I think one of the most regrettable things to witness in sports is the level of expectation we have for the teams we support and, much too often, live vicariously through. Once this year's crop of New York Yankees fails to win the World Series, as they almost certainly will, a couple million fans will whine and complain, talk about how they've been let down, and phone up sports talk stations to call for the head of Joe Torre. It's even more unfortunate to see a team that's been down on its luck for some time enjoy some success, and all of a sudden the fans, who once begged for just a winning season, now view a championship as a birthright. Think of the Dallas Mavericks pre- and post-Mark Cuban: fans used to hope not to finish last, then for a playoff spot, then for an NBA Finals appearance. This year fans will be very disappointed if the team falls short of winnning a championship.
So let me get this out there before What Have You Done For Me Lately Syndrome sets in among the Aggie basketball fans: the first Sweet 16 appearance in 27 years is an absolute joy, and if it ends here, then that's fine by me.
This Aggie team is really something to behold. Today they played Louisville in a pretty hostile environment, in a game marred by foul trouble on both sides. They gutted out a victory, erasing a late 6-point deficit and executing down the stretch to win maybe the most tense game I've ever seen. Of course that's nothing new for this team, which always seems to do whatever is needed to win. Saying that Acie Law leads this team is true but also an oversimplification. Law is great, and he was once again clutch down the stretch, but the Aggies also get often underappreciated contributions from Jones, Carter, Kavaliauskas, Kirk, and others. (p.s. Dominique Kirk is now officially my second favorite Aggie basketball player of all time, after Mr. Jerald Brown.)
This is kind of a funny year for me as an Aggie basketball fan--the most successful year by far of the last 12 years, but the only year in which I haven't been to a game. Even if I had tried to get tickets, there's a good chance I wouldn't have been able to--the tickets for every home game were sold out starting just after the Kansas game. That's a far cry from the Reed Arena I knew as a student, in which you could get your ticket a couple minutes before tip time and sit pretty much wherever you want. Those days, the basketball team ranked below the football team's band (oh wait, it still does), and it was a commonly believed (though ludicrous) legend that the basketball team would sometimes go play at the student Rec Center...and lose.
Ten years ago, things like Selection Sunday and March Madness didn't get much attention in College Station. I was a college basketball fan before I was an A&M basketball fan, and it was always a little weird for me to have to celebrate the two separately. For the four years I was at A&M, the Aggies simply were not part of the college basketball universe. They never won a Big 12 Tournament game between 1996 and 2005, and they were often ranked last in the league. At that time, anyone who followed the team would have given an arm and a leg for a tournament appearance. I kept thinking, maybe they play well in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament, then they get lucky in the second round, then a couple of the favorites fall and somehow they could end up with an automatic bid. Enter the tournament as a 14 seed and get clobbered on the first day, but at least you're there. Instead, the Ags are one of a handful of teams considered capable of winning it all, which unfortunately brings with it the possibility that anything less will be considered disappointing.
I really hate to admit this, but this sudden basketball windfall is sort of bittersweet. I've enjoyed all of the success of the team, and it's been fun seeing the campus raise its basketball IQ, but at the same time I wonder how much of a decline it would take for the university to forget once again that basketball exists. This has been an amazing year, but I think that building an elite program requires having fans that show up and give you a home court advantage even when you're not necessarily headed for a title. I hope that Aggies have become the type of basketball fans who will fill the arena even if the team's not getting tons of national coverage. If not, at least I'll have a place to sit.
Now, where are we on that Jerald Brown statue?
