A Real Impact

as at other venues on the Texas A&M campus, Aggie fans
can have considerable effect on the outcome of games at Reed Arena

Texas A&M University is known for some of the greatest fans in all of college football. Some twenty-six thousand plus students pile into the east section of the stadium with full knowledge that their presence, their support, and their noise will make a noticeable impact on the outcome of the football game. That same support can make as big an impact, if not bigger, on the outcome of Texas A&M basketball games.

Reed Arena needs the sixth man as much as Kyle Field needs the 12th.

"There is not a greater place in America, in my opinion, [than Kyle Field]," Head Men's Basketball Coach Billy Gillispie said. "I haven't seen them all but I don't see how any place can have a greater home field advantage than Kyle Field. I mean our fans are tremendous. And we have to have that same kind of effort to help us right now. Not after we get [the program] built-we need it right now to get it built quicker."

Coach Gillispie has first-hand knowledge of the remarkable impact fans can have on the outcome of a basketball team's season. During the two years he spent as head coach at UTEP, the Miners' program enjoyed the nation's largest attendance increase. The result-a record 18-win turnaround from a dismal 6-24 season to an NCAA tournament berth.

"One great thing about El Paso was they embraced us as soon as we came aboard," Gillispie said. "They made the commitment to do it, and last year wasn't supposed to be our year, but our home crowds had as much to do with our success as anything. They didn't wait until we were going to be an NCAA tournament team. They said 'Hey, let's jump on board now,' and sure enough, great things happened. It can happen here too."

The key is that Aggie fans are needed just as much in non-conference play as they are when Big 12 teams come into town. Coach Gillispie believes fans have to circle all 18 home games on their calendars and make it a priority to fill Reed Arena to its capacity, beginning with Friday's home opener against North Carolina A&T.

"The best places in college basketball are the ones that fill up their building every single time," Gillispie said. "Basketball season starts in November. How you do in November and December often determines how you will do in January, February and March. We have to understand that when the season starts is when we need to get in there and fill up the building. If people will dedicate themselves to showing up every time, they will be amazed at how fast positive results can be shown."

Across the college basketball spectrum, those positive results boast a high correlation with fan support. Last year's NCAA Champions, the Connecticut Huskies, played in front of an average crowd of 13,549. This year's preseason No.1, the Big 12's Kansas Jayhawks, packed in 16,300 fans for each of last season's home games. Coach Gillispie denotes the impact such high attendance had on those teams and can have on the Aggies as well.

"Fans are totally important," Gillispie said. "I don't care how good your team is, there are going to be tough times in games, even if you have the No. 1 team in the country. When playing a big home game, there is going to be a three or four-minute period that determines what happens. If you have an unbelievable crowd every single time that can get you over that hump, you are going to win a really high percentage of your home games. This will allow you to reach postseason play and make the NCAA tournament."

Those are two results that the A&M basketball team and its fans definitely want to see happen. But for that to occur, Reed Arena must become a proverbial "House of Horrors" for visiting teams, just like its partner venue across Wellborn Road.

"If people want to have a basketball program or whatever, then show up for the games," Gillispie said. "I'm not being critical; I'm just saying that is a very simple solution. You have to win all your home games and your home court is one of the biggest factors there is. There will be a day when you can't get a seat to a game here and hopefully that is going to happen sooner than later. We need it to happen now."

"If you have an unbelievable crowd every single time [that helps you through tough parts of big games], you are going to win a really high percentage of your home games. This will allow you to reach postseason play and make the NCAA tournament." --Billy Gillispie

Just like at football games when fans disrupt the opponent's offense enough to make them waste a timeout, a basketball crowd's noise, heckling, and excitement have a similar effect on opponents. A typically poised free throw shooter might lose composure down the stretch and miss the front-end of a one-and-one. A point guard may not be able to get a set play relayed to his teammates before the shot clock expires. But even more importantly, an exuberant crowd feeds the home team's players with that extra burst of energy that creates wins out of close games.

"[The fans] have a big impact," senior guard Bobby Leach said. "If they are all hyped and cheering us on, that gives us more energy to go out onto the court and play harder. I mean if 12,000 come to a game and cheer us on and get us all hyped, that has a lot to do with wins and losses. But 4,000 is not enough-it isn't going to do it."

Those 12,000 fans need to attend the games to watch and yell for their Aggies, not just to see a high-profile visiting opponent. By doing so, fans can help make A&M basketball into a program that students on other campuses will attend games just to see play.

"You should try to win all of your home games but you can't do it without a tremendous home court advantage that are coming to see the team that plays here, the team that lives here, not an out-of-town team," Gillispie said. "They have to be here for our team. If people start showing up to the games and we average about 10,000 fans, which is not asking too much, then the basketball program will be built."

By being an essential cornerstone of that building process, fans have the opportunity to become a member of the Texas A&M basketball family. Coach Gillispie saw amazing results from such a partnership last year at UTEP.

"It was a magic carpet ride," Gillispie said. "They loved the fans and the fans loved them. They really went through the deal with blind faith. The fans felt like they were part of our group. Everyone felt like they were part of one family. The fans felt like they had more invested than just watching their team play. Winning has a lot to do with it, but the fans started coming before they really knew what was going to happen in the end."

It is a matter of faith-that commitment that drives droves into Kyle Field on a sultry Saturday afternoon. And from that faith comes the satisfaction of personally witnessing the hard work and desire that build champions.

"The biggest thing that we can do right now is recruit better, coach better, and fans have the responsibility of being participant fans-right now," Gillispie said. "And if they do that, then they are going to see really good results because our team is playing hard, and they play well together. It will be a fun team to watch and a fun team to watch grow. They'll give you your money's worth-win, lose or draw. For what more could a fan ever ask?"