COLUMN: Why I chose Las Vegas over Mexico
Few sensations compare to walking into the electric atmosphere of a gym 30 minutes before tipoff.
The smell of popcorn and sweat permeates the air, familiar to all those who grew up watching basketball games at their local high school. For those who once played the sport, walking into a gym is like entering a church. There’s an excited tension that fills the entire arena, descending on each hopeful fan as they prepare for the show to begin.
USU students have felt it a few times this year – USU volleyball taking an invincible Colorado State team to five sets; The sight of Aggie fans outnumbering BYU students 4-to-1 in the Energy Solutions Arena; the raucous white-out crowd at the San Diego State game.
There is no substitute for what happened to the crowd of 10,000 when Spencer Butterfield hit that last-second 3-pointer to force overtime against the then-No. 7 Aztecs.
It is the pursuit of that sort of awesome moment that keeps me from being one of the many students travelling abroad this spring break. With the annual week-long reprieve from school so nearly upon us, students are finalizing flight plans, booking cruises and preparing in to make the most of their trips to various exotic destinations.
I’m packing for the mens’ and womens’ Mountain West basketball tournaments in Las Vegas.
Now, I don’t exactly consider Vegas to be an exotic locale – I don’t drink, and I’m too broke to enjoy casinos or strip clubs, so the appeal of “Sin City” is considerably diminished for me.
In all honesty, I was set on going to Mexico for spring break. For about six hours on Saturday, I thought I would be sailing out of Los Angeles on a cruise ship next week. I even called my editor and told him my big plans and that I wouldn’t be accompanying the Statesman staff to Vegas to cover the tournament.
My editor didn’t directly try to talk me out of it, but he did give me some bullet-point reasons why I should stick with my Vegas plans. The first few points were things like “work experience,” and “prior commitment,” and “a long bus ride with the cheer squad.” But the last point was the one that stuck with me – it was simply, “basketball.”
Basketball.
That was the tipping point. As much as I desire to travel, to see new places and do new things, there is nothing I would regret more than leaving on a cruise for four days and missing the chance to see our men’s and women’s basketball teams compete in Vegas.
Now, maybe neither team won’t go far. Maybe the games will be blowouts. Maybe we have a ways to go before we can be competitive in the Mountain West. Maybe.
But I expect USU to surprise teams. I expect the Aggies to compete and to play better than their records, because both our teams are, in fact, better than their records. The Mountain West tournament may just end up being a fun experience with my co-workers on the Statesman staff, but it could also be something special for our school.
Great basketball will be played, and I wouldn’t miss smelling that salty popcorn air in Las Vegas for the world. Mexico can wait, I’m spending my spring break courtside.
– Logan Jones is a sophomore studying journalism. When he isn’t watching basketball in Las Vegas, he’s updating his blog at mindgrenades.blogspot.com. Contact him at logantjones@aggiemail.usu.edu or tweet @Logantj.