The Gray-New Gloucester and Freeport boys basketball teams face off in front of a large crowd at the Portland Expo during the Class B state tournament last February. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

It’s here. That annual February basketball sprint we love, the Maine high school tournament. The action ramps up Wednesday, with Class AA quarterfinal games. It ends March 1, with state championship games in Classes AA, B, C and D (Class A state finals will be Feb. 28).

It’s going to be loud. It’s going to be fun. You’re going to see some fantastic basketball and hear some superb bands. You’re going to eat junk food and drink too much sugary, carbonated battery acid, and it’s fine because your body will instinctively know the tournament diet doesn’t count.

Something to keep in mind when you go to the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor, or the Augusta Civic Center, or the Portland Expo, or Portland’s Cross Insurance Arena: Behave accordingly.

I can’t believe we still have to go over this, but fan behavior feels like it hit a new low this winter. Seeing how it was a low bar to begin with, a hole had to be dug to account for the new levels of foolish behavior. We’re in sub-basement level 10 by now.

I’m sure the vast majority of fans who attend games, cheer for their team and cause not a ripple of trouble are sick of hearing about it, too. It’s exhausting.

Yet we have to keep talking about it, because it keeps happening.

I wonder, what did the guy who ran onto the court to confront a ref during a recent girls basketball game at Oak Hill think was going to happen? Was there an objective? Did he think the official would pause and reconsider his call because this gentleman did take the time to run down from the third row of the bleachers? Maybe thank him for his help?

Messalonskee’s pep band plays during the Class A North tournament in 2017. Bands, food and, of course, the games are the highlight of the high school basketball tournament. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

Karissa Niehoff, CEO of the National Federation of State High School Associations, was 100% correct when she said this to the Portland Press Herald last week: “Self-control has eroded. There’s a greater sense of, ‘I’m upset and I’m entitled to get angry.’ The levels of emotional upset and how it manifests into behaviors is more extreme. They just erupt, and it’s more aggressive than it used to be. It’s not just poor behavior in the stands, with jeering and taunting. This is physical violence. We’re seeing more of that.”

It would be refreshing to see nothing more than a little old-fashioned jeering and taunting. But it doesn’t stop there. Whatever filter most people have that stops them at muttering about a perceived bad call has been shut off in the brains of more and more fans. A squirrel has chewed through those wires.

There’s an immaturity manifesting that considers itself some evolved form of toughness. It has no time for empathy or basic human decency because to engage in that would be to look weak, and who has time for that?

The behavior we’re seeing goes beyond boorish and, in some instances, crosses into criminal. Maybe that’s what needs to happen, with the next viral video of a fan causing a scene at a game ending with him or her stuffed in the back of a squad car.

Or, at the first sign of an issue, pause the game and empty the arena. Resume in front of an empty venue. Nobody wants that, least of all the Maine Principals’ Association, which counts on the basketball tournament as one of its biggest sources of revenue. But if, say, the Expo were to be cleared because of fan behavior, it would send a message. And fans could point to the offending party and say, yes, you literally ruined it for the rest of us. Although it’s hard to publicly shame a person who appears devoid of shame to begin with. But worth a try.

Remember, we’re talking about high school basketball. At most, civic pride is on the line, and that pride should come from cheering for your team and knowing the athletes are doing their best to represent your community in a positive manner. The least — the absolute least — you can do from the stands is the same.

Please, on behalf of everyone who wants to go to tournament games and enjoy basketball while not getting distracted by a loudmouth in the stands, be quiet. When you see something on the court that riles you up, think before you open your mouth, then shut it. If you knew half of what you think you knew about the rules, you should sign up to officiate and let us all benefit from your basketball wisdom.

Enjoy the tournament. We’ll see you all here at this same time next year when we go over all of this again.