Matt Rissien doesn’t give much credence to most superstitions. He doesn’t flinch at black cats or avoid cracks in the sidewalk, and he couldn’t care less about Friday the 13th. When it comes to Jayhawk sports, however, Rissien, a Kansas City, Kan., sophomore, surrounds himself with the unexplainable.

It’s 2:45 p.m. on Jan. 20. Rissien plops down on a black leather couch in a small room in Alpha Epsilon Pi, 1116 Indiana St., in anticipation of the KU-Texas Tech showdown. He is wearing a KU basketball jersey, the one he wears for every basketball game. It is a home jersey, white with blue trim, with the number “30” — for Rissien’s favorite player, Julian Wright — on it. The jersey looks tired and worn and a little wrinkled. He grins as he points out, almost proudly, the stains that have accumulated since the Jayhawks’ most recent loss more than a month ago.

Enter superstition number one: Rissien doesn’t wash the jersey until the team loses. There is a blue splotch that looks like pen ink just below his collar, and on the front is a black smudge from being shoved up against the bar that separates the first row from the court. He doesn’t want the luck to wash away.

This is a very common practice, especially in sports, says Stuart Vyse, professor of psychology at Connecticut College and author of Believing in Magic: The Psychology of Superstition. Fans and athletes alike can become extremely emotionally invested in a game. Vyse explains the importance of the fans’ rituals and superstitions as a way of feeling a personal connection to the team and its success.

“For real fans, supporting the team becomes part of your identity,” Vyse says. “It’s hard just sitting there and saying ‘Well, whatever happens happens.’ We’re just not wired that way.”

Another way superstitions are formed is when a certain object or action becomes associated with a team’s success or defeat, says Richard Lustberg, a psychologist in New York and founder of www.psychologyofsports.com. It only takes one time for a superstition to stick, Lustberg says.

He likens superstition development to getting stomach flu. A person will normally have a negative association with the last thing he ate, Lustberg says, even though that is not what caused the problem. The same goes for superstitions and rituals. While there is no evidence to back up their effectiveness, they still make people feel more comfortable in stressful situations, which can ultimately help an athlete perform better and keep fans at ease.

Rissien describes his other clothing rituals as the game wears on, one eye always on the screen. He lifts the leg of his jeans to display his gameday shoes, which he only wears when the Jayhawks play. They are white with blue trim and Jayhawks on the sides. They are scuffed around the edges from Rissien’s jumping and stomping at games. He also has a jacket that he wears when he camps out before each home game.

Whether at the game or at home, Rissien says that if the team is doing poorly at halftime he will move to a different seat and hope that their luck will change. Rissien switched seats twice during this game, but the final score was still disappointing.

While fans do what they can to ensure a victory, athletes have their own routines and superstitions. Other than a few minor rituals, neither he nor his teammates hold any superstitions, says Julian Wright, sophomore forward. He says they do avoid calling a shot before it goes in the basket, though, because no one wants to jinx it.

Vyse says that it is normal for fast-paced sports to have fewer superstitions among the players than slower-paced games because there is less time to actually think about performing a superstition.

Erik Morrison, junior infielder, says he has a few baseball rituals. Most important is wearing a Super Mario wristband he has had since his freshman season, which the Arroyo Grande, Calif., junior says he never washes. Morrison says that it is pretty crusty and gross, but that it is better that way because it is all part of the superstition.

“I feel like my uniform is not complete without it on,” says Morrison. “I feel naked without it.”

Morrison also puts his uniform on the same way every game: sliding shorts, followed by jock strap, athletic cup, socks, stirrups, undershirt (the same one he’s worn since he was 15 years old), pants, shirt, belt, shoes, wristband and hat — in that order. He also wears his pant legs rolled up for away games and rolled down for home games.

For Morrison and athletes like him, superstitions become routine. Morrison has never played a game without the wristband, and he says that not having it would throw him off.

For fans like Rissien, though, it’s more a question of karma. “There’s some reason why it all is happening,” Rissien says, “and I have to relate it to myself. Plus, it’s more fun that way.”