eyes of University of Alabama football supporters.

He said it's hard for a group to be stopped from boorish behavior once it has decided to engage in it.

"There has to be a spark and a conflagration psychologically," St. John said. "Someone who wants to prevent that from happening has to be there with a bucket of water at the first sign of the spark.

"The minute somebody throws something, you have a very ostentatious show of authority — come remove the guy from the arena."

Mason said fans have been escorted from McKale Center this year for using vulgarities. The challenge, however, comes when a group of students — not an individual — engage in behavior deemed inappropriate.

"What happens in a crowd or a mob is that people get a sense that they're anonymous, because there are so many people all around them," St. John said. "Once you feel anonymous, you feel freer to let your instincts take over."

But modern technology has made the notion of anonymity almost obsolete, St. John said. As happened Thursday night on ESPN, video cameras often catch students in the act.

It also puts more pressure on schools to curb such actions — offensive cheers or actions captured by nationwide television damage a school's image.

The rise of technology, however, also makes fans feel more invested in their favorite teams.

"There's less distance than ever between participants and fans and athletes," Dave Czesniuk, who examines fan behavior as the director of operations for the Center for the Study of Sport in Society at Northeastern University. "That has to do with access via technology and the Internet and how up close and personal everybody can get to elite performers.

"The other part is an overall blurring of lines that's taken place in society, in large part because of technology. The code of ethics and behavior haven't really caught up with the times."

Czesniuk said there is no empirical evidence to prove that poor fan behavior is more common than in years, or decades, past — they are just better documented.

Both Czesniuk and St. John said the best way to prevent crowds from getting out of control is to talk to fan groups beforehand and to explain how poor behavior does not help the team or the public's perception of it.

That's what UA interim head coach Kevin O'Neill and athletic director Jim Livengood did before Thursday's game.

David Roost, executive director of Zona Zoo, said he can do only so much to police his group.

"When it comes down to it, a student can come to a game and the decisions they're going to make is up to the individual," he said. "It's our job to know they're as well-informed as they can get."

When fans watch their favorite team lose, it is a "severe" blow to their self-esteem, St. John said.

"Your option is to sit with your head in your hands and be totally depressed — definitely the healthier kind of way," he said. "Or the other way to go is to act out against the forces that caused your self-esteem to plummet."

Czesniuk said colleges have some control over their students' behavior. They can revoke students' tickets and punish them academically.

"They have the leverage," he said. When fans get together in a group, sometimes that's not enough.

"There's lines around every field, every court, every rink," Czesniuk said. "You'd think that might set up a barrier."