COLUMN: I love Aggie basketball
This is the first time in my column I get to talk about exactly what I want to — Aggie basketball. My column runs on Friday, and by the time my opinion gets printed, everything there is to talk about has already been wrung thin.
Think about it. It’s no secret our paper is packed on Mondays, everything happens on the weekends. By the time Friday rolls around, there is nothing left to write about.
I’m not saying I’m dying to state my opinion on the misfortunes of Aggie football. We generally come to a consensus at the sports desk anyway, so my opinion has usually already been said by at least one of my editors. So finally I get the chance to write about Aggie basketball.
Wednesday night the annual Blue and White game officially kicked off the 2011-2012 regular season and — with a quick tip off — the reason 5,000 students are on campus is back.
I love Aggie basketball. In fact, I may be one of those 5,000 students who are here just for it. I wasn’t too sure about this place where the sagebrush grows. To be quite honest, I’m allergic. But sitting at my first Blue and White game, freshman year, watching Aggie legends like Jared Quayle and Tai Wesley, I fell in love.
Fast forward three years and I still get the same thrill I did as a freshman sitting in the orange Spectrum seats for the first time. I’m one of those weird people who actually gets excited on the first day of school, but that’s the same feeling I get when the Spectrum fills up.
I’m all for filling Romney Stadium and supporting Aggie football, but there is nothing that compares to the Spectrum magic.
The Aggies have a mind-blowing record at home. Under Stew Morrill’s reign, the Aggies are 193-13 at home. This is no doubt due, at least in part, to the fans.
In my sports psychology class last semester, Prof. Gordon brought up an interesting point. He said the real success of Aggie fans is not in the overall win-lose record, it’s in the way each team deals with the pressure.
The only team that has come into the Spectrum and beaten the Aggies in recent history is St. Mary’s two years ago. Gordon said St. Mary’s is also the only team he has seen come to Logan and completely ignore Section F.
The fans help to frustrate players; the team does the rest. It’s a simple cause-and-effect equation.
Anyone who tries to tell me fans have no effect on the game has never been to the Spectrum. In USU’s 15 minutes of fame last year, the national media finally started mentioning the Spectrum in the same sentences as Duke and Kentucky. People are finally starting to notice.
If you ask me the Spectrum deserves a winning-team chant.
I was at the Blue vs. White scrimmage, but I shouldn’t have been. I skipped out on a study session for my hardest class and, much to the ridicule of my classmates, went to cheer on my Aggies instead. They are my friends, so really they should know me better by now, but it’s still a surprise to them every time I pull something like this.
The game is merely an exhibition, but tonight is my Christmas day. Honestly, I don’t care if I get to open any presents on Dec. 25 as long as I can watch my Aggies.
– Meredith Kinney is a junior majoring in broadcast journalism, and she’s an avid hockey fan. She hopes to one day be a bigshot sideline reporter working for ESPN. Send any comments to meredith.kinney@aggiemail.usu.edu.