COLUMN: Come early, be loud and stay late at games

Are we the best fans in the nation? We sometimes give ourselves credit for being the greatest and loudest fans in all of college basketball. This very well could be true considering since the arrival of Stew Morrill we are 94-8 in the Spectrum. It is very hard getting big teams to even think about coming to play in what has been referred to as “The Cauldron Of Noise.” In fact, Bob Thomason, head coach at Pacific said: “We will play the Aggies here [Pacific] anytime but, we will never go back to Logan.” And they won’t have to. After this year we will be going to the WAC and will not have to face the Tigers again in season play.

This is the general attitude of many teams across the nation, and we like it that way. We want people to fear the Spectrum just like BYU, Utah and Weber State have in the past and will continue to feel in the future.

After all that we have seen, can the Spectrum get any louder? Yes, it can. According to the card swipes, we only had 3,500 students attend the Utah game and 3,300 for BYU. For all of you who were fortunate enough to be at either of these games know how loud that place was. We, as students, have been allotted about 4,200 seats; with USU nearing 18,000 students here on the campus, it shouldn’t be that hard to fill those seats every time out.

Even if the game is “sold out,” that does not apply to students. There will be seats for students even those who are a little late. We need students there that are loud and obnoxious all game, every game. Not only will being loud disrupt the opponent, it will subsequently pump up the Aggies. When asked about the energy of the students, forward John Neil said, “It’s something that we really feed off of … it’s an energy that you can get no where else … we feel that they’re part of the team.”

Not only can we make a difference in men’s basketball but we can help women’s basketball and gymnastics too. The women are off to a great start this year winning their last three games against Cal Poly, Pacific and CS Northridge. The girls have improved some much this year and are very fun to watch. Head coach Raegan Pebley has encouraged those who have enjoyed watching the women play this year to bring three people with them to the next game on Jan. 27 at 7 p.m.

Gymnastics gave No. 1-in-the-nation Utah all it could handle last week and are ranked 24 in the nation.

You can find all the Aggie information you need, including schedules at Utahstateaggies.com you can also pick up your “Aggie Wristbands” at the USU Card Office in TSC 326. Keep on supporting the Ags – “Come Early, Be Loud, and Stay Late!”

Jimi Jorgenson is the

athletics vice president

for ASUSU. Comments

can be sent to

jamesbradley@cc.usu.edu.