Enjoying Aggie basketball

Lindsay Martinez

I am a lifelong basketball fan and have always loved attending live sports events. I grew up watching my older brothers play local youth sports and as I got older, I eventually got to attend a good variety of sporting events through my various travels. I’ve attended great events like NBA basketball at Madison Square Garden, an NHL game, MLB games, NFL games (including at Cowboys stadium), the US Open for tennis, the New York City marathon, and US Women’s National Team soccer games. At the beginning of this new semester, I have been enjoying being able to walk right over to Reed Arena and watch the Aggie men’s and women’s basketball teams take the court for their SEC conference games. It is great to watch high-level SEC basketball, complete with fast breaks, big dunks, long three pointers, and close finishes.

Aside from the basketball, I’ve enjoyed taking in all the Texas A&M spirit at the games. The Hullabaloo band plays the Aggie War Hymn while all the spectators sing and dance and clap along. The student Yell Leaders direct the crowd to do all the best cheers during the game. Student spectators take the court at breaks in the action to compete in fun challenges to win prizes. Finally, alumni young and old, along with their families, pack the house with maroon and white. It is fun to get to see students, community members, and alumni young and old all come together at Reed Arena to cheer on the Aggies. I know that football (and tailgate) season is perhaps the highlight of the Aggie sports culture, but I have discovered that basketball season is an awesome part of the Aggie sports culture too.

The first women’s basketball game that I went to this semester was a win against Georgia for the Aggies. The victory allowed the team to snap a multi-game losing streak. One of the most memorable parts of the game was seeing the arena celebrating the win when the buzzer sounded; the on-court celebration post-game in which the team and the dance team stood together to sing along with the band was a great image and a real symbol of the Texas A&M community spirit.

I saw even more where community spirit when I attended the BTHO breast cancer men’s basketball game against Vanderbilt. (For those unfamiliar with Aggie slogans, BTHO means “Beat the Heck Out Of…”) For this game, the student section showed up in lots of pink gear ready to cheer on the team and show their support for the fight against breast cancer. During halftime of the game, women in the Aggieland community who have defeated breast cancer or who are currently battling it come onto the court and received standing ovations from the crowd. I definitely got goosebumps during those moments.

I’ve had a great time watching the Aggies thus far this season and I can’t wait for a new year of March Madness. This year, I’ll be rooting hard for the Aggies in the men’s and women’s SEC conference tournaments and then hopefully in the NCAA tournament as well. It is a great time of year to be a college basketball fan and I think it’s always a great time to be an Aggies fan!