Sorry for this random post. I can't bring myself to lurk on the football forum and have time on my hands. Back to basketball …I'm reminded of a verse from the old Christmas poem, paraphrasing, "T'was the night before Christmas and not a creature was stirring …" Substitute "Christmas week" for "the night before Christmas" and that sums up the basketball forum overall and Sunday's East Texas A&M game thread. This inactivity is likely due equal parts to football-related BAS and volleyball euphoria. But, of course, there's also the lack of a true basketball culture at A&M that the diehards on this forum often reference. Contrast that with the research triangle area (the old "tobacco road") of NC where I live. I made a comment on the "Other games thread" regarding the East Carolina-UNC game in Chapel Hill last night. The Dean Dome was packed with over 20,000 fans. According to the TV announcer, the absence of ~ 4,000 students during Christmas week opened up seats for the locals. Just a different basketball culture.

Bah humbug! Yes and no. Football attendance likely won't change (much) unless the program really collapses. But, I believe history tells us basketball attendance (and fan interest) will increase with an exciting (and winning) brand of play. As Pete Van Wieren, the now deceased Braves announcer used to say, "There is no promotion better than winning baseball."

BubblesMcGee said:

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Bah humbug! Yes and no. Football attendance likely won't change (much) unless the program really collapses. But, I believe history tells us basketball attendance (and fan interest) will increase with an exciting (and winning) brand of play. As Pete Van Wieren, the now deceased Braves announcer used to say, "There is no promotion better than winning baseball."

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You're the one being negative. I think it's fine that nobody wants to see us beat the Texas School for the Blind.

Being negative is not my intent. Sorry if it came across that way. I'm actually optimistic about "Bucky Ball" and the potential it offers. At a minimum, it's a lot more interesting than Buzz's approach. Of course, we're all waiting to see how it holds up in the SEC.

I've heard people call our late season football FCS opponent a "friends and family" game. It's the one home game each year (other than the opener usually, but that's the opener) that you know we're going to win, tickets are somewhat affordable, so we're gonna bring people to the game that we wouldn't normally bring. And that makes up for the fans who don't care to see us smash a random opponent.

I imagine this game is similar for North Carolina. It's the last home game before Christmas, and I bet tickets were fairly reasonable. And UNC's football team absolutely sucked. So we're out of christmas present ideas for the grandparents? Want to trial run the whole family going to a game? Oldest kid into UNC hoops but you can't afford the bigger games? This is the perfect game for it.

Their last home game was only 75% of the crowd they had last night.

Agreed!!! The most populated game of the year we blew a 12 point lead and lost by 12. Buzz and BK did this several times.

So did Turgeon. There were a few times where it seemed like we were on the verge of capturing the magic under Turgeon and we'd have a huge home game and then lose it.

Buzz caught it once, that 2023 season was right up with 2006 and 2007 for fun. Really kind of started with the away win at Auburn and then the momentum took off. The home games at the end against Tennessee (the black out game) and Alabama were easily top 4-5 Reed Arena games of all time.

Agreed but I guess the same could be said for our game with East Texas A&M. To your point, what struck me about the UNC game telecast was the comment about the "locals" showing up to take the ~ 4,000 student seats. Hopefully, with time and a sustained winning culture, we'll see something like this for TAMU basketball.

We've semi seen it before when we've gotten really good. Some of the christmas break games actually had decent attendance because they did huge discounts on the tickets.

The same can't be said of East Texas A&M. Just wildly different situations. Like Method said, our comp would be that Samford football game.

There's no point comparing our basketball situation to North Carolina's in any way. Even optimistically we're generations away from that kind of culture.

More or less agreed in terms of comparisons to UNC. I've lived in both NC and Texas for extended periods and followed basketball at both TAMU and UNC. And, when they occasionally play each other in either football or basketball, I always find myself rooting strongly for A&M. Something about the undergraduate experience imprints you. However, on a somewhat encouraging note, look at the change in fortunes of the annual SEC-ACC team tournament. I would never have believed that could happen as quickly as it has. Fan interest will follow.

BubblesMcGee said:

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Agreed but I guess the same could be said for our game with East Texas A&M. To your point, what struck me about the UNC game telecast was the comment about the "locals" showing up to take the ~ 4,000 student seats. Hopefully, with time and a sustained winning culture, we'll see something like this for TAMU basketball.

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My take: I love Aggie Basketball. We leave for a few weeks every Christmas season. I have a hell of a time finding anyone to take my tickets.

My point: marketing locally sucks, parking and getting to the game sucks, Christmas season is busy as all get-out, and locals suck at supporting Basketball.

It's a weird thing for me, but Basketball is huge in parts of Texas that have an actual winter, but not this area.

I've found parking a breeze this year. Avoid welborn and you'll be fine

Good post. Your comments about loving basketball and the association with winter got me thinking. I had two season basketball tickets at NC State back in the mid '80s to early '90s. My wife wasn't much into basketball so our young daughter would typically go with me. As you suggested, it was cold that time of year so we'd get her bundled up and off we'd go. Of course, at that age, my daughter didn't really understand basketball. But, it was an event and sort of our thing. I'll always remember her asking me each game, "Daddy, is it time to get our Coke yet." Point being that basketball, like any sporting event, can be great family time. It was fun reflecting on those memories.