COLUMN: Aggie basketball buzz is back
It would be a shame for me to keep from throwing out kudos in the direction of the other person who called out the Spectrum for not being up to its normal prowess this season. That other person, of course, was USU head coach Stew Morrill, who I’ll consider my unofficial partner in crime for the time being.
The important thing, though, is that the Spectrum last week was top-notch. That was close to as good as it gets and for good reason. The hostility was clearly there for New Mexico State, as it should be, and the thrills dished out by the team were plentiful.
I also believe that everybody owes Brian Green a sincere thank you for not hitting that 3-pointer following Brady Jardine’s monster dunk in the second half. Had that shot gone in, I’m fully convinced that the noise created would have shaken the entire building to the ground, killing every single person there. I also think that totally would have been worth it for the several seconds that the place was rocking harder than it had ever rocked before, even if it was a moment immediately prior to everybody in the building being crushed to death.
Epic Spectrum moments and narrowly averted unintentional genocides of 10,000-plus fans aside, the most important thing about this past weekend was that you could finally feel the buzz surrounding Utah State basketball again. It’s tough to exactly explain this buzz, but it’s just an inescapable feeling of excitement that you can feel all over the campus. This realization first came to me in a nice quiet corner of the library last Wednesday night leading up to Thursdays game. I knew at that point that things were going to be off the hook.
This buzz is something that skipped last season in my opinion. There were moments of it here and there, mainly with the win over BYU, but for the most part the energy and excitement didn’t quite catch on in the biggest of ways. This most recent buzz is more reminiscent to the buzz the team carried with them throughout the entire 2008-2009 season when Utah State won its second of three consecutive Western Athletic Conference titles and claimed the WAC Tournament championship in March.
Coincidentally, that season was also the last time Utah State found itself among the top 25 teams in the nation was also that 2009 season, when seemingly everything went right for the Aggies until there were about two minutes left in the NCAA Tournament game against Marquette.
The difference this time around is that this year’s Aggies have already delivered road victories at the two venues in WAC play where they were unable to secure victories in 2009. Not only that, but this year’s Aggies pulled off the wins at Boise State and at Nevada in convincing fashion.
Another chance for redemption could potentially present itself on Bracketbuster weekend should the Aggies get paired up for a rematch with Saint Mary’s, who soundly beat the Aggies in 2009 and then became the only visiting team to win in the Spectrum in nearly half a decade last season.
That’s all still yet to come, though, and for now the team will have their hands full trying to slow down the WAC’s best scorer in Adrian Oliver on Thursday and a Hawaii team that already gave USU fits once this season on Saturday. Each week will be a new test, and should the Aggies come out of this weekend still undefeated in WAC play, this university had best get ready to lose their minds again on Feb. 2 when both ESPN2 and Nevada roll into town. If the buzz wasn’t already obvious to you, it will rear its vicious head for that game. You can count on that.
In other words: rest assured Stew Morrill – The Spectrum is back!
Matt Sonnenberg is a senior majoring in print journalism. Matt is an avid fan of Aggie athletics and can be found on the front row of every home football and basketball game. He can also be reached at matt.sonn@aggiemail.usu.edu.